My N-99 masks came–two of them with filters on the mask. They are black and make me look like Bane from the Batman series. To be honest, I’d feel guilty for having ordered them, knowing in hindsight they could’ve gone to someone in a hospital, except I ordered them back in February, before anyone was […]
Tag: New Jersey
Jury Duty
The halls of the courthouse are painted this drab green that makes you wonder what kind of person makes those kinds of decisions for a public building and doesn’t exactly inspire confidence in government. With few exceptions, there are no wall decorations, no picture frames, save maybe a scant poster about employee rights. If you […]
Reflections on a Holiday
When I was a kid, our family vacations were almost always to the Florida panhandle. That seemed to be pretty common among West Tennessee families, since it was just a one-day drive to the beach. One summer, though, we went north – the only vacation we ever took that wasn’t to Florida. It was the […]
Exploring Perception, or a Trip to Governors Island
Driving toward the Lincoln Tunnel on Route 3 East, there’s a few larger, sloping hills where you get this stunning view of Midtown and the whole City looks gargantuan. In the early evening with the sun dancing off the glass, you can even catch the colors of the Empire State with ease. It’s decidedly one […]
Facing a little anxiety, or the time I accidentally took Daisy Mae’s pills
From the door of my apartment, the train station is almost exactly a seven minute walk. That’s five-and-a-half blocks and crossing the street once. The walk passes a gas station, a bagel shop (with terrible service but the best bagels you’ve ever had), multiple laundry mats and auto part stores, several residences, and at least […]
Family, against all odds
I had a friend in college who once said to me that, though he considered himself an atheist, he wanted so badly to believe there was something, anything out there watching over us with tender love and care. He just couldn’t. I was always struck by this because I felt the exact opposite: whereas he […]
Lead Us Not Into Penn Station
I’m not sure why, but lately, I’m hypersensitive to all the sounds that surround me. Maybe it’s because I’m used to a more rural environment that the sounds of the City are just that jarring to me. Maybe it’s because I’m living just next to the Garden State Parkway, which leaves in its wake a […]
On the Road to Racial [and other types of] Reconciliation
On my ride aboard the Long Island Rail Road returning from a trip to New Jersey this weekend, I thought a lot about a course I took at Vanderbilt Divinity where we were discussing racial reconciliation, and on the table was a really tough question about whether black congregations and white congregations should be worshiping […]
