Ways of seeing: Making connections on the road

The other night I was listening to the radio while washing dinner dishes. The Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville was in the news again.

One recent summer evening, a group of friends gathered on our front porch. As we caught up with each other’s lives, one of us posed the question, “Given the present global challenges, how do you maintain hope?”I immediately knew my answer: I switch dimens … (read more)

Several friends and I quietly admitted to each other that the pandemic has been an affirming personal experience. The spaciousness of this past year was a gift.There was time to act, time to ponder, time to gaze.Technology became a tool for connection. I … (read more)

Yesterday I had my second Pfizer vaccine. Visions of traveling again bubble up, and I think back to my last adventure… I meet up with my old friend Jane in Manhattan on my way home from a trip to Oxfordshire, England. After breakfast at a bakery cafe, she … (read more)

We are in agreement with organizers from Stacey Abrams’ Fair Fight Action, who observed, “We are seeing the worst voter suppression since Reconstruction,” and who termed the current extreme GOP voter suppression efforts, “Jim Crow 2.0.” We are also aware … (read more)

In 1989 I was hired to teach a multiage 4th-6th grade class at Lincoln Community School. Though I live in Bristol, Lincoln became my community for the next twenty-five years. A number of us were new to LCS when I came on board. Over time, our evolving sta … (read more)

I met Ruby Bridges fourteen years ago when she visited the school where I taught. Readers may recall my previous article about her visit and its lasting impact. It was an honor to host Ms. Bridges, the first Black student to integrate the William Franz Pu … (read more)

My childhood was punctuated by elaborate Jewish weddings and bar mitzvahs that feel ever further away in this age of COVID-19. An abundance of food and drink was consumed as klezmer, pop and big band music wailed late into the night, inspiring circular ho … (read more)

“Dinner’s ready!” my Aunt Esther called, and all six of us — my two sisters, three cousins and I — raced down the long hallway into the kitchen, the pungent aroma of chicken soup whetting our appetites. My mother’s older sister Esther lived in Bayonne, N. … (read more)

My husband and I leave Arches National Park in Utah on a bright morning, driving along the Colorado River then over the Rockies toward Denver, where we’ll visit his son and our eight-year-old grandson. The scorched river valley and vast mountains we trave … (read more)