Lisa Niver's Blog: We Said Go Travel, page 87
October 8, 2020
Which Path Will You Pick? Jodi Picoult’s The Book of Two Ways
Thank you to Thrive Global for publishing my article about Jodi Picoult’s newest book, The Book of Two Ways!
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Jodi Picoult’s “The Book of Two Ways,” begins with one of the greatest fears shared by travelers: “Will my plane fall out of the sky?” During the COVID-19 pandemic, it feels like we are mid-flight facing an emergency landing. The COVID-19 crisis is an opportunity for all of us to examine our lives just as Dawn McDowell Edelstein, the main character does in Picoult’s book. While Dawn wonders if these are her last moments before dying, she is aware that her first thoughts are not of her husband, her daughter, or her dead mother but of Wyatt Armstrong, a man who hasn’t been part of her life for 15 years. Wyatt represents the life that she left behind in Egypt along with her dissertation about the first known map of the afterlife.
She wonders what if?
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During COVID-19, many are wondering about the businesses that no longer exist, the jobs that have been eliminated, the friends and family members who have perished, and the dreadful illness that might force us into isolation or worse.
If you were one of 36 people to walk away from a plane crash, what would you do next? While many families are reeling from losses from the current pandemic, some are wondering will we move forward in the same direction we’ve been traveling or will it be time to pivot and rekindle a long-forgotten desire or create a new path.
Dawn has questions: “Why am I alive when others aren’t? Why did I book this particular flight? What if I’d been detained checking in and had missed it? What if I’d made any of a thousand other choices that would have led me away from this crash?”
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In her career as a death doula, Dawn often asks her clients, “What’s left unfinished? What is it that you haven’t done yet?” When the airline offers Dawn a flight home to Boston or anywhere she needs to go in the world, she chooses to return to Egypt. After 15 years she returns to the dig house and in some ways, it’s like she’s only been gone for a moment as if one could simply rewind and start again. Dawn tells Wyatt: “I want to work here. I want to finish what I started.” If you could turn back the clock, what would you try again?
This story unravels in alternating chapters of Land/Egypt and Water/Boston with her two lives, two men and her life story unfolding for us. One of my favorite things about reading this book during a time when we are not allowed to travel was feeling like I was visiting the tombs of Osiris and the other gods of ancient Egypt. When Jody Picoult vividly describes the sand in Dawn’s hair and her sandwich along with the details of the murals and the daily life on an archaeological site, I felt like I was there too.
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As a general contractor of death, Dawn helps her clients navigate the end of their lives. As a graduate student, she was working to understand the Egyptian belief of something quite similar about preparing for the end of life and the journey to a great afterlife.
After a call that changed her life, Dawn was uncertain about how to complete her Ph.D. Like Dawn, many of us are unsure about a path forward right now and this book is the perfect antidote for our current challenges.
When Dawn first meets Brian at the hospice where her mother and his grandmother are both dying, she contemplates how she is an Egyptologist who’s been ripped out of Egypt. Many times reading this book, I was struck that while Dawn is experiencing parallel lives; the COVID-19 Pandemic has forced many to consider new pathways as ones we assumed would continue were abruptly removed from opportunity.
In both of Dawn’s timelines, there are crossroads, challenges, and unforeseen twists. As I read, I reflected on my own life after various crossroads: I overcame the trauma of losing my job abruptly after 9/11 after my employer filed for bankruptcy; I survived the devastation of the end of my marriage and the loss of promises unfulfilled, and I still had my life. During the COVID-19 Pandemic, I wonder which people and businesses will survive this deadly virus.
Following Dawn’s journey was exactly the escape I needed; it helped me think about my own choices as hers unfurled. At one point Wyatt says to Dawn, “What’s going on? People do not get to rewind their lives, to rewrite the outcome. We make our beds and we lie in them.” But maybe we have more power than we think!
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I loved it when she described how “Ancient Egyptians believed that the first and most necessary ingredient in the universe was chaos. It could sweep you away, but it was also the place from which all things start anew.” Perhaps this current state of our world will lead us to something brand new. Many new businesses are born when entrepreneurs pivot and solve a problem. How will you pivot?
