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Posts Tagged ‘memory’

The Power of Story

Posted in Holidays, Other, tagged , , , , , on January 27, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Today is Holocaust Memorial Day. I do try to emphasize the brighter side of life in this blog and this is not that, but it’s important. Fewer children are taught this history and too many adults act like it never happened (and could never happen again).

As survivors pass on those of us who remain must remember what and how and why. Not only for those who died, but for ourselves and our futures. This is the power of stories.

It is right that those who committed atrocities be held responsible, but remembrance days like this aren’t primarily about blame for past guilt. They are about the political tides that make these events possible. They are about the ordinary people swept up in such times.

Most of all, they are about avoiding future repetition.

International Holocaust Remembrance Day – United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

The United Nations General Assembly designated January 27—the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau—as International Holocaust Remembrance Day, a time to remember the six million Jewish victims of the Holocaust and the millions of other victims of Nazi persecution.

‘New way of bearing witness’: one of biggest Holocaust archives goes online

Announced on Holocaust Memorial Day, the Wiener Holocaust Library’s new online platform includes more than 150,000 items collected over nine decades. Users can view letters, pamphlets and photographs that record the rise of fascism in Britain and Europe.

My grandpa chose not to speak about his Holocaust experiences – but he asked me to tell the world

I’ve been asked why I believe Holocaust education is so important, and I find it hard to verbalise. It seems so obvious to me, as the grandchild of survivors, that these stories must continue to be told – it sounds cliche to quote “those who forget history are doomed to repeat it”, but with every passing year, it’s clear we are continuing to forget the horrors humanity is capable of. Gyuri’s final message was clear: tell the world, so they can learn from it.

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Photo by Jan Huber on Unsplash

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I Remember

Posted in Entertainment, Writing, tagged , , , , , on February 6, 2024| 1 Comment »

I tried to resist posting the Tracy Chapman / Luke Combs duet of Chapman’s “Fast Car” because it is everywhere. Why did I break down and change my mind? Because music, like writing and other forms of art, is a transformative time machine.

Tracy Chapman Duets “Fast Car” with Luke Combs

Listening to the performance, I remember who I was when I first heard the original song. I remember the road I’ve travelled to get to where I am. And I remember running down the steps at the Harvard Square T station and realizing that Chapman had been there before me, playing to distracted commuters as she built her own road to the future.

It’s also just a really good song. 

And I love that a new generation is getting to hear it in a way that emphasizes the shared humanity, challenges and goals of its singers, and listeners.

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Photo by Brent Ninaber on Unsplash

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Memory Is a Funny Thing

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , on May 18, 2022| Leave a Comment »

Funny how things stick with you. Like most people, I think, I tend to make mental notes about tasks to complete, ideas to develop, or things to add to the shopping list. Apparently that process knows no temporal bounds. 

While prepping a list for Costco today I scrolled past a Lite-Brite and immediately thought, “I want one of those.” I don’t actually need one, or you know, not really. But I do remember wanting one as a child. My neighbor had one and I loved all the brightly-colored bulbs and the sheer imaginative flexibility. Like an Etch-a-Sketch, creatively speaking, only with dots instead of lines.

Apparently some part of me never forgot.

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Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

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Happy 109th

Posted in Likes, tagged , , , , , , on April 5, 2022| Leave a Comment »

Today would have been The Whippersnapper‘s 109th birthday. I was hoping to post another photo of her but my father, keeper of the family album, is out of town.

For now just let me say to my grandmother, dancer, baker, tea maker and all-around excellent human being:

I miss you, but I love that you were here.

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Photo by Logan Ellzey on Unsplash

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Love and Memory

Posted in Food and..., tagged , , , , , , , , on November 19, 2021| Leave a Comment »

Here is a thing that I love, and the one item I requested from my grandmother’s estate: an artichoke plate. 

Artichokes are thorny, tough and difficult to pair with wine. They were at the heart (hehe) of a racketeering scheme in New York in the 1920s and ’30s, which led to a temporary ban and a dramatic upswing in knowledge about, and orders for, the vegetable. They also taste great.

The back of the plate is marked “E & R 0136” but that’s the only information I have. Where was it made, when, and did it come from Ebeling & Reuss or another manufacturer? I don’t know, but I love it anyway.

Disassembling an artichoke flower bud is a messy job, and this plate is the perfect canvas on which to do it. I prefer to serve mine with lemon butter sauce, but there’s also mayonnaise. If you must.

I doubt the dish is valuable from anything other than an emotional standpoint but that’s fine, I won’t be selling it. I have a lot of great memories about artichokes and about my grandmother, and this plate helps me remember both.

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Photo by Christine Siracusa on Unsplash

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Lest We Forget

Posted in Holidays, tagged , , , , , , on November 11, 2021| Leave a Comment »

To the veterans in my family, and yours. Thank you.

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Because they stand on a wall, and say “Nothing is going to hurt you tonight, not on my watch.”

— Lieutenant Commander JoAnne Galloway, A Few Good Men
Photo by David Bartus on Pexels.com

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