Today I witnessed an amazing event – true solidarity in a real Republic. The Unity Rally in Paris was a demonstration in response to the shootings at the magazine, Charlie Hebdo, the shooting of the policewoman and the shootings in the kosher grocery store. The visual of 3.7 million citizens marching across France, 1 million in Paris, silently behind 44 international leaders spoke volumes. The signs and interviews with people trying to explain themselves – how they feel a sense of pain that their dearest values – liberty, equality and fraternity - have been challenged. It was not a rally in support of Jews per se but in support of free speech and upholding the values France holds dear.
It was also remarkable that the last time the streets had been so populated was following the liberation from the Nazis in 1944. What followed were decades of pain for this... 
The Russian Dreambook of Colour and Flight
This beautifully titled book is not for everyone, but it speaks to me. My day to day life may not be exciting, but at night I travel to other continents. My one complaint is that about once a month, I find myself just finishing a lovely trip in my dreams to some new, exotic place only to remember that I have a ticket for China and I’m neither packed, prepared, nor pleased. Perhaps because after visiting China in summer of 1982 when skies were blue, shirts were blue and cars were few, I’ve had my fill of that experience. I must say that our watchers in China were far more gracious and useful frequently returning lost objects to me, like my camera, compared to the Soviet followers lurking in the shadows who may have awaited my droppings for personal re-sale.
“…as a girl, she’d... 
Our book, Jewish Luck, delves into memories. And memories have a concrete existence in the "stuff" we choose to carry with us. Alisa preserves those memories on one floor of her home while another floor reflects a more modern Swedish decor. In her London apartment to which she commutes from Sweden, I'm guessing there is little from the past. When Vera moved to the Cayman Islands, she started fresh and created a home that reflects her new life. Both women like decorating a lot more than I do. Yet, I have an existential dilemma that has become a decorating dilemma. I’m a little worried that if I continue holding on to my memories in the form of "stuff", I will feel like an insect preserved in amber.
Harry and I enjoy a certain entropy in our home. It is a cozy and colorful setting for our lives. However, lately, it strikes... 
I tipped my worn sneakers as I lifted them from my suitcase, checking for grains of sand from the Tel Aviv Beach visited the day before. Proof. My memories were real and not a dream. Digging further down, I sniffed the zaatar (hyssop), sumac, dried apricots and dates for tea. In my mind, I am hearing bits of Hebrew conversation and a haunting melody of Min haMa’amakim (“From the Depths”) by Idan Raichel. Closing my eyes, I can see the vistas of flowering cacti, cedar groves, and rocky hills – pictures moving in and out of consciousness.
What did it feel like to go to Israel after 17 years? It felt like replenishing a part of my soul that I hadn’t realized had been empty. It felt like I was absorbing a vitality that nourished my cells.
Meryll and I made this trip to Israel to attend the wedding of our... 