Picoult’s depth of knowledge including Dawn’s random cocktail party fact that: “When the mummy of Ramesses II was sent to France in the 1970s, he got his own passport, and the occupation was listed as King/Deceased” drew me in and made me imagine it as a major motion picture. I cannot wait to see this book on the big screen with the vast expanse of sand, the heat of the day at the dig, dancing in the moonlight, and the choices we make and live with.
The way the storylines reach across into each other is evidence this author’s story architecture is as intentional and complicated as the ancient Egyptian tombs she describes. Each part is carefully crafted and reflects across its sliding door. When we discover that Brian knew about Wyatt’s letters and when Dawn leaves for Amsterdam on Win’s errand with her canvas, the reader is let in on how quantum mechanics begins to fold upon itself and I realized I was reading more slowly so that this magnificent story would not end. Just as the dawn rises each day, I decided I would simply finish the book and begin it again so it would not end for me.
Dawn is asked by her client, Win: “Did you ever wonder who you would have been if you hadn’t become who you are?” This quote sums up the book and the different pathways the soul could take after death in Egypt and during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Observing the colorful tapestry of Dawn’s life-if you pull one thread and follow it through all of these intricate characters, you find a pattern, a map, or a life. Dawn explained that: “Maps don’t have to be literal. They might be drawn to depict the real world, to dream of fictional space, or to inspire a symbolic one.” A central question of this book is what does it mean to live a good life? What map will you choose? Do you have a North Star or compass to guide you? It might be love, a person, or a passion. “What if that one decision set off a whole chain of other forks in the path?” If you could pick self-discovery and reinvention, what new direction would you take?
Get your copy of Jodi Picoult’s The Book of Two Ways starting Sept 22, 2020
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More about books by Jodi Picoult in my other articles:
A Spark of Light, in my Ms. Magazine article, “Feminist Fiction Books to Curl Up with for the Holidays.”Off The Page in Finding Life Between the LinesBetween the Lin es in my Ms. Magazine article, “8 Books That Transport You“
Thank you!! https://t.co/ZIt0AiNnKn
— Jodi Picoult (@jodipicoult) September 22, 2020
Thank you to Thrive Global for publishing my article about Jodi Picoult’s newest book, The Book of Two Ways!
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The post Which Path Will You Pick? Jodi Picoult’s The Book of Two Ways appeared first on We Said Go Travel.
October 5, 2020
Los Angeles Teens Changing the World: Tikkun Olam
Last year, I was honored to participate as a mentor in The Julie Beren Platt Teen Innovation Grants which are part of the Jewish Federation of Los Angeles’ LA Jewish Teen Initiative (LAJTI). During LAJTI’s 5th year, 42 teens participated in 16 projects. I was even able to TEAM TEEN MENTOR with Jonah Platt and Michelle Cait.
Each teen or group of teens worked with their mentor to develop their project, however, this year they had added challenges of having to adapt during COVID-19. Several of the teens chose to share their progress below:
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2019-2020 Julie Beren Platt Teen Innovation Grants
Name: Eliana Kerendian
Grade: Current 10th grader
School: Shalhevet High School
Project: Virtual reality with the Elderly
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As we are all quarantined in our homes, many of us first hand experienced the frustrating feeling of isolation and loneliness and the stress of being immobile and stagnated. This is what an elderly person can experience on a regular basis while at a nursing home. After my grandma got to see her hometown in Iran through the virtual reality goggles I thought how great it would be for other elderly people to have the same experience. Virtual reality goggles can take people places meaningful to them, or exotic sights they always wish to visit. I have accomplished doing the technology in one on one situations and developed the process, hardware, and software to do so. I picked the Julie Beren Platt Teen Innovation Grant Program to help me pursue my project so that I can get the resources I need in order to complete my project and to be able to connect with other Jewish teens. My mentor Jerri Werksman guided me to achieve my goals and supported me through the process. Although I didn’t get where I wanted to with my project because of corona pandemics; I am proud to say that I brought smiles and joy to the elderly with the time I had. Even though plans with corona are unpredictable, I am hopeful that when it is safe to do so, I will make my project virtual reality with the elderly a club at my high school, Shalhevet. Through this process, we can bring happiness, create friendships, and connect generations
Name: Georgina Yawitz, Davina Yashar and Sama Mohaber Co-Presidents, Vice President, Talia Davood, Eva Khorsandi, Secretary, Leah Khorsandi Treasurer
Grade & School: Current 10th Graders at Palisades Charter High School
Project: LA Kids for Change
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LA Kids for Change is a group my best friends and I conceptualized one day at Sinai Temple to help Foster Care youth. A few weeks later, my parents forwarded an email to me about JBP TIG. The timing couldn’t have been more perfect. We had already come up with the idea, so we just had to figure out how to execute it. The grant I received from JBP TIG was invaluable to reaching our goals, as was the guidance we received from Alyssa, the mentor who was assigned to us. During our time in the JBP TIG program, our group, high school freshmen at the time, created a club at our school, Palisades Charter High School. We had many members and chose leadership positions based on personal skills. Davina Yashar, Sama Mohaber, and I, Georgiana Yawitz, are the Co-Presidents of LA Kids for Change. Talia Davood is the Vice President, Leah Khorsandi is the Treasurer, and Eva Khorsandi is the Secretary.
