Friday morning, both our children reported having had bad dreams. My husband had to go to our younger son’s room in the wee hours to comfort him. We don’t have the news on and we try to keep our worry from them, but our kids are always listening and as most children are, they’re sensitive … Continue reading #3 – march 21: we can still laugh
Author: contraryfrog
#2 – march 18: flattening the curve
“To live entirely for oneself in private is a huge luxury, a luxury countless aspects of this society encourage, but like a diet of pure foie gras it clogs and narrows the arteries of the heart. This is what we’re encouraged to crave in this country, but most of us crave more deeply something with … Continue reading #2 – march 18: flattening the curve
What Happens in a Pandemic: Coronavirus Chronicles
#1 - March 15: social distance I’m beginning to lose track of the order of events, both nationally and personally, because the situation has been so “fluid” as they say, the information flowing fast from multiple sources and changing sometimes by the hour over the past month. But this was the week that my immediate … Continue reading What Happens in a Pandemic: Coronavirus Chronicles
Why I’m Team Warren
Just so you know where I’m coming from right off the bat, I don’t think “socialism,” “liberal,” or “progressive” are dirty words. A functioning society has a strong social safety net and funds education, research, and the arts. Any truly progressive policy has to be anti-racist and anti-sexist. Government should regulate industry for the greater … Continue reading Why I’m Team Warren
A Tale of Two Woolys
My younger son C is nothing if not persistent. This trait was apparent very early on, well before words – if he wanted something, he let you know it again and again and again. So, when he started asking for a pet about a year ago, I knew deferral wasn’t going to cut it for … Continue reading A Tale of Two Woolys
Inventing Traditions
Last Christmas Eve, I wrote the following Facebook post: “Reading Eric Hobsbawm’s The Invention of Tradition helped me understand that all traditions are invented out of specific historic, cultural, economic, and political needs. And later, in preparing to teach a course, I read The Battle for Christmas, about the pagan roots of what became both … Continue reading Inventing Traditions
Invisible Milestones
This was the second year in a row that our kids didn’t trick-or-treat together. Up until last year, we’d had a tradition of trick-or-treating in the neighborhood just south of us, three long streets of single family homes, fully decorated, and abundantly supplied with candy. We’d meet up with my older son’s friends and their … Continue reading Invisible Milestones
The Making of a Queens Girl
When I tell people I’m from New York and they ask me whereabouts, I say, “Queens and Long Island.” I had spent six years in each locale before heading off to college out of state, so it somehow seemed important to acknowledge both places as where I’m from. But lately, I’ve come to embrace my … Continue reading The Making of a Queens Girl
The Waiting Room of American Healthcare
We noticed the minor skin blemish on my son, but didn’t think much of it at first. I was thinking it’d go away on its own. But when it didn’t, and over the course of a few months seemed to change and then seemed slightly infected, my husband finally took him to the newly opened … Continue reading The Waiting Room of American Healthcare
Interracial
Recently, I was out to dinner at a local pan-Asian restaurant with my husband and kids when I observed the following: A young mixed race couple, a black woman and a white man, entered and were seated at a table for two. I would have guessed their age as mid-twenties. Just a few minutes later, … Continue reading Interracial
Contrary Frog 