“We lost a year.” As the first anniversary of the pandemic hitting the U.S. approaches, some people are mourning what they see as a lost year. I question the value of looking at the past year through that lense. Should we not instead celebrate our resilience? Aren’t our lives more than…
The first draft of this column was written on January 27, the day that would have been my little brother Larry’s 59th birthday. I usually note the day, but this is the first time since he died in 2010 that I thought about how old he would be. I have to admit feeling teary at the thought. T…
Social contract: “an implicit agreement among the members of a society to cooperate for social benefits, for example by sacrificing some individual freedom for state protection.” – Oxford Languages
The fundamental basis for American democracy is a social contract. That includes accept…
Editor’s note: This column was written before the January 6 events in Washington, DC.
A new beginning? Does anyone really believe that 2021 and a new presidency really means a new beginning? Americans believe that we can always start anew, leaving the old behind like clothes we discard.…
When looking back at the first essay I wrote for this column in 2020, I almost laughed. The column wished a happy good-bye to 2019. At that time, I was glad to see the end of 2019 because of family problems, particularly the fact that my mother now lived in a nursing home. Little did I know …
