Disneyland, Disney World add dolls in wheelchairs to “It’s a Small World” attraction.

They had no more raisin bran muffins left at our local deli so we went to corn, Plan B. The restaurant only had a 6:00 or 9:30 time slot available to dine. So another choice of restaurant-we went to Plan B. The bus was really overcrowded so we waited for the next one- Yup-Plan B decision. One and done meager alternative are you kidding me choices .
Up early, in a time to make the donuts moment, we watched the news as Christina Applegate, (Married with Children! Etc.) received her Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She was barefoot and being held by her co-star Katey Segal. She was grateful and weepy as she explained her latest diagnosis of MS.
In 2008 she had a prophylactic double mastectomy after finding an early stage tumor and receiving a BRCA1 Genetic Mutation diagnosis.
We binged watched her performance in the Dead to Me, tv series. What is touted as her best and funniest work, Anchorman, with Will Ferrell, there were laugh out loud moments.
She is a versatile actress. Funny, clever, engaging and relatable.
Her BRCA1 diagnosis makes her most relatable as our family is riddled with this deleterious mutation.
Familiar indeed to surgeries and the aftermath.
In the everyone got something category we work with what we got and do all we can. Praying all the way to the new bra dept.
Fast Forward- as we drank our early morning coffee and read the newspaper we came upon the story about Dolls in Wheelchairs at Disney.
This newly added diversity representing a population of children, who in the everyone got something category live with the physical limitation of getting up and walking to the next exhibit.
In 2019 Ali Stoker (first caught our attention on Glee) was the first person on Broadway to perform from her wheelchair. She was paralyzed since youth from a spinal cord injury as a result of a car accident. She never begrudged her fate, studied performance art and went the distance, sitting down. If anything her disability served as a motivator and helped propel her all the way to her Tony winning performance in Oklahoma.
Ali Stoker has since become part of the #AerieREAL Role Model Campaign. It is a body positive and inclusivity initiative led by the underwear retailer Aerie. The campaign highlights a diverse group of women from varied industries and backgrounds and uses their unretouched photos in ads.
So just for today let’s embrace our individuality, mix in our limitations and remember when it comes down to it- “It’s a small world after all.”

Make Your Season 2 Great.

We got “Swept Away” by Lina Wertmuller, the Italian Filmmaker with an unmistakable style who left her mark on Italian and worldwide cinema.

Sylvia Weinstock the “da Vinci of Wedding Cakes,” added tiers (tears) to her wedding cake wonders. She produced floral-drapped architectural works in the shape of rose-studded topiaries, baskets of speckled lilies and bouquets of anemones. She didn’t start baking until she was in her 50’s. Yes, my point. They both lived well into their 90’s. They knew to stay away from people who started fires and then played the burn victims.

Long livers all with passions strong. They focused on their interests and fine tuned their talents. Sylvia was lucky in love. She grew up in Brooklyn and went to the beach on the Rockaways with her friends on summer weekends. One summer day she walked over to a group of boys and asked who wanted to go swimming with her? One of the guys walked her to the ocean and as it turned out down the aisle.

Top of mind focus as we have stepped into our 70’s is trying to live our best physical selves and making our relationships stronger as they get longer. Studies show “forgiveness” is one of the optimum characteristics that exists in lengthy relationships.

Dr. Shigeaki Hinohara the Japenese physician and longevity expert who lived until the age of 105 suggested these tips and suggestions worth paying attention to. As follows.

The obvious well played song book we grew up with included staying active, keeping busy, 3 squares a day, take the stairs and exercise your way to 40 carrots for Bloomys favorite yogurt of choice.
Our take away from his study was to have fun and learn to minimize pain.

And I quote “Pain is mysterious, and having fun is the best way to forget it.” If a child has a toothache, and you start playing a game together, they immediately forget the pain.

Betty White believed honing her passions kept her going strong. The love she had for animals was palpable. Her charities speak for themselves. She kept humor at the forefront. Her motto “Forgiveness” works in your favor. She epitomized Fun.

Norman Lear and Carl Reiner went to funny, especially when things weren’t. Belly laughs over inside jokes -a huge panacea for what ails us.

Hit it Irene Cara- “I’m gonna live forever, I’m gonna learn how to fly. I’m gonna make it to heaven, light up the sky like a flame. I’m gonna live forever, baby remember my name.”

Keep on loving your rescue dog, a.k.a. your baby. Make a shadow box collage for your grandchild’s big birthday. Knit your friends new grand baby a beautiful blanket – shout out to Debby with a Y. Showing love through what you can do with your hands is a gift that keeps on giving. Next week if you celebrate Tashlich watch some of your long standing resentments sail away.

“Sail on silver girl.
Sail on by.
Your time has come to shine.
All your dreams are on their way.
See how they shine.
Oh, if you need a friend.
I’m sailing right behind.
Like a bridge over troubled water.
I will ease your mind.

Thanks Paul Simon for those lyrics straight from your heart. We will be humming them all day.

“… Down in front of Casey’s
Old brown wooden stoop,
On a summer’s evening we formed a merry group.
Boys and girls together we
Would sing and waltz.
While Tony played the organ on
The sidewalks of New York.”



As an apprentice under Oscar Hammerstein,

Consummate wordsmith brought words to the point of a rhyme.

His work spanned theatrical lifetimes, his sense of rhythm, was simply sublime. 

