Featured Refresh
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How is the coronavirus pandemic affecting your life right now? Tell us about your experiences, feelings, and thoughts.
Big lesson this week: stuff is just stuff. I was putting our kiddush cups away in the china cabinet when one flew out of my hand and smashed into the salt water dish that I had inherited from my Bubbe. Pre-pandemic me would have cried, found the glue, pieced it back together, prayed until Pesach that it would work, stressed over it not working, and cry some more. Post-pandemic....ooops, nope, guess we're not there yet! Pandemic-me takes a picture, sends a text to my mother with an "oh well" and tosses it in the trash. It's just a thing. Yes, it gave me joy. It helped me connect with my past, my traditions, and my family. But in the greater scheme of things, when everything is so scary and there's just a fine line between life and death, I'm not going to waste my time worrying about the fine lines in my now cracked salt water dish. No salt water, no tears. Just prayers that next year we can be together!
September 11, 2020
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We hear a lot these days about the economic impact of the pandemic. Has this been on your mind? If so, tell us what you're thinking.
Homelessness was already a problem in California before the pandemic, but the economic impact of the shutdowns mandated to curb the spread of the virus has pushed many people who were just one paycheck away from disaster out into makeshift tent dwellings on the streets of Berkeley, where I have been living during the pandemic. Over the last 15 months, the number of tent dwellers living on the streets of Berkeley has steadily increased. Mercifully, the City has chosen to leave them alone, and has set up port-a-potties and hand-washing stations near the largest groups of tents. My heart goes out to these people whose economic situation, often due to circumstances beyond their control, has made their lives so difficult. I am outraged at the approach that many other jurisdictions have adopted toward their unhoused residents. My hometown of Santa Cruz, for one, regularly gives tent dwellers a 3-day notice to move (to where?), then confiscates any belongings that haven't been moved, and for the most part, dumps them in the landfill. The eviction moratoriums in some areas have helped many people who would otherwise be on the streets, but our government, at all levels, needs to do a lot more to address the underlying economic inequalities in this country, which have been both exacerbated and highlighted by the pandemic.
July 2, 2021