Photo by Rob Goldman “Dad, the stuff smelled like butt.” That’s how my 16 year old son, Oren, summed up his first day at school eating the khichari (Ayurveda vegetarian meal) that I packed for him. For whatever perverse reason, my son has no lunch period, so he’s forced to eat during class. Imagine sitting… Read More »

It must be a midlife crisis, but at the age of 54 I’m questioning my ability to love. Could it be that what I’ve been calling love all these years has been nothing but lust, insecurity and the need for control? I knew I was in trouble when I couldn’t tell my wife Elizabeth “I… Read More »

I can’t imagine a street that offers more gifts per square inch and the perfect place to find a Mother’s Day gift, than Broadway in Saratoga Springs, NY. I walked in and out of every shop leaving incredible goodies behind. But deep down I knew that this was a waste of time; what she really… Read More »

From the moment my kids were born they started to leave. Think about it, parenting is really one long goodbye. They move out of your bed to the crib, they let go of your hand and walk away, they board a yellow bus, they go away to camp, they drive away, they travel abroad, they… Read More »

I got a preview of what care is all about. Charles, Elizabeth’s dad who suffers from the effects of mini strokes and Parkinson’s, came to us on a one way ticket from England. His wife needed a reprieve and Elizabeth stepped in unconditionally. She dressed, fed, washed, peed, and walked him. She took him to… Read More »

When Hurricane Sandy’s full fury struck on Monday night, I peered outside to get a measure of the force. The sound of the wind whistling through the trees was like a loud drone. It increased in pitch and was becoming terribly powerful. My father-in-law Charles – 79, who is visiting us from England seemed visibly… Read More »

What are Lior’s outstanding accomplishments? Lior’s most important accomplishments happen outside the classroom.  During the summers she’s enrolled in a leadership camp focused on community building. She has helped rebuild homes for Katrina victims in New Orleans under the sponsorship of a Jewish organization and she helped build new homes in Nicaragua for a church… Read More »

Charles, Oren’s granddad, has been staying with us. He goes at his own pace, which judging by the the local iCrowd buzzing around him is very slow. His lucid thoughts come and go, his memories are locked on WWII stories and he sleeps a lot. His world has become small and simple. Today I was… Read More »

Every father’s day I get home made cards from each one of my kids. They’re essentially report cards, spelling out what I did right over the past year, if anything. They may be drawn with crayons or cutout from cardboard, but they are always very telling. Since they get made in less than 10 minutes on Sunday morning, they usually focus on the.

It finally dawned on me that life is really a circle. It’s 5:50 AM and I’m eating my granola and scanning through the countless emails on my Blackberry. What else are you gonna do at that time of day? One email came from AWB, better known as the Alternative Winter Break program from Young Judaea. My daughter Lior and her best friend Orli are currently part of the program. They are down in New Orleans