RELIGION

Tom Cruise and Scientology and More About a Man I Like to Dislike

I can’t accept Tom Cruise and Scientology any more than I can accept the Ku Klux Klan. Okay, a dot or more more.

What Does Heaven Look Like and How Will I Find My Peeps?

If there’s a heaven,
Will they offer me a key,
Given how mean I was to Barbara Satinsky?
Will Barbara Satinsky forgive and invite me to tea?

Sandusky and A Primer on Jewish Names

We already have Madoff, as well as Gingrich’s billionaire SuperPacSuperMacher Sheldon Adelson, so I’m glad that, even though Sandusky sounds like a Jewish name, he is not one of ours. Sandusky’s name is misleading, because the “sky” at the end could be construed as belonging to our tribe. But is …

Susan’s Ashes

Each of my girls could keep some of me in a gorgeous mosaic urn, personalized with photos under glass beads, like the ones my friend Sybil Sage makes for ashes of your cat or your mother.

Worrywart Logic

I was happy that my mind was still logical enough

Writing-a-Book Worries

I’ll give you a moment to digest what it is like for a worrywart to write a book. Try to imagine all there is to worry about.

Hanging With Chad: Making a New Friend

When I’m in New York, I like to hang out and write at Jack’s, a coffee place in the West Village with a patina that suggests long afternoons of sipping lattes and tapping on laptops. The overall look is shades of brown, like paper bags and coffee. Jack’s is so …

THE LORD IS MY SHEPHERD BLUES

I’m a high-functioning agnostic in that I do ask God for things. But in the same way that, as a kid, I was creeped out every time we had to sing “My Country ‘tis of Thee, ” the line that goes Land where our fathers died, the Twenty-third Psalm gave …

PASSOVER IN BEIJING

An eclectic group, this year’s seder in my daughter’s Beijing apartment included non-Jewish participants from Ireland, Argentina, England and Massachusetts as well as my Chinese-American Jewish daughter, her father (my ex, also Jewish) and me. What at home would have cost $50 for fruits and vegetables, cost less than $5 …

AM I A VOYEUR? BEHIND THE SCENES OF MY BLOG

UNRELATED ANNOUNCEMENT: See article 7 Easy, Delicious Aphrodisiac Recipes. A variety of search terms leads Googlers to my blog, some weirder than others. My voyeuristic pleasure from reading a daily list of these terms is infused with a measure of guilt. Generally, we Google in the privacy of a bubble that …

HOW DOES AN ATHEIST PRAY AND SHOULD AN AGNOSTIC CONSIDER HER OPTIONS?

Valentine’s Day, 1991, New York City. My then-(China hand)-husband and I knew a young Chinese couple. The sweet wife Mei Ling, who was exquisite to look at with her porcelain complexion and appleseed eyes, sometimes babysat for our daughters. On this particular February 14th, she had plans to go out …

HOPELESSLY ATTRACTED TO TINSEL

Unrelated announcement: How I Organized my Home, De-Cluttered my Life & Learned 21 New Tips Some call the holiday season Chrismukkah, others say HanuKwanzMas. Then there’s Festivus with its unadorned aluminum pole, miracles and airing of grievances. I say Hanukkah simply on its own can cause confusion, starting with: which of …

Internet Dating And Devoted Dad

Shortly after my divorce I signed up for the Marine Corps Marathon and at first paired off to train with a divorced and widowed man named Charlie, who told me he found divorcing his wife harder than losing his other wife to death, because he had to continue dealing with …

WORRIED ABOUT FENG SHUI

Today, my first article appears on the NBC Website Home Goes Strong, where I’ll be posting new pieces 2 or 3 times a week. As you may know, I am capable of worrying about anything. The feng shui fracas began when a friend pointed out that my newly renovated space–where I could …

Asking God For Things

A worrywart can benefit from a connection to God. If I believed prayers were answered, I wouldn’t need to worry anymore. Even though I’m an agnostic, I consider my relationship with God a pretty good one. Like those halfway-decent, parallel-play marriages between two independent sorts, God and I go into …