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What did you Say?

  Aging is for the courageous, my Mom says. And I’ve only just begun. I’m 59. Over the course of the last 15 years, I’ve adapted to a few changes without getting too upset. To begin, there was the arthritis in my upper back. “No more yoga!” ordered my neurologist. “It is triggering migraines.” At least the shoulder stands were. No more. Grey hair came in my early 50’s. Every six weeks, I dye them over. I could be all grey underneath for all I know. The sagging skin. Certain body parts headed south. A little roll of fat on top of the belly. My 5k menopause weight gain. Speaking of “the change,” the retreat of the period was joyful. In the late 70’s, when I learned I’d be bleeding monthly for 30+ years, I cried. When it stopped, I smiled. There was the old sneezing and leaking problem. A little squeezing took care of that. But now, I’ve developed something I don’t like. Really don’t like. A hearing problem. Yes, wax builds up quickly. Yes, I’ve started to put sub-titles...
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RIPPLES

  “I am broken. I am down for the count.” Lord knows that there are days I could be tempted to say that- especially migraine days and any day that I have to listen to the Rump or the Muskrat. I cannot stay there. I will not stay there. Putin and Rump expect Americans to stay there, to act like Russians. Or at least the stereotypical Russian. Submit. Endure. After hundreds of years of totalitarian rule, it’s a coping mechanism. I’m not Russian. I don’t judge them. What would I do in their situation? The American situation is new in comparison. It doesn’t go back to Catherine the Great.   I am American, and Americans resist. Americans don’t look around and ask “What are other people doing?” but instead “What am I doing?” What about that well known slogan “Just do it!”? Perhaps I inherited this belief from my mother, who marched for the Equal Rights Amendment in the late 1960’s. (That was one of my earliest memories of her.)   I thought the proposal dated from that ...
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White Privilege?!!

  Not again! I try to bring up the subject of white privilege with an American female, millennial. I need to find a better introduction (how exactly did I start?) since I always get a knee-jerk, white anxious* response. “I can’t have white privilege, because I’m Jewish,” she responded. Apples and oranges, I wish I had said.   A person can benefit from one privilege and suffer from another discrimination. What is white privilege ? We’re not talking about the Ku Klux Klan or Musk’s Nazi salute. Those are extremes-- important subjects to write about elsewhere. White privilege, as I see it, is an absence of barriers. Imagine a track-and-field hurdle competition. Each person has a set of barriers, higher or lower, according to their race, gender, dis/ability, religion, class, etc. White privilege is the ABSENCE of race related barriers. It doesn’t mean others weren’t added. I, for example, have the barriers of gender, health, and a turbulent childhood. On the other hand, I d...
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