No matter how many times I’ve watched someone break a glass and yell, “Mazal Tov!” nothing could prepare me for making a wedding for my own child.
Kids
Matzah and Wine and Switching the Living Room with the Dining Room
The memories we unpack each year, the feelings the objects evoke, the sense of family and tradition they create, tell stories in a much more powerful way than the Haggadah.
Not Today
Arya’s “Not Today,” implies fighting and strength. It is a call not only in direct defiance to the gods of death, but to the gods of chaos and crisis. There is nothing passive about it.
One Photo
I know this is a bad time to argue the semantics of “challenge,” but today, even amidst worldwide chaos, I’m back five years ago, looking at a picture that reminds me how life changes on a dime.
Team Binny – Binny’s Speech
I posted the video of Binny’s speech that he gave at the Team Lifeline Pasta Party on his Facebook page, but the sound quality was poor and people asked for copies of the speech. So with Binny’s permission, I am posting it here. I edited it a bit to include some of the lines he ad-libbed (though some I know I missed), but this is all his.
Happiness and Stingrays
Everyone loves looking at the underside of the stingrays. They have those goofy grins. They look like they’re gently smiling at the world, happily floating along the water. But they always look like that. Their faces are frozen in place like Wybie in Coraline. They look like that all the time. After all, the stingray that killed Steve Irwin was also smiling.
The Strength to Celebrate
Sometimes you need a lot of strength just to have a celebration. I’m not just talking about the strength to label 250 seating cards and design shirts and shlep boxes. I’m talking about the strength to decide to celebrate even when you sometimes don’t want to.
On Parties and CT Scans
I glanced at my phone and watched as the date changed from May 6th to May 7th and realized, it’s four years later and I am in a hospital, waiting again.
Wasn’t Expecting This
I went back and forth between absolute calm to abject panic to crushing depression and then back to the warm blanket of denial.
The Myth of Sisyphus and Why I Run (or, The Vegas Speech)
I finally understood the myth of Sisyphus when my son was diagnosed with a brain tumor two years ago. And like the legend, we were faced with a huge mountain, a massive, incomprehensible rock, and a job that no one would ever sign up for.