We are suffering from an epidemic distortion of reality, the byproduct of commercial media addiction to shock and awe. What are we going to do about it? I recommend an immediate moratorium on believing the sensational garbage blasted through the mediaverse simply to sell airtime; and a reality-check that helps liberals and progressives kick the …
A few days ago, a wise friend told me, “You’ve really lost faith in everything, haven’t you?” But he had to modify the statement immediately. If faith means “confidence” or “trust,” then I have plenty of it. I have what seems to be an unshakable faith in human possibility: consistently, I see that what seems …
Election time brings it out, I suppose: the deafening clash of certitudes. However vainly, I find myself wishing to hear a candidate ask a question without a foregone conclusion, actually engaging us in discovering new answers. But no matter how clueless they may feel inside, politicians act like they know it all. And no matter …
The movie star Tony Curtis died this past week at 85. Curtis occupies a special place in my mental pantheon, as the embodiment of Hollywood’s shrewd and cynical rendering of cultural identity during the middle years of the last century. In the milieu I came up in, a much-loved pastime was identifying the hidden Jews …
Are you hungry? I am a woman on a mission (to state the obvious). No doubt, it sometimes looks like several missions: art’s public purpose, integrity and accountability in both public and private institutions, acknowledging our differences and healing the wounds we’ve made from them. But really, I have only one mission: to awaken awareness …
One thing I know for certain is that our struggles in the little world of our own hearts, minds, and relationships are inscribed on the big world that comprises the institutions, communities, and movements that human beings make. Turn the conventional assertion on its head: As below, so above. I was talking with a visiting …
What do Islamophobia, a friend’s disappointment, and the Jewish New Year have in common? Each offers the opportunity to remember and practice the simple things that support the renewal of possibility. The Jewish New Year, Rosh HaShanah, begins Wednesday night. I have been less involved in Jewish communal spirituality this year than at any other …
Passover starts Monday evening, the great celebration of liberation from bondage, both literal and figurative. For the first seder—the ritual meal of symbolic foods that accompanies the retelling of the Exodus from Egypt—I will be with friends whose lives are dedicated to progressive politics. I expect that in the telling, there will be many parallels …
Just about every spiritual tradition preaches it; just about every psychological tradition teaches it. So why is it so hard to learn to separate one’s desire from expectations of its fulfillment? Why is it so tempting to give up wanting what doesn’t seem to be forthcoming? One of my strongest desires is help potentiate a …
Judging by how many impertinent questions I asked in childhood, I came into this world with an inquiring mind. But in some ways, I have only just become a seeker, and I am only now beginning to understand what this means. I am trying to notice cues and signposts that come my way, with the …