Like most working people in the US, where Christian culture is majority culture, I’d been looking forward to a couple of days off at Christmas. It’s not my holiday. But I get to partake of its best parts because Sweetheart’s family is a mashup of Lutherans, atheists who grew up as Lutherans & Catholics-by-choice. Sweetheart … Continue reading ‘I’m not big on long goodbyes’ or Death at Christmas
Tag: family
When we were little, my sister and I really wanted a Christmas tree. We did not want Christmas. We had no problem with Christmas, but we were perfectly happy with Hanukkah. We liked being Jewish. We loved potato latkes and we got eight night’s worth of presents. So we never felt as if we were missing out … Continue reading The rabbi’s kids and Christmas trees: A tale of forbidden lust
I like to think I grew up in a practical family, but as I get older, I’m realizing the truth is more that I grew up in a family that liked to think it was merely practical. I’m in the process of working out exactly what to call us. For now, I’m gonna go with … Continue reading Practical Gothic: an Ancestral Meditation
I have an old mother and an old dog. My dog lives with me. My mother lives in a nursing home four miles away, and I am her Primary Person. In the abstract, being Mom’s main person is a huge honor and I know full well how lucky I am to still have her. In reality, I’ve … Continue reading Old mothers, bad daughters, & therapeutic books
So, this weekend we were going to drive to Chicago to see Sweetheart’s brother, Tommy, who is playing an angry bass player in “Dee Snider’s Rock-n-Roll Christmas Tale.” I’ve been looking forward to it since June, when he’d got cast. Tommy is a ridiculously talented singer, actor and bass player who’s done a fair bit of work locally, … Continue reading Tommy in Spandex (with pictures)
the sentence factory 