In December 2019, we held a holiday drive for Maryvale, a family service center in Rosemead, California. We collected thousands of dollars’ worth of gifts, many of which were donations from Tower Saint John’s Imaging Center in Santa Monica, and our mothers drove us to Maryvale to deliver them. We asked our classmates to write cards for the girls at Maryvale, which we also delivered. While there, we took a tour of the grounds and spoke with the directors about Maryvale and what else we could do to help the girls residing there.
During quarantine, we had to redirect our plans. We had already planned our next event but could not execute it due to concerns about Covid-19. We decided that this would be a good opportunity to expand our social media platforms to encourage safe behavior and raise awareness for our cause. Our club members helped choose our merchandise (black and white shirts, navy and black crewnecks), and many people purchased them through Venmo. We arranged for them to meet at one of our houses to pick up their merchandise, while socially distancing. We also produced informational videos and other posts on our Instagram account. In addition, we held a Corona Kindness Drive with Maryvale. We sent them quarantine necessities, including toiletries, games, stress balls, art supplies, and more.
Our mentor was extremely helpful to us. Before the quarantine, we had been meeting monthly and texted her with any questions. We had great ideas for our project, and she helped us plan them. We will continue our project at Pali High to expand our club. Due to Covid-19, this year we will be focusing on spreading awareness through social media, including our Instagram (@lakidsforchange) and website (lakidsforchange.org). We had an amazing experience with JBP TIG and recommend it to others. We learned so much and we hope to continue with the program.
Name: Gracie Evans
Grade & School: Current Senior at Santa Monica High School
Project: Intergenerational Events
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With the TIG, I was able to hold three intergenerational events at the Museum of Tolerance, where I am a teen volunteer. Teens and Holocaust survivors bonded over music, dance, and the arts in general. These events allowed teenagers and Holocaust survivors to build intimate and special connections over common interests and fun conversation.
Before COVID-19, I was planning on holding one more event at the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust. Now, I am currently planning to hold this event virtually through the Holocaust Museum LA Teen Board. I am very grateful that I was able to hold three wonderful events before COVID-19!
I picked JBP TIG to support my project because I knew it would give me the resources and assistance that was needed to host these special events.
My mentor, Elana Samuels, helped me organize my budget and gave me fresh ideas for future events. She was the one who suggested I do my fourth event at the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust! I hope to continue to hold fun and meaningful virtual events with teens and survivors. This year I will be a member of the Holocaust Museum LA teen board and I plan to organize more events through them. I definitely recommend the JBP TIG to others; I could not have held the successful events I did without their support!
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Name: Russell Jacobs Lead Teen, Emma Blankstein
Grade and School: Russell Jacobs graduated from Windward School in 2020 and now attends the University of Michigan
Project: Holocaust Museum LA Teen Advisory Board: Messages to the Future
As a member of the Holocaust Museum LA’s Teen Advisory Board and its Messages to the Future project for the past three years, I have worked with other high school students devoted to implementing more robust Holocaust education for our peers. Our mission was to interview survivors of the Shoah, document their experiences during the war, and share the lessons they want younger generations to learn from their stories. In my final year as a member of the Teen Board, I and my peers interviewed survivor Ernest Weiss from Czechoslovakia. With the help of Teen Board director Julia Davis and our film mentor, Michael Cannon, we edited three hours of footage from Mr. Weiss’ interview, to create a fifteen-minute short film titled “Free Again: The Story of Ernest Weiss,” currently on Holocaust Museum LA’s Vimeo page for the public to watch.
