Special Preview Edition!

Because my blogging time is so limited and my leisure time is so plentiful this blog is going to resemble a column in the New York Times Review of Books for the next few months. So I thought a little sneak peek on what's on tap.

I've been chipping away on a book on group psychology for the better part of a month now. Thick, academic text from a professor who is obviously trying very hard to hide his bias as a liberal college professor. But who has some really interesting ideas. People have an individual identity and several group identities. For example, I am, of course, myself. And I am a Jew, in the Woody Allen sense, at least. And I am a Utahn. And I am an American, and I am a liberal Democrat, and I am a libertarian, and I am all sorts of other things, many of them unpublishable.

This professor spends a lot of time talking about how these different group identities function—but right now I just want to talk about this: people's group identities become more important to them when they are under stress, or trauma. For example, American's became very focused on their group-identities after 9-11. And I have been thinking a great deal about my Jewish identity the last week, because my grandmother has been in extremely poor health.

She's in the hospital in Detroit now, and not really expected to last much longer. I keep thinking about some of the stories I've heard from or about her. She saw Diego Rivera painting murals in Detroit. She took one look at Richard Nixon in 1956 and announced, “that man is a crook.”

I wish I had known her better. I think I project some of the things I love about my liberal secular Jewish heritage onto her. She was from the first generation raised in this country, the generation that adapted the culture of European Jews to America, creating the American Jewish culture that even today secretly runs Hollywood with only the Gay Mafia as a check on their power. Her children went on to raise families of their own, to read the paper and vote, and travel the world.

She knew that all politicians are crooks, and that so are all businessmen, any priest who is more preacher than scholar, and anyone else who seeks power. She also knew that humanity is not hopeless, and that our hope lies in the scientists, the scholars and—most of all—the artists.

Or at least I like to think so.

J'myle I like your reflection on your grandma Mary Koretz and I too am saddened that you didn't get to know her very well. I have been thinking about her this past week since I heard about her deteriorating health. It's unfortunate that no one thought about getting her oral history. The things she has lived through had to have been incredible. She stayed with me once when she was in Utah and the discussions we had were lively and fascinating.
I know your grandma Mary loved you and Megan. Pat

Posted by  Anonymous @ 10:50 AM

 

J'myle I am sorry for your loss, I'm glad that you have those memories of your grandmother and her feelings about the things important in her life. I hope that the time spent with your family was a warm time of remebrance and sharing that left a sense of encouragement about the future everyone could take away with them on their seperate journeys. Ann

Posted by  Anonymous @ 3:44 PM

 

Jmyle, I'm sorry tol earn of the loss of your grandmother. They say we are more like our grandparents than our parents -genetic characteristics skipping generations or some such thing- looks like a good bit of her is carrying on in you.

I very much enyoy rading your blog. The counselor learns some things from her student. Keep it up grasshopper. My best regards, Ms. Rayhill

Posted by  Anonymous @ 11:51 AM

 

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