Fung-Shwa January 6, 2009

I will admit that I am not a big fan of  mystical/New Age/Woo-woo stuff. I have, at various times in my life, suspended my disbelief long enough to check out aromatherapy, I Ching, herbal medicine, Tarot cards, flower remedies and Deepak Chopra’s ideas about eating according to ones body type.  I did like yoga, and [...]

Morals and Basketball December 5, 2007

The children of attentive parents receive moral instruction early and often. Whether the context is religious or secular, conservative or liberal, a firm grounding in right and wrong is the first step in growing humans who give to charity and return lost wallets. We started Sam with simple lessons: it is wrong to take other [...]

My Old Hair November 30, 2007

For women of a certain age, hair becomes an issue. When I was a child, my hair was cut into a blunt bob until I was old enough to beg for long hair. Despite my ineffectual use of a brush, it was a look that worked for me in elementary school. In high school, I [...]

The End of the “Ons:” Some Music, Maestro, Please! November 20, 2007

 
Although I place a high value on feelings like compassion and gratitude, I think its gotten far too serious over here. I’ve had two days of not writing about food on my cooking blog, and a protracted period of not writing about anything vaguely amusing on my “fun” blog. Believe you me; I have enough [...]

On Compassion November 15, 2007

 ”Compassion is the basis of morality.”
- Arthur Schopenhauer
About a week ago, our local paper ran a story about a 33-year-old woman who had just given birth to premature triplets, and was jobless, in debt, and living in a shelter. She was trained as a medical transcriptionist, and had worked, but  lost her job and her [...]

On Stress November 12, 2007

           A while back, I drove into a woman backing out of her driveway. I apologized profusely, went home, cried, and later paid for the $937.00 worth of repairs. I confess that I was totally distracted at the moment of impact; I had not slept well, I had a toothache, and I [...]

On Nostalgia November 2, 2007

I still remember the night in 1979 when I looked out the window of the Oberlin Inn and watched snow fall on Tappan Square. I felt a peace, and a rightness about my audition for the Oberlin Conservatory earlier that day, and about the little college, the town, and the world in general. Unfortunately, when [...]

On Manners October 26, 2007

I grew up in a family in which manners extended well beyond “please” and “thank you,” and the placement of one’s napkin on one’s lap. I answered the phone “Graham residence, Ann speaking” and said “excuse me” before I interrupted adult conversation. I was also expected to recognize adult conversation, and to refrain [...]

On Mommy Swaps October 21, 2007

A while back, I was sucked into the lurid world of a Fox “reality” series in which two families trade mothers for a couple of weeks. In order to heighten the drama, the selected families were very different. In the episode I saw, a wealthy suburban family in which the father was a Japanese-American [...]

On The Telephone October 18, 2007

I am not a fan of the “connected” lifestyle. In the same way that I feel perfectly justified in lying on the living room floor until the girl selling magazines stops ringing the doorbell and gets off my porch, I feel that I am permitted to choose whether or not to answer the house phone [...]