I and the rest of the Messages to the Future group were fortunate to interview and film Mr. Weiss almost immediately before COVID-19 drastically shifted the way we interact with one another. Once stay-at-home orders went into place in mid-March, the Teen Board shifted its monthly meetings to Zoom, where all twenty students updated one another on our projects’ development. Our smaller group would hold additional meetings on Zoom to work with a transcript of Mr. Weiss’ interview, discuss with Julia which moments we wanted to include in our short film, while Mike cut clips and edited the full-length interview into a final product.
By connecting teens across Greater L.A. through their shared interest in making change in their community, the Julie Beren Platt Teen Innovation Grant was an invaluable space for the Messages to the Future project not only because it provided the ability to actualize our project via acquiring the logistical means to produce our short film, but also because it created a space where we could converse with other teens in the grant program. This enabled us to gain useful input and unique perspectives from our peers, who were working on different projects, and challenged us to think critically about how we could improve our filmmaking.
The Messages to the Future project was vital because it reinforced the power of storytelling and the importance of commemorating the history of the Shoah. During my time working as part of the Teen Board, I had the privilege to witness three Holocaust survivors who each had remarkably different backgrounds and experiences. Although I have now graduated high school and will no longer be a member of the Teen Board, I am enthusiastic to see where future members take the project, as there remain survivors who wish to tell their own, unique stories for the historical record. With each short film the Teen Board created, we contributed to the growing archive of Holocaust survivor testimony, providing greater access to educational resources that have the power to ensure we collectively live up to the legacy of “never again.”
“Free Again: The Story of Ernest Weiss” can be viewed at the following Vimeo link.
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Name: Maya Rosenberg
Grade & School: 12th grade, Homeschooler at Inspire Charter School
Project: Bee Project
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I think that the Julie Beren Platt Teen Innovation Grants is a program that is beneficial to teens who are not satisfied with the world. This is one of those programs that realizes that you don’t need to be an “adult” to succeed in influencing pockets of humanity. Here’s my story:
I have always been environmentally inclined, and I decided that I wanted to become more involved in causing improvements on Earth. The JBP TIG helped me do so, and from it, I ended up creating an online resource filled with bee-related information, spanning from Jewish connections to bees and honey through Torah, traditions, holidays, and Jewish laws, to comprehensive information about Colony Collapse Disorder (a disorder that often mysteriously kills off entire beehives at a time), to fun quizzes, facts, articles, and resources to learn about these fuzzy, striped, miracle workers.
In the beginning, the idea was to create mini garden packages that, when grown, would give local bees a little boost through the California heat as well as teach the recipients about some major Jewish connections to our fuzzy buddies. This would be done via an informational pamphlet tucked into the grow container that would additionally contain all of the ingredients for properly growing the provided seeds. The intended audience consisted of people within the Jewish community and various Jewish organizations in Los Angeles. Then COVID-19 rolled around, which naturally forced significant change upon the entire world, not excluding my project. Through the looming threat of this virus and despite the hours already dedicated to planning and revising the initial idea, there was no choice but to change the course of the project almost entirely. Instead of a hands-on project, I created a website database that contains articles, pictures, graphics, and even a buzzing bee sound effect that all bring light to the essential existence of these insects. Arguably, this new edition of the project is more effective given that more people can reach this platform for longer than thought before.
Prior to the whole mess of a pandemic hit, I talked with my two mentors from Shemesh Farms to gain answers to my many questions that would pop up, specifically about the ideal contents of the packages that at the time I was still planning on executing. Through them, I was put in touch with the Valley Hive, and soon enough, I found myself accompanying the owner and his assistant on an adventure to several of their hives to check on their bees. We hopped out of the pickup truck in bright white bee suits, sprinted across a train track, and finally arrived at the destination: a deserted strip of land inhabited with dead grass, stacks of artificial hives, and hundreds of bright yellow, Italian honey bees. This was an experience of a lifetime, and those couple of hours gave me much insight that helped me later on with my project.
My plan is to continue updating the website, beesidethebees.com, to participate in educating as many people as possible about the bees, the surprisingly crucial critter to our human world.
