What does it take to heal social trauma? Like a lot of Jews of her generation, my maternal grandmother (may she rest in peace) was so repelled by all things German that she refused even to ride in a Volkswagen. She’d emigrated to this country long before World War II, but when that war was …
More and more, the things I care about seem to turn on a single question: can we human beings choose our actions, or are we in some very real sense controlled by other forces (whether our own brain chemicals or the commands of those in authority)? The oft-cited behavorial studies of Stanley Milgram in the …
This week I dug out the light box I bought when we lived in Seattle, where darkness falls before 4 pm each day and persists till nearly 9 in the morning. The box generates an intense light that helps overcome the malaise some people experience in the season of darkness. For some reason, even though …
“Man was born free,” wrote Jean-Jacques Rousseau 250 years ago, “and he is everywhere in chains.” As Thanksgiving approaches, Rousseau’s words have been cycling through my mind. I am thankful for the tremendous freedom of movement, association and speech I have as a citizen of this country (even as I join others in fighting to …
In 1963, when I was a junior in high school, the late, great Nina Simone released a powerfully angry song called “Mississippi Goddam.” “The name of this tune is Mississippi Goddam,” the song began, “And I mean every word of it.” Here’s the last stanza: You don’t have to live next to me Just give …
I’m off to Mississippi to visit with Thousand Kites, one of the projects described in my just-published book, New Creative Community. In prison slang, a “kite” is a message, such as a note or letter to a prisoner. The project is a collaboration between Holler to the Hood (H2H) and Roadside Theater, two groups based …
Earlier this week, British Prime Minister Tony Blair added fuel to a red-hot cultural debate ignited by response to Muslim women wearing the niqab, a face-covering veil with no opening other than slits for eyes. “It is a mark of separation,” said Blair of the niqab, “and that is why it makes other people from …
“Not everyone has drunk the Kool-Aid,” said my friend, calibrating the precise level of fanatic devotion practiced by her colleagues on an especially consuming project. Then I heard it on a TV program: the mother-figure of a somewhat suspect group offered glasses of red liquid to two bright-eyed teenagers: “Kool-Aid anybody?” “Don’t worry,” she said, …
I’m not much of a believer. The notion of belief incorporates a leap of faith: we don’t “believe in” gravity or the beating of our hearts; instead, we know these things through observation. Rather than believing, my interest is in noticing, whether what I notice confounds received beliefs or reinforces them. Here’s something I noticed …
Last month I quoted Gandhi on inner guidance. “For me, he wrote, “the Voice of God, of Conscience, of Truth or the Inner Voice or the still small Voice mean one and the same thing.” The Torah reading for the week just ending underscores the same truth, exhorting the people to follow what they know …