Weekly Inspirations

New Meditation is HERE. There’s no denying it’s a complicated relationship. It’s both playful and tense. I can’t tell if fear or joy is the dominant emotion. Or whether it’s about self-defense or simply having a carefree adventure.  I’m talking, of course, about Vlad’s confusing relatio...

It’s perhaps the most classic metaphor given to illustrate the danger of insidious situations: Put a frog in a pot of boiling water and it will immediately leap out. But if youstart the water at a comfortable level and begin to gradually heat it, the frog will find the situation tolerable, even a ple...

I hate to be gender-normative (or even breed-ist) and yet… At the end of the day, my chocolate lab Belle was always the perfect lady. She was the straight-A student (and class president) who was kind to all her friends and still found time to read to the blind. Vlad is…well… A lovable bad boy m...

New Meditation of the Month is HERE I admit that I was working from a very short list of suspects. Even so, since I didn’t know exactly when the thieving began, I was truly at a loss…and in more ways than one. It might have been relatively recent. Or it could have dated back to June 2011 when t...

Unwittingly, I find myself part of an ever-shifting love triangle. Allow me to explain. When Vlad and I arrive on the baseball field each morning, two dogs find us immediately. It’s entirely because I’m the guy with four spiked squeaky balls in my backpack, ie. I’m “The Dog Dad with th...

It was a quiet turning point in my life. And oddly it happened in the lobby of the NYU Dentistry building with an unknown receptionist. My dentist––and now my pharmacy––when I show up for an appointment always begin with this startling question: “What’s your birthdate?” I guess it makes you sli...

Lawrence Kasdan, co-writer of Raiders of the Lost Arc and a bunch of the Star Wars movies summarized my fate best: “Being a writer is like having homeworkevery night for the rest of your life.” This began as a rare week where I thought I knew early on what I was going to write this newsletter about, ...

About a decade ago I had my annual eye exam. Midway through it, I commented to the doctor that the background music playing in the office was surprisingly interesting and asked if she knew what it was. She looked at me quizzically, then replied: “You realize the music’s coming from you, right?” ...

Life is full of important rites of passage. Weddings and funerals. Baptisms and Confirmations; Bar Mitzvahs and Bat Mitzvahs. Military service and college degrees. This week, young Vlad experienced a major one, onethat not everyone else enjoys. Namely, seeing his name for the first time in p...