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Name: Kayla Hayempour
Grade and School: Current Senior at Palisades Charter High School
Project: Girls Learn International/Pad Project
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The project idea I came up with for the Jewish Federation’s Teen Innovation Grant Program stemmed from my passion for menstrual equity, and my fight to end period poverty. Period poverty refers to inadequate access to menstrual resources. This most commonly means a lack of period products, but can also include things such as a lack of clean water, health and sanitation facilities, birth control, and other sexual and reproductive health and rights services. All these things should be basic human rights, as they are required in order to live with dignity.
When I learned that the Jewish Federation had a program for innovation grants, I knew I had to apply. I was so drawn to the LAJTI program because it perfectly meshed my love for activism with my Jewish roots, two things that are very important to me. The Federation and this teen program has been an incredible experience that I do not take for granted. The adults and mentors in this program have been so supportive, and with the funds, I’ve been able to elevate my project from just an idea, to something more real. I highly recommend this program to anyone who has an idea, no matter how big or small.
I was initially working to host a film screening of the Pad Project documentary “Period. End of Sentence.” to educate those around me on menstrual equity, and fundraise. However, COVID forced me to pivot and find new ways to achieve my goal. I spent the $1500 from the Federation on reusable pad kits, and I am currently in touch with LA City representatives on how I can distribute them to homeless and low income women in need.
I also started my own organization, Petticoats Rule, where I have launched a new project with a more global focus. Following in the footsteps of the Pad Project and their film, I am trying to raise $15,000 to send a pad making machine to a village in a third world country. This would generate economic opportunity for the women and girls living there, and keep them in school by providing clean menstrual products. The money raised will provide one manual pad machine, employ 5-6 workers, produce 100,000 pads per year, serve 500 to 800 women for 1 year, and cover raw materials, tool kits, training programs, and shipping costs and taxes.
Ultimately, pad making machines and period kits will not solve the issue of period poverty. Everyone around the world must do the right thing and choose to invest in women, in their success, and in their futures. Women and girls deserve the same opportunity as their male counterparts, and this can only come through education and decisive action in the field of menstrual equity. Women and girls should be valued equally, and treated equally, and ending period poverty brings us one step closer to achieving this goal.
Stay Empowered. Learn more on her gofundme site
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Name: Athalia Meron
Grade & School: Current 12th Grader at Harvard Westlake
Project: The Self Advocacy Project
I put together a website containing information for teens about how to combat hatred and insensitivity when they encounter it. My project was inspired by an experience I personally had last summer. At an academic program I was attending, a couple of people in my group were using antisemitic language and symbols. I really wanted to say something to them about it, but I really didn’t know how to address it in a constructive way. When I searched the internet for answers, I couldn’t come up with a direct course of action. I knew that I couldn’t be the only one that was facing that issue, so I set out to create a resource guide for students to combat these incidents and publish that guide as a website so that it would be publicly accessible. With the help of a couple of friends, I’ve put together a general action plan, as well as some conversation guides and fact sheets to address different kinds of issues that high school students face. Since my project was already web-based, I didn’t have to do much to pivot for COVID-19. I was able to continue working on my project as it was before the pandemic. I picked JBP TIG to support my project because I’d worked with them before for a different project with Holocaust Museum LA, and I knew how helpful their program was. My mentor was extremely helpful in guiding my vision for this project. She helped me manage my project and connected me with people who helped me develop the content for my site. Even outside of the grant cycle, I’ve continued working with her to grow and improve the site. I’m extremely grateful to JBP TIG for making this project possible. The mentorship, funds, and connections that they provided were amazing, and I loved meeting with the other teens and hearing about their projects as well. Link: https://www.theselfadvocacyproject.org
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Name: Hanna Levy, Lead Teen. Teen Board: Alex Malamud, Caroline Mendoza, Sara Rosenblood, Andrew Petlak, Meredith Maxwell
Grade & School: 11th grader at Milken Community School (Hanna)
Project: Museum Impact
My work with Holocaust Museum LA has been incredibly affirming in the importance of preserving testimony and education of the Holocaust. As a Teen Board Member I collaborated with like minded teens once a month to brainstorm how we can help the museum’s outreach to teens and people in the Greater Los Angeles area. One of the things I accomplished with Holocaust Museum LA was deepening my understanding of the Holocaust through other people’s projects and shared knowledge. Our meetings were also insightful in that they allowed us to freely discuss how the museum can foster empathy and tolerance in society. This is incredibly important to me as social justice is one of the major reasons I want to pursue law as a career.
