The Greek root of the word “apology” refers to a speech in defense of oneself, a self-justification. Though the meaning of the word has changed, this bit of etymology does highlight the two main functions of apology: to make restitution to those you have hurt, and to protect oneself from retribution. Each theme has endless …
People keep sending me outraged emails about Barack Obama’s pandering to the reactionary Israel lobby, AIPAC, and on the merits, of course I agree with his critics. He has taken precisely the same hard-right line on Israel and Palestine as Clinton, McCain, and let’s see…. Oh yes, everyone I can recall who has gotten close …
I’ve been going through a whole houseful of possessions, clearing out the past to make way for the future. Last week I recycled three decades of journals without reading a single page. A couple of friends helped me do the same with Day-timers: we ripped the wire spines out of 700-plus month-by-month calendars going back …
Here’s something I’ve learned about growing older: there’s always more growing to do. Every time I pause to draw a self-satisfied breath at how wise I am becoming—how I finally learned my lesson, avoided repeating the same sticky mistake, saw an opportunity in time to seize it—I catch a whiff of a new challenge bearing …
A reader send me this great blog featuring lyrics and videos of songs about Barack Obama created by musicians with roots around the world—Africa, Mexico, the Caribbean and beyond. Some of these artists vote in the U.S., some cannot. Why do musicians beyond our own borders care so much about one of the candidates in …
It’s kind of a stressful time in my personal soap opera. Every once in a while I pause to give myself a boost, repeating two words that have a remarkable ability to lift my spirits: President Obama! When friends are in the vicinity, I tend to add a few more words of rational exuberance, such …
The same qualities Hillary Clinton is displaying now—commitment, tenacity, fortitude in the face of opposition and ridicule—need to be cultivated by anyone willing to stand up for an unpopular position. The thing is, it matters greatly whether that position derives from a wounded certainty of one’s own merit and therefore entitlement, as I’m afraid is …
Never in my lifelong observation of politics have I seen an election to match this one for extravagant theatricality: Laughter! Tears! Elation! Nausea! This campaign is like a periodic table of human capability, from venal self-interest to hermetic self-delusion, from moral blindness to moral grandeur. To find another story that encompasses as much of the …
Passover—Pesach—starts Saturday night. This holiday, halfway into the Hebrew calendar year, invites us to consider the story of the exodus from slavery—from Mitzrayim (which means Egypt and also straits or narrow, constricting places)—as if it had happened to us, as if it were happening right now. Every year, holiday preparations ask us to seek out …
I wrote this on the plane home after a week on the road, so grateful I wasn’t booked on American Airlines that my good cheer was barely dented by a late departure and the fact that the passenger in front of me reclined her seat so far, I couldn’t quite see the screen of my …