Considering Vulnerability

Originally published in the Jewish Exponent, May 31, 2019 Iā€™ve been thinking a lot about vulnerability since I hurt my back last summer. Since then, aside from three-week periods after I got two spinal injections a few months apart, Iā€™ve stood and walked with pain and have had trouble moving around. And thatā€™s left me feeling vulnerable. Feeling vulnerable in ways I never have before has made me think more about the role the sense of vulnerability and invulnerability plays in our lives. Iā€™ve especially thought about those who are a lot more vulnerable than I was either because of physical limitations or because they face more challenges than I do ā€” women, people of color, those who are disabled, those whose sexual identity and presentation is not traditional. It has occurred to me that my current sense of vulnerability, like the confidence I once had, is a bit ofā€¦ Continue reading

Backaches and Vulnerability

Iā€™m having surgery on Tuesday which, Iā€™m fairly confident, will remove the pain Iā€™ve have had for the last eight months. Before I do, a word about what this experience has taught me. Iā€™ve been thinking a lot about vulnerability since I hurt my back on July 23. Since then, aside from the three-week periods after I got two spinal injections a few months apart, Iā€™ve stood and walked with pain and have had trouble moving around. And thatā€™s left me feeling more vulnerable than usual. That feeling comes most often when Iā€™m near cars. Iā€™m much more careful crossing streets because once in a while the pain gets so bad that I just have to stop for a moment. And while I can pick up the pace for a brief burst, I donā€™t respond as quickly as I usually do. So Iā€™m afraid of cars coming around a cornerā€¦ Continue reading

Stepping up or back: Leadership lessons from Bill Russell and Sam Jones

Bill Russell tells a great story in his second of three memoirs, Second Wind, abou how living upt up to your talents by being willing to take on responsibility is critical to leaderhip. For those of you too young to remember him, Sam Jones replaced Bill Sharman as the shooting guard on the Boston Celtics during their run of 11 NBA championships in 13 years. He partnered with point guard K.C. Jones and was probably the third best guard in the league in the early sixties, after Oscar Robertson and Jerry West. Jones was an incredible scorer who could shoot from outside, drive to the basket and make his own shot. Jones was totally capable of taking over a game the way Kobe Bryant or Paul Pierce can do today. He could and did score buckets of points in key games. And he always elevated his play in the playoffs.ā€¦ Continue reading

The death of Marlene Dietrich

The death of Michael Jackson and a video I just saw reminded me of something: When the news came on TV that Marlene Dietrich died in 1992, I was in a coffee shop in a hotel, I think, in Boston. I saw a tall bald man who must have been in his mid-seventies, with a tan shirt and round horn-rim glasses standing in front of the TV. He was looking up at it, with an espresso cup in his hand, and tears streaming down his face. Was he crying because of what she had meant to him? Over his lost youth? Over something else that connected him to her? I don’t know. But it was pure and touching and one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen. Continue reading

Do we daydream anymore?

Do we daydream anymore? I’ve been wondering about that in the last few days after a conversation with a close friend in which we mutually confessed our penchant for daydreaming. My fear is that daydreaming is a lost art. But perhaps that is just a solipsistic point of viewā€”just because we generally don’t see other people daydreaming, doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen. I want to write here about why daydreaming is so important to me, why I fear it may be a phenomena in decline and why my daughter gives me some hope for the future. Continue reading