glenrockschwartz

Dear Alex and Avery, It is with a heavy heart that I write to you today.  Your Saba passed away in the early hours of the morning on Monday. Below are a series of hopefully not too disjointed thoughts that I want to share with you. I like the word erudite - and not just because it was made popular as one of the four factions in the Divergent book series.  No, I like the word erudite, because it rolls around in my head and off my tongue as the perfect word, the perfect embodiment of my grandfather.  An intelligence that cannot be bought with education, a sense of class that is lauded in movies that make fun of "new money".  Some people might associate erudite with snobbiness and being judgmental; to that I say, oh yes! And as the third in the line (hi mom!) of absolute judgy snobs, I say this with glee and pride. My grandfather is better and he knows more.  Proof positive is this renaissance man who has a clearly thought through view on world politics, who is a self taught eng

Dear kids Rosh Hashanah starts at sundown this evening and as it is meant to be a time of spiritual renewal, here I am reflecting on my world.  There are phrases like “a world forever changed” that are used after catastrophic events like the assassination of JFK (well before my time) or September 11 attacks (in my prime time as a newly married young adult). And it’s true, we can all talk with extreme clarity about exactly what happened in those moments. Our current world forever changed, the one we are living through, is different. Rather than a point in time and the aftermath, it’s a slow burning, multi year long, new way of life that has changed forever how we act, how we think, how we feel.  (Complete parenthetical side note before I return to gloom and doom. Worlds are forever changed with happy events as well. That moment I said to your dad “Ani l’dodi v’dodi li”, or when I first found out that I was going to be a mama, and sublimely (there may have been some drugs involved), when

Dear Avery, Abraham Lincoln Embraced His Honesty With Pride You are named after dad's maternal grandfather, Abraham Novak or as he was known to his grandkids, Papa Abe.  One of Abe's traits that you share with him and that dad likes to talk about was his brutal honesty.  So that's what I would like to write about as you officially turn 13 and embark on your teenage years: the interplay between your honesty and your level of tolerance. From Despondency to Exuberance You have always been my most extreme kid who lives in vivid color with everything.  Yes with your brutal honesty, but also you love hard and you hate hard, you play hard and you rest hard, you laugh hard and you cry hard.  There are very few grey areas in your life; at your best you are vivacious and exuberant, at your worst you are cutting and despondent.  Last year we talked about you working on dialing down your living life at a level eleven down to a seven.  And how sad it was that we live in a world where fo

Dear Alex, Yup. You read the title of this post right, you are 17 years old! As always, I write you a letter to share your accomplishments, stressors and life in general over the past year.  This letter, however will be remarkably different because this past year (starting exactly the day you turned 16) is the year that you lived in quarantine due to the Corona virus causing a worldwide pandemic. Beyond just a lining - More like solid silver Okay, so I know it's absolutely horrible that so many people have died, been very sick, lost their jobs, gone hungry, but for me quarantine has provided a precious year with you during which otherwise we would all have been off in different directions.  I have watched movies and Jeopardy and played logic board games and eaten three meals a day every day with you.  I have listened to you sing in the shower and watched you play games on your phone when your camera was off during home school.  I have seen you develop deep friendships with people,

 Armin loves Freda and Freda loves Armin. They hold each other’s hands in public and in private. They take care of each other. They LOVE each other, really love each other.  Armin and Freda survived Holocaust atrocities and chose to really live the gift of life they were given. They chose to thrive.  Armin and Freda take care of each other’s health by going for three mile walks around the neighborhood and doing calisthenics when they return home. They also drink large jugs of water every day and eat homemade soups filled with antioxidants and protein and lentils and beans and chicken. Also lots of dill   Armin and Freda tragically lost their spouses at a youngish age. An age where they still had so much living to do. What’s that saying? Mid 60s are the new 20s? So they chose life. They chose finding love.  Armin and Freda traveled a long way from their European childhood homes to be set up by a kosher butcher in Los Angeles. It was a world away from where they had started, but some thi