January 2017

Monday, Monday or a few links about getting back on the proverbial horse

Over a million people marched in Washington DC for the Women's March on Washington. My family was there along with lots of our friends. It was a day I won't forget.

Over a million people marched in Washington DC for the Women’s March on Washington. My family was there along with lots of our friends. It was a day I won’t forget.


There is so much going on right now… my head is literally spinning! But a person has to start somewhere, and I have finally decided to stop piddling around and just write a little bit about the crazy world we are living in these days… I’ve been living it, organizing with the brave and amazing women who organized the Women’s March on Washington and just trying to stay active rather than put my head in the sand.

Which is what I recommend for all of you, too.

Here are a few related links… somewhat scattered in order, but all somehow dealing with what is going on in the US politically and how to make sense of it all. Oh and don’t worry– this isn’t becoming a hard nosed political blog, but I do find it next to impossible to skip over all of the insanity. Wouldn’t be authentic, now would it?

Former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates is my hero and she should be yours too. Here’s what she wrote about why she refused to defend Trump’s Muslim ban.

Here’s a piece I wrote for New York Magazine’s The Cut about teaching my daughter how to be an activist.

And while we’re on the topic of kids, At Once always has thoughtful things to say about raising thoughtful aware but healthy and safe kids. If you’re anything like me, you can’t read enough stuff like this.

The Women’s March on Washington wasn’t just a one day thing. The objective is to take all of that positive energy to the next level and really affect change. Every 10 days they are leading an action on behalf of a cause they care about. Be a part of the movement and join the 10 Actions in 100 Days campaign.

Movement to Oppose Trump is an email newsletter that goes out once a week with a few short specific actions you can take to help stem the tide.

MLK on drawing up a blueprint for our lives

I’ve been sitting here, with loads of work to do, a mountain of unread emails, an apartment to clean (or at least make semi-presentable for people coming over) all kinds of self-care resolutions to wish I had time to fulfill… and my MLK post to write.

So what do I do? In classic procrastination style, I open up my email newsletter from NY Times Cooking, which my friend Sam Sifton writes, and which I almost always make time to read no matter what else is on my plate. The first line after ‘Good Morning’? “Here is Martin Luther King Jr. speaking at Barratt Junior High School in Philadelphia, Oct. 26, 1967.” I clicked on the link, watched the speech, cried as I always do when I hear Dr King speak, and then realized that my search for a blog post was over.

So thanks, Sam, for hooking us all up with today’s content. And thank you, Dr. King, for continuing to be a beacon of light and an inspiration to us all… especially as we enter these murky and unstable times. And for speaking so eloquently to kids about what their potential can be if they take themselves seriously.

Parents, if you have kids old enough to listen, you should all sit down and watch this video today. And then let us all pay a little attention to our blueprints, make adjustments if necessary, and head out into the bright world full of determination to change what needs to be changed, to protect what needs to be protected and to treat everyone with the love and respect that we would like to have shown to us.

Amen.

And Happy Birthday, Dr. King.

Sometimes hanging out with dogs is just what the doctor ordered…

find shadow

This is Rasha and his great dane puppy Tigran. Who is going to be HUGE, by the way…

For the past 6 months, I have been managing the Instagram for a posse of dog lovers called Find Shadow whose current purpose is to help people in Brooklyn and Queens to find their lost dogs. I would never have defined myself as a dog person, but I have to say that hanging out in parks and dog runs and just talking to folks with their awesome four legged partners is starting to make a convert out of me. Plus with all of the hectic stuff that’s going on in our geo-political universe as of late, sometimes you just want to feel good. And nothing feels better than helping somebody find their lost dog.

So in the interest of spreading some of that good feeling around, and also just to let you know that this crew exists and can help you if you’ve lost your dog, I’ve posted some of my favorite shots below. Please enjoy them. And if you or anyone you know has lost their pup… send them to findshadow.com for some help.