Yesterday I shared on Facebook that my eldest son M is going to college, and many of you have been so nice to acknowledge this pending rite of passage.For me, however, the moment is bittersweet. No event this past year that has left me feeling more displaced, more liminal. I am perched on top ofContinue reading “Tangled Up in Blue”
Author Archives: Meena Meitsar
The Day of Memory
Everything here is inside out. In America, death is a private matter. And mourning is a private matter. It is done, yes, but discretely, quietly, and above all, privately. Mourning takes place alone, or perhaps with family. Mourning is a chasm of pain and anger and longing that is so hard to crawl out of,Continue reading “The Day of Memory”
Catastrophe and Heroism Day
Today is Yom HaShoah vHaGvurah, the Day of Catastrophe and Heroism. If Israel were to enter therapy, she would perhaps start by talking about the many blessings she has. First, of course, she has her beauty. How beautiful the fields, the desert, the mountains, the wildflowers, the waterfalls. How beautiful the land, the shore, andContinue reading “Catastrophe and Heroism Day”
My Passover Haircut
This weekend, along with Jews around the globe, of all religious denominations, I undertake the metaphysical metamorphosis from slavery into freedom. I am also hoping this is hopefully my last Covid/Corona post. Coming out of Egypt has never felt so real. For just over a year we have been living in/with/surrounded by a pandemic. AndContinue reading “My Passover Haircut”
Covid and the Almond Tree
Thinking about Covid and Tu B’shvat. Its the new year for trees, and in Israel, the tree most associated with the holiday is the Shakedia, the almond tree. My son M has been volunteering on a nature reserve and sent us this picture.Tu B’shvat is the beginning of the end. The beginning of the endContinue reading “Covid and the Almond Tree”
The Way Out
An update from my last post: my post-Covid moodiness and brain fog is clearing, at least somewhat. That is a relief. Our lives have settled in considerably. My phone is working again, we bought a second car so K and I are not always figuring out who is going where when, and we have aContinue reading “The Way Out”
2020 Hindsight: Top 10 Challenges of Moving in an International Pandemic
WARNING: This is a long post, so best to curl up in some quiet place and catch up on the twists and turns of pomegranate dreams. The sun is setting here on the last day of 2020, and I am listening to the muezzin from the Arab town I look out on from my window. Continue reading “2020 Hindsight: Top 10 Challenges of Moving in an International Pandemic”
Sukkot in Seger (Lockdown)
In America, Sukkot is a backyard holiday. I once saw a sukkah in someone’s front yard, and it scarred me. That awkward, small, square structure with burlap walls and branches on the roof, right there by the sidewalk on Acton Street in Berkeley, looked as vulnerable and inappropriate as someone arriving at school without shoes.Continue reading “Sukkot in Seger (Lockdown)”
Temporary Worlds Within the Ordinary World
One of the new projects that I’ve picked up over the last month is learning Mishnah, the terse legal code written down in the 3rd century that serves as the user’s manual of Judaism in the post Temple period. I can’t say I started learning mishnayot with much forethought. Truth be told, ‘terse legal code’Continue reading “Temporary Worlds Within the Ordinary World”
What is Stronger than Death?
Day 10 in solitary confinement as I wait out my Covid sentence… Every day since before this began I’ve had a ritual of taking a daily inhale of hot paprika, just to confirm I could still whiff its spicy kick. Last Thursday, day 5, I smelled nothing. Now that is a weird experience–to know intellectuallyContinue reading “What is Stronger than Death?”
Pomegranate Dreams 