While driving to work the other day, I heard a radio interview with environmental historian Jon Christensen, who teaches a course at UCLA called "Climate Change in California: History of the Future." He was talking about the fact that global warming is already with us and, although we...

"We're all just walking each other home."
-- Ram Dass

Nothing brings the brevity of life into sharper focus than the death of someone you know. Last week I attended the funeral of a person in my congregation, a woman I met at a dinner party some years ago...

"We'll be Friends Forever, won't we, Pooh?" asked Piglet. "Even longer," Pooh answered.

-- A. A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

Two years ago last August my best friend, Terry Braunstein, and I traveled to San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, to celebrate our 50th anniversary of friendship. In this...

A number of readers of my previous blog post, "The Real Fountain of Youth: Being a Grandparent," commented on the importance of treating the elder members of our society with greater honor and respect. In the same vein, others emphasized that rather than spending our time and money...

When my godson Matthew was about five years old he, like so many other children his age, was fascinated with dinosaurs. No wonder. His picture books depicted those astonishing creatures as hairless beasts with enormous bodies, scaly skin and terrifyingly sharp teeth. He could tell you with confidence that they...

I was married at 20, and, at age 21, three months before graduating from college, I gave birth to my first child. I was an art major, and my senior project was a large self-portrait, pregnant.

One day, while serving my baby mashed-up bananas with peas (the only way...

Many years ago I read an interview with a prominent literary figure in his late eighties. When asked his thoughts about growing older, he said that at times he felt as if he could simply leap up from his chair and dash across the room to open the door, but...