Every once in a while, you catch a glimpse of yourself in a pose that makes you cringe in shame. Picture this. I am sitting in my usual blue reading chair. It faces our TV, usually tuned to some sporting event which provides a kind of background noise for my reading. Unless it involves one of my home teams, the announcer’s running commentary rarely distracts me from my reading. What’s...

“Over the years I’ve developed the self-image of a shopkeeper. Mainly it’s my business to open the joint at a set time, to sit and wait. If I have customers, it’s a blessed day. If I don’t, well, I’m still doing my job.”...

I’ve taken great pleasure in watching my grand-daughter Dalia’s many way stations between the new-born in swaddling blanket and the bat mitzvah girl jumping around with abandon with her invited friends to the instructions of the obligatory MC. I hope to be around for some more of these growing-up markers, but nothing is given. There was no guarantee that we would be around for this much of her...

Appropriate to the season, today I’m raking up some loose leaves as I wrap up Year Five of my blog, so I won’t be playing off one single topic. First, I wanted to return to last week’s entry which was frivolously titled Social Butterflies and Hermits. (Actually has a better rhythm if you reverse those two.) After I posted that piece, Rosellen brought me a fascinating piece from Harvard Magazine...

A friend came by this morning for what has become a monthly catch-up ritual, featuring very strong coffee. We broke an unofficial record by going on for two delightful hours that covered, among other topics, grandchildren, religion, national and local politics, Chicago schools, weddings, operas and South American opera houses. We take great delight in these visits, but this one ended on a...