In the time of the “values voter,” there’s been tremendous controversy over what “values” might mean (other than shorthand for self-righteous intolerance). What are our values as individuals and as a people? Whether or not we are fully conscious of them, each of us holds values that affect our perceptions and actions. The challenge is …
A couple of friends came over to help us celebrate the third night of Hanukkah. While I fried potato latkes, we talked about one friend’s difficulty in shaking post-election fear and despair — indeed, in facing the horrors of the daily paper. When the holiday began, she’d found herself thinking that lighting the Hanukkah candles …
I hate TV commercials, so I tape the programs I like and watch them at leisure, fast-forwarding through the ads. Last night, I watched a “West Wing” from November that focused in part on an alternative energy summit convened in the fictional Bartlett White House. One by one, the president’s advisor dismisses the offerings of …
I love all the little courtesies that lubricate daily life: please and thank you, after you and excuse me — all of them. In fact, my currently emerging curmudgeonly side manifests mostly in the form of regular laments at the decline of ordinary manners. I love to give thanks for help, to express gratitude and …
I am not a Pollyanna. I feel the need to say this because I have gotten so many messages since my last blog post, both from people thanking me for suggesting a basis for hope that is grounded in reality, and from people who feel certain that now, any remnant of hope is merely insulation …
I have a habit of mentally preparing for the worst, especially when I hope for the best. I think my particular habit must stem from my father’s sudden death when I was a child: that experience installed a piece of software I’ve used ever since to insulate myself from unbearable shock. But it isn’t unique …
We had houseguests this past week, dear friends we?ve known for decades. Lingering over breakfast on Friday, we divvied up the \New York Times\. Whoever commented first on the employment report (200,000 new jobs had been forecast for July, but only 32,000 actually materialized) spoke what all of us were feeling: I hate to say …
People want things–lots of things–but what do we want most? What’s on top? It seems to me the failure to answer that question is at the heart of progressives’ proclivity for self-defeat. The typical pitfall of progressives is to load each decision with so many and varied significances that it becomes impossible to choose for …
My husband has been reading a book on the history of Minnehaha County, South Dakota. It was published in 1949, and Don’s name appears on the flyleaf in the large, round Palmer-method hand of someone who had just learned to write script at Laura Ingalls Wilder School (no kidding). The other day he read aloud …
The Nation of 17 May carried a piece about the shortcomings of the new South Africa. The article seems well-informed and mostly reasonable, and some (but not all) of the shortcomings seem short indeed. But my heart sank when I saw it. It’s not that I thought post-apartheid South Africa was heaven on earth, it’s …