WHEN YOU’RE TALKING WITH SOMEONE, ask yourself: “How can I meet this person’s needs right now?“
Tag: arm’s length
Because the word “community” is over-used.
App Happy
WITHIN THE SPACE OF LESS than a year, I have gone from a smartphone disdainer to a smartphone … user? enthusiast? Dare I say addict? That last descriptor is perhaps a touch harsh. Let us say instead that I have…
Why Am I Still Here?
BARRING ANY UNFORESEEN CIRCUMSTANCES, I will celebrate my 62nd birthday tomorrow. Leading me to ask: “How did THAT happen?” As a child of the 1970s and very early ’80s, my gentle nihilism is understandable. It was a period marked by…
I’m Going to Make This Viral If It’s the Last Thing I Do
THAT IS TO SAY, THIS: That Sonoma Valley’s synagogue-centered Jewish community is … “our little Anatevka-among-the-vines.” So there.
5 Thoughts: Lifechangers
0. YOU ARE ON A PATH. Suddenly, something knocks you onto another one. Here are five (of my many) “somethings.” 1. 2001: A space odyssey. At the tender age of six, my mind was blown, by what I could not…
Sales Experience Necessary
IT HAS LONG BEEN PROPOSED in some circles that, in order to build a better class of citizens, we need some sort of national-service program along the lines of an in-house Peace Corps or revamped Works Progress Administration. “Give people…
One Another
THE SCENE: LAST WEEK AT a medical office. It was a strictly routine matter, but one which involved removing my cabbie cap and disclosing my kippah. “How was your Chanukah?” the technician asked. “It was good,” I replied. “Lots of…
Fear of death is worse than death.”
— R. Yehudah de Modena
Wish List
I want the rockets and bombings to stop. I want Hamas to surrender. I want the hostages released. I want civilians to stop dying. I want two states for two peoples. I want to live without fear. I want to…
A Weary Wariness
UNTIL OCTOBER 7 AND ITS AFTERMATH, I hadn’t understood just how pervasive and systemic Jew-hatred was. (Is.) I did know it was Out There, of course, but only intellectually. It’s something else to see it in its natural habitat. Case…
Five Thoughts
1. WE HAD A WELL-ARMED GUARD at our synagogue service this morning. (In the United States. IN SONOMA. Which, as you may imagine, made/makes me feel both glad and sad.) 2. When our rabbi asked those visiting for the first…
Regarding ChatGPT (or, Cassandra’s Got Nothing On Me)
BE CAREFUL PLAYING WITH THE shiny new toy — the shiny new toy may decide to play with you.