Opinions

Our cat, Felix, has a new home. We adopted Felix in Mexico while we were staying there. The woman who fostered him, Marcela, thought he was a kitten because he was so small -- except for his tail, which appears to be intended for a much larger cat. But when I took him to the vet, they said he was two years old. I worried he was going through a lot of changes rather quickly for a two-year-old. He lived on the streets until he was picked up by Marcela, then he came to live with us in Mexico. Now Felix and Peter and I are returning to the U.S. together.

The hymn “Amazing Grace” is one of the most well-known songs ever written. Do you know the backstory of this song? The hymn was penned by John Newton 250 years ago when he was a parish priest in Olney, England. He might be one of the most unlikely people to ever become a priest in history. You see, Newton had followed in his father’s footsteps as a sailor, and eventually became the captain of a slave ship, transporting captured Africans to the New World to be sold into bondage. He was living a life of sin and openly rebelling against God by taking part in the heinous slave trade.

I didn’t mean to take a field trip last week, but I ended up in a local photo lab where the technician aided and abetted me. “Did you take this picture?” she asked, making sure we weren’t breaking any copyright laws. Not only did I tell her “Yes,” I told her how lovely the vacation was, where we traveled, and how much fun we had. It was Too Much Information…unless you enjoy field trips, meeting new people and hearing stories.

The fact is, I am spoiled.

It is a frightening time to be from Israel. It is even scarier to be in Israel. The nation, the only one in the Middle East whose government is a democracy, like the United States of America, are surrounded by Muslim countries. And they do not like Jewish people, nor do they want them in their neighborhood.

I miss light bulbs… When I recently paid $8.79 for a four-pack of light bulbs, I decided the world was coming to an end. At one time, that purchase might have been a dollar.

It’s time to be honest with you.

My husband, Peter, and I spend the winters in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. The center of the town is a designated World Heritage Site, which means the facades of the buildings must remain as they were in the mid-1700s. The streets are made of round and sometimes slippery cobblestones. The doors are stout and covered with hundreds of coats of paint, and on the top of every building is a rooftop terrace where people can watch the fireworks that go off for no reason that anyone has ever been able to figure out. It is wonderful.

In a hospital emergency room or a retailer’s dressing room, you are at least separated from the rest of humanity by a curtain. A thin, gauzy curtain, but a curtain nonetheless.