His content dictated the form as a sentence,

Turned a paragraph into a story through rhyme.

Sinatra sent in the clowns, and Bernadette Peters took a walk through the park with George.

Ambition only superceded by talent.

Like when “good things get bettter/bad things get worse/Wait—I think I meant that in reverse.”

He took us “Into the Woods” and in good “Company” were we.

Every theater lyric a short story, every line the weight of a paragraph you see.

“A funny thing happened on the way to the Forum with a “Little Night Music,”

And a “Gypsy” or three.

With “Passion” he composed the story,

From the “West Side” of the street was the call. 

Dear Mr. Sondheim, in our memory, you will always, yes always Stand Tall.

You threw a lot of spaghetti and All of it stuck to the wall. 

Have a Good Day! In Sondheim-esque fashion-face the music, whistle a tune and sprinkle some passion as your day goes along. 🎼

The room was comfortably full, not packed. The A/C offered a Brrr so any remnant of heat left over from Indian Summer was left outside our “four walls.”

Rabbi Lookstein walked up to the podium with his particular cadence we’ve come to know through the years. I was appropriately clad in the “right” length skirt. And so the stage was set, the evening began.

We were at KJ Synagogue to hear Dr. Rabbi Ari Berman, President of Yeshiva University speak. The write up about the evening caught our eye. He spoke on Sin, Self Perception and the Art of Living. 

The timing for us to hear this was propitious. Yes, G-d offers no coincidences. We walked away from the evening a little more fine tuned on some immediate issues that have been dealt to our extended family.

He touched on the distinction between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. He detailed the difference in prayer between looking at and embracing your sins, your misgivings and your wrongdoings. 

He was light on the emphasis of sins necessarily being terrible shandas worthy of punishments and more on ways we have wronged others. 

Then he moved on to the meaning of wearing white on Yom Kippur, praying for the forgiveness of behaviors that we feel we can better.

Straightforward, his words flowed with a pleasant melody and his sincerity offered comfort. We, as Jewish people are factually in the minority.

Our importance and roles in society however, quite the contrary. What was in the minority last night as well, were cells phones beeping, ringing or being accessed. We were there to listen, perhaps learn.We respected his spirituality and wisdom about keeping the peace pipe moving. L’dor V’dor.

We left the Rabbi’s sermon feeling comfortable, embraced and that our well being was cared about by a virtual stranger, an ordained man.

In the love your neighbor category and a look after your own way, we question why it is often easier to be more kind to strangers than intimates.

In a divine order play out, we are placed in positions in families and situations that because we are “just humans” will inevitably offer conflict and need for repair. So perhaps just for today, several weeks short of wearing a white outfit and sneakers why not look to our left, glance to our right and say we are sorry to someone we may have wronged. Maybe if we begin to own a piece of our behavior we can move on in a healthy way to the sounds of cell phones ringing and beeps of texts coming in. Amen!

One hundred memories of life in a box.
One hundred memories of life.
None were left on the cutting floor.
None were lived through a splice.
We are sorting through decades of life on the run, baby pics and sporting events.
We are heavily endowed with the emphasis on Fun and go on while we still -can run.
Papers of sadness, rekindled our grief, a moment to sit and reflect.
A box filled with toys unfolded the joy-blessed with 2 girls and six boys.
Our heap of relief.
Legos and baby dolls, more shoes than we need.
So we sort and we pack and we throw and we keep.
On from Plan A to Plan B and C.
Wait don’t toss that just yet.
We may need it some day to learn how to knit, or to sew or crochet.
Tomorrow may offer a second chance ok let’s keep it out of the way.
One hundred more memories of life in a box.
Can you believe we did oh! so much.
We are moving on to a chapter unknown.
New ventures and hobbies and such.
So we add some more “stuff,” to the bag of give aways.
We pray we won’t miss that old sweater.
We have a little room in the box that says “save.”
As we move on to new ventures in warm weather.
On our way we will go, yes we are ready and set.
We will count on the hope of new beginnings.
With our lives wrapped up tight.
0n our wings with our prayers.
As we sail into sunsets unknown.
Here’s to one hundred more boxes.
Of memories to make as we add a new Place to call Home.



On the days before the Jewish New Year your presence in our lives feels even more pronounced. We sit still for a moment and reasonably try to evaluate where we could try harder, embrace change and clean up shop.
We hold on to the lessons that have propelled us into a place with more acceptance and the understanding that our journey is just that. The people in our path who are deceptive are there to help us understand wrong from right. The benevolent, kind and selfless offer us lessons for good values. One of your long term themes is for patience. We go along at our own pace and hope that our recognition of who needs a leg up grows more keen with time. Our gut is really our mind speaking through our heart. You know when you know. Don’t underestimate a vibe, a sideways look on someones face. Some of the people, some of the time.

When we are pushed to the limit in our values you leave us with the decision to hold tight or compromise and restructure. When we slip up and waiver we look over our shoulder for the feathers, or dimes you drop along our path.
We feel less alone.
There are days we wonder when it’s our turn again for you to come back our way. It’s often during our toughest lessons.
And so we wake up early, make the coffee as we begin the “Days of Judgment.” We will wait for the feathers, leave our “judgments” in the recycle bins and know, as long as we work together our backs will be covered. Gmar Chatima Tova.