A New Year

The New Year is here, and with it, a sense of fear and hope so commingled that I can hardly put a name on it. It’s not hard to imagine the darkest of scenarios for the year ahead of us. I’ll avoid saying them aloud. If you follow world events and domestic politics even a little, you know what they are. But I’m not ready to turn into a fatalist. There’s too much work to be done in the societal realm, and my book, In the Wake of Madness, puts me right in the thick of it, promoting a message of basic human fairness, morality, and inclusion, uncovering a history that, unfortunately, feels especially relevant in this fractious, teetering time in which we live. In promoting my book, I dreamt I would be talking about my courageous parents and their perilous journey from the Nazis. Instead, I often find myself discussing the rise in antisemitism and an increasing appetite for fascism. What choice do I have?

Family letters used in the writing of my book reinforced a reality both personal and universal: No matter what is happening in the world, we still derive many of our greatest joys and heartaches from the smaller communities in which we live – our family, our friends, our neighborhood, our town. These concentric circles of existence are not unaffected by the larger world; in fact, they often collide. But when there is a chance to savor a moment, to connect with another human being, to sit in our stillness or engage our restlessness productively, whenever we can love unabashedly or grieve unashamedly, we need to grab that opportunity, to find that balance between our own precious all-too-short lives and our responsibility to care for our planet and all its inhabitants. Willful ignorance is not an option, but I do want to protect my right to experience joy in a world full of sadness. And if I continuously immerse myself in the world’s woes, I risk becoming paralyzed – and, that, too is not an option. We all need to keep ourselves emotionally healthy, as best we can, for the struggles we may face. Lord knows, it is not always an easy task.

Thanks to each of you for being that part of my story that helps lift me up. Here’s to a Happy New Year – and a more peaceful world for all of us.