Today’s kaddish is again for college friend Laura J Nelson, ’85, whose funeral will be this weekend. All I know, still, is that her obituary reported that she had died peacefully in her sleep.
Category: kaddish in two-part harmony
The Academic and the Musician. The academic immerses in Kaddish with thoughts of thinking rather than feeling—the emotions being too raw. The musician spends her time in making us feel, whether we want to or not. And making the music of kaddish. Making music kadosh. A flurry of emails ensue between the two. Their blogs lock horns, as do the writers themselves. They start a joint blog. They start a podcast.
A commitment to a year-long project has begun: a kaddish in two-part harmony.
A conversation among an anthropologist, a musician, and their audience on themes of death and dying, grief, ritual, the interplay between musician and listener.
daily kaddish: for everyone and no one
The backstage, dressing room kaddish tonight was for everyone and no one. Chaz’s father, whose death inspired her choreography. Maria’s daughter Isabel. Our college friend Laura. The many dear ones who inspired Mira’s and my beginning this project not quite a year ago today.
daily kaddish: for Laura Nelson
Laura was radiant. Everyone who knew her even slightly would agree. May she rest in peace; may her smile light up the eyes of the angels as it did so many of ours.
daily kaddish: making lefse the way my grumpy gramma did
I didn’t know Gramma all that well, because she died when I was only six, of Lou Gehrig’s disease.
daily kaddish: for the family we never knew
This is a kaddish for all the family we never really knew in the first place.
daily kaddish: for Arne Sigurd Holto Haugen
Ruth told me about the grief that entered her life this spring when first her partner Jon’s best friend since childhood—and later an important friend of Ruth’s—had been killed in a car accident in Norway, where he lived. While Ruth and Jon were still reeling from that, the horrible shootings took place outside Oslo.
daily kaddish: rituals backstage—a kaddish for cynicism
Live performance together is a privilege for us performers. Don’t let anyone’s exhausted cynicism about the indeed-challenging business of the performing arts tell you otherwise.
daily kaddish: for Bradley’s mom
My friend Bradley lost her mom this spring, and today she shared a touching picture of her mom on Facebook. I was thinking about her tonight while recording the daily kaddish.
daily kaddish: for Isabel
I can’t get my Isabel out of my mind. She died so young. Maria, your family is in my thoughts.
like an addiction, it’s hard to stop—
I can’t quite take the pictures down. Can’t quite stop staring at them. Can’t call it an altar exactly, but I know others do. Others have. And others will. How do we stop mourning and put the pictures away? And the candles. And the little mementos and ritual objects that surround those photos that remind…