Comfortably Uncomfortable

My son’s second grade teacher has been wonderful through this whole pandemic. She, as well as all the other amazing second grade teachers at our school district, have put together lessons and posted them on Padlet for the kids to complete at home. They divide the lessons by section, and one of the sections is called Social/Emotional Learning. Ethan has never been too into completing the lessons in that section and, admittedly, I haven’t pushed it much because I think he is already dealing with enough (aren’t we all?). I bring it up a few times a week in hopes that he will find something on the list that catches his eye that we can hopefully work on together. However, For this week, the lesson at the top of the Social/Emotional Learning list was called “Optimism Lesson”, and my first reaction to that was: there is no way I am having Ethan complete that one. I know, what kind of mother am I if I’m not promoting optimism and the good side of things to my child, especially if he struggles...

I have to be honest; Passover has never been one of my favorite holidays. Maybe it’s because the Seder is so long, or because trying to coordinate so many people to pay attention in our super long Seder table (as in 30+ people) for one Seder, after completing the first half at another Seder, is just too much. I am not someone who thrives in rooms with a lot of people and a lot of noise, even when I’m surrounded by my loved ones. For years now, my sisters and I have had to split our time between two houses in one night. Granted, I don’t always get to go to Chile for Passover, but even during years that I don’t, I still have to “virtually” divide myself for both, mostly in solidarity to my sisters, and so I can be “there” for both sides of the family. This year, the Seder has taken a whole different meaning for me. It goes beyond the fact that we all have to celebrate a very family-centered holiday (in my family’s case, more so than all the other holidays throughout the year) separa...

I have always loved the movie Wall-E. There is something so endearing about the little robot and its tiny little scooper that is so determined to clean a completely shattered world; How he goes through his day literally reorganizing dirt and collecting little treasures like Rubik’s cubes and rubber duckies, all while ending his day by indulging in the uplifting sounds of Carol Channing in “Hello Dolly”. Wall-E and Eva end up fighting the forces that be (better known as autopilot) against all odds to save humanity through a simple little sprout of green hope. Truly, if that movie doesn’t move you to tears every time you watch it, we need to have a conversation about feelings. I remember watching that movie for the first time. I was gearing up to start my master’s in social work, so my brain was in that liminal stage between having taken a semester off to reassess my life and preparing to return to a classroom and learn how to analyze people and things. After the first time I watched,...