A friend told me that in Greece when you say “Hello, how are you?” the response is ypoféroume (ipo fer me), which means in common speech, “We are fine.” But in reality its real translation is, “We are suffering.” So today, those of us about to die (at some point in life) salute you with ypoféroume. My life is fabulous, and still I suffer. I have too many people close to me who are battling…
The other night in the throes of two projects, I received a text from a friend’s fiancé asking me what I was doing. WORKING, I text back. He asked if I wanted to do something fun with my friend but I couldn’t tell her what it was, which was a burlesque dance class. Oh, alright I said. Not too thrilled about leaving my desk. My friend and I went to the class in the rain,…
I have on my blackboard in my kitchen C.S. Lewis’ quote that says: “Hardship prepares ordinary people for extraordinary lives.” That quote has sustained me through some troubled times and has actually come to make me view suffering, my own and others, as not as bad or not to be feared as I had previously thought. It is definitely worth noting that those of us who live in New Orleans have come to know transformation…
I spoke with a furloughed government employee yesterday who said that last time this happened – with Gingrich and Clinton – that salaries were actually restored to furloughed employees. Really? I said, somewhat vexed that now with the debt crisis we would be paying for an extended vacation of government employees. It’s not that I don’t sympathize with them not getting a paycheck but since I work for myself, and I never got to even…
I moved down the street from First Grace, a church that brought together a white and black congregation after the 2005 Federal Flood and has the best marquee in town. I’ve been isolated in my head too much lately and I desire community. When I started working at Off the Record in 1999, I met people I admired and enjoyed and they made work seem like a nonstop party. Then some of those people left,…
My maiden name is Namer, which means Tiger in English. It’s a Sephardic name. So when people tell me I’m strong, I have to remember where my roots are – I’m a tiger by birth. I’m coming down off a weekend in the life of the mother of a four and a half year old – we started with a playdate in Destrehan – stopped first at the grocery to pick up balloons but Tin…
I’ve been walking around the bayou these days with Heidi – a dog is always a great motivator for taking long walks. The bayou has been beautiful as of late, the weather one to two degrees north of Africa hot and the sky blue and filled with puffy clouds as if it were summer. We head from our new house down the neutral ground and hit the mouth of the bayou where there seems to…
I was speaking to a friend today at the grocery store, he said to me during his darkest moments of bipolar-induced schizophrenia and about to lose his over two-decade career, he called out to God and said, “I’m Joe, God, not Job. Joe. Not Job.” I had just told him that God must be bored with me again, dangling lightning between my eyes, just seeing if I would snap. So I say, “I’m Rachel, God,…
Someone sent me a link to the Flow Market that provides immaterial things to a needy public. This morning I woke from yet another restless night of sleep – my thoughts are running rampant, what if, what would, what should? All night long. I went to sleep reading Inward Revolution: Bringing About Radical Change in the World by Jiddu Krishnamurti. The book is yet another and ever present reminder in my life to stay in…