Photo courtesy of Fynn Schmidt, Unsplash In the short story, Another, by Dave Eggers, the narrator is in Cairo against the advice of his government to deliver a package, which he successfully does in the opening sentence. We know nothing about who he works for or what’s in the package. That’s irrelevant. More [...]
Two weeks ago, Oliver, the son of my nephew Evan, celebrated his Bar Mitzvah in Baltimore. During the ceremony, I followed in English as the rabbi read Hebrew from the prayer book, and I listened with modest familiarity to the tunes sung by the cantor and congregation. Most of all, never having had a Bar [...]
Some disgruntled spectators booed when King, a wire fox terrier, was anointed the best-in-show at the 143rd Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show. King is a magnificent dog – a dazzling beauty and the Number 1 ranked terrier last year. Why would anyone be upset to deny King this deserved title? The problem isn’t King’s qualification. [...]
Clichés – stale phrases that have lost impact due to over-usage – are frowned upon and considered unimaginative and superficial, such as “a picture is worth a thousand words,” or “all that glitters is not gold.” Dull. Boring. Lazy. Banal. Sophisticated writers cringe at clichés to the point of outright snobbism. Characters are portrayed as [...]
I knew a man in his low 30s – single, of course – who said that he never wanted to own anything more than could fit in his car. He considered possessions as traps, a type of deceptive quicksand. “More possessions, less freedom,” he said. “Objects are anchors.”
Possessions sap space, need attention and if valuable, are laden with expenses, such as insurance and other protective measures. I even knew a man who refused to own a car and went everywhere by taxi (today he would use Uber). “It’s so much easier and cheaper,” he said. “No need to buy gasoline, make repairs or buy insurance. No charges for garage space or parking. No traffic violations or risk of accidents.” These were hard arguments to refute. ...
Yet, while objects may burden us, our possessions also shine a light on our humanity, taste and values, provide insight on what drives our choices and...
When paging through an album of family snapshots, I reflect on my life as a chronological series of events, noting growth from seed to tree. My life appears as sequential notches on a measuring stick: I did this and then did that, and so forth.
Too simple, I say! Each notch is more like shrapnel from an exploding grenade. The photos are headlines, mere titles of first drafts of stories in progress that fail to capture the essence: feelings and conflicts.
