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Piv-ot. It’s the most overused term of the pandemic era and a concept that has bubbled to the surface as crucial to surviving. It’s about shifting gears, if you will, from a job you may have been in for years or decades, for which there is less need now, to one that offers greater demand of your time and services—and for which you are wildly appreciated. Kudos to all those restauranteurs who can’t serve diners inside but knew they could set up outside spaces in which they could feed them safely or become caterers and take-out food shop owners. Some...

Typically, when Barbara and her beau drive in the car together, the conversation is sanguine and pleasant. Until one day recently.  As they drove to the University at Albany, SUNY, campus, in a snowstorm for one of them to get the coronavirus vaccine (the other had already done so), another storm began to brew in their car.  With her beau at the wheel, Barbara grew concerned about road conditions as she noticed that the two-lane highway merged into one lane and few snowplow trucks were working.  It was at this point that the conversation took a nasty turn. It happened...

We talked in our last blog about the importance of gathering around the family dinner table. This blog will take a metaphorical look at “taking our seats at the table” whether siblings in our families, or as citizens in our communities and in the world. We spend a great deal of time discussing people we admire-- writers, medical professionals, scientists, architects, chefs, designers, performers, educators, politicians and so on. Some are notable because they took their seat at the table to produce works, ideas, a movement, invention, something heroic or political at just the right moment in our culture and...

The Dinner Table: Resetting Our Traditions Among the activities we’ve come to miss most during the year of the pandemic has been gathering around the dinner table with friends and family. If we have a spouse or partner, which Barbara does, she has someone with whom she can converse, share the meal and make eye contact. She certainly doesn’t take this for granted. But early on during the pandemic, meal after meal became so routine that they broke their long-standing habit of not eating in front of the TV. They became adept at juggling plates on their laps while watching...

Breaking up is hard to do, as the Neil Sedaka song says. We’ve all been through this whether breaking up with a romantic or business partner, a spouse, friend or family member. That’s why it’s so tough to admit that we’re thinking of splitting up with some of our Zoom groups—or at least taking a break or not meeting as often. Our Zoom gatherings provide regularity and purpose to our lives during the pandemic when everything else seems to have come apart. For almost a year, we haven’t been able to go to our favorite gyms and spas; see our dearest...