mission statement from a public school employee

One day Beth commented that the point of education is to nourish the brain. A little comment that immediately became the way I look at and measure what we do, my own little personal mission statement. Are we nourishing the brain? Is it possible within the context of school? Sometimes the answer is yes.

adorno is wrong

Adorna said that art, because of its association with class and because it objectifies, is inherently fascist.  Did he really mean this or was he simply being provocative?

Paul Celan

Why did I awake lonely
Among the sleepers?

another word for hell

I was reading Night and helping plan a fundraiser for an elementary school in Gaza. I was reading Night and writing a novel that includes the Kabbalah, which is a form of mystical Judaism. The Kabbalah is also called The Tree of Life, and included in this Tree is its shadow, which is known at Qliphoth. Qlipoth is the place where all the half- formed things of creation go, the mistakes, the monsters. When you read Night, it’s easy to imagine that the landscape is Qlipoth, which is another word for Hell.

My husband’s paternal grandfather is German, but when a genealogist discovered that he was Jewish, his great aunt stopped the research. When I read Night I thought about the Palestinians and I thought the worst thing that can happen is for the victim to take on characteristics of the oppressor.