“…You’d be impressed
to see me digging a grave, how deep, square
perfect I make it. A human body is going there.
When it’s my turn, somebody just like me
will ready the earth where I’ll be lowered…”
President Lincoln's Thanksgiving Proclaimation
Growing up in my extreme secular family, I learned to celebrate only one Jewish holiday -- Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving has all the themes of an important Jewish festival.
1. They tried to kill us.
2. We survived.
3. Let's eat.
Autumn in Washington Grove, Md.
My new life is a reminder that we should never confuse who we are with what we are. Those of us who have spent decades doing ‘mission driven’ work can easily get sucked into a vortex, in which our work is all-consuming and we view it as the most important thing in our lives. We allow our jobs to become our identity and to define the whole story we tell ourselves about who we are. The price we pay for narrowing our story to a professional role is weaker friendships and family relationships, less room to explore our interests and passions, and a tendency to outsource the essential tasks of making a life.