Julia Davis was the Education Coordinator and mentor for Holocaust Museum LA’s Teen Board. She was instrumental in allowing us as teens to feel heard, value our perspective and in guiding us in how to research and provide information in an accurate, education and evidence based manner.
The group that I worked with at Holocaust Museum LA was actively working towards becoming docents of the uprising exhibit room at the Museum. The goal was to meet in real time and engage with Museum staff and absorb and learn as much as we could in order to help the museum’s mission of education of the Holocaust to visitors during weekend hours. However, due to the pandemic, my group’s purpose was divided into researching a powerful figure from the uprising exhibit room. We presented our research and understanding in the format of individual videos.
This made me reflect that while the pandemic curtailed my experience of being immersed in a museum and engaging with staff and mentors regarding the exhibit I would become a docent for, virtual sessions still allowed me to present my findings in an appropriate social distancing manner. That is why our organic matter in pivoting our research to accommodate the social distancing practices of COVID19 did not curtail us teens to teach and learn from each other on how to become virtual docents through videos. This in turn became an engaging and successful compromise. Unlike with real trips to the museum, videos have a larger reach and extended audience, that in this way can truly help support the Museum. That is why, I feel that the Julie Beren Platt Teen Innovation Grant can continue to support teen made videos that seek to continue the education of the Holocaust and also tie in the importance of tolerance, empathy and being an upstander in society. I hope to be able to continue to participate in social justice and educational organizations that seek to improve our society. Without hesitation, I encourage any and all teens to participate in Holocaust Museum LA, or any organization they find helps promote a more equitable and educated society.
Name: Julia Edelman
Grade & School: previously a 12th Grader at Marlborough on her way to being a freshman at Washington University
Project: Para Los Niños
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Para Los Niños (PLN) is an education, family, and community services nonprofit supporting Los Angeles’s most at-risk children and families. PLN fosters pathways to success through excellence in education, powerful families, and strong communities for children and youth to thrive. I specifically worked with PLN’s charter elementary school, which serves students from transitional kindergarten through fifth grade, providing children and their families with high-quality education and support to reach success in school, work, and life.
PLN builds stronger, more stable families and brighter futures for children by providing early
education, tk-8th grade education, youth workforce services, and student and community
services. I am involved with PLN on many fronts. Beginning in the summer following ninth
grade, and every summer since, I have been a Camp Harmony volunteer counselor to homeless
and underserved children in Los Angeles.
Many of the Camp Harmony campers are also affiliated with PLN and attend the Charter
Elementary School. So, I founded the Marlborough Para Los Niños Service Learning Club,
which partners with the students from PLN’s Charter Elementary School to perform joint service
learning projects during the school year. We have worked with the same group of children for
the past three years, and my club members and I have built meaningful connections and
mentoring relationships with them.
While it is wonderful that so many people and organizations are willing to support the children at
PLN, the children who are being helped are seldom offered a chance to make a difference
themselves. However, by doing work together for our shared community, the kids are
empowered in knowing that they, too, can give back. I was so deeply moved by my experiences
with PLN that when it came time to find a partner organization for my Honors Capstone in
Social Justice, I knew exactly where I wanted to be.
I applied for a Teen Innovation Grant in order to fund an educational and service field trip
organized by the Marlborough PLN Service Learning Club. I used the funds to support a service
learning project in partnership with PLN Charter Elementary School students centered around
the importance of urban tree canopy. The service learning field trip to Tree People targeted how
we need to protect our environment and what we can do ourselves to help the fact that we need
tree canopy, healthy soil, and clean water in our most urban neighborhoods, where the PLN
students live. The neighborhoods that these kids live in are the ones most affected by lack of tree
canopy, which in addition to having climate consequences, has health consequences for the
people who live there.
My project focused on creating a more equitable green city and combating the effects of climate
change.
A map of tree canopy in any city in America also shows a map of race, and ethnicity in ways that
transcend income. In some cities, maps of income and maps of trees more or less line up. In Los
Angeles — they are identical. Low income areas of virtually any city across the country tend to
be hotter than their wealthier counterparts. The people who are most likely to not have air
conditioning to weather heat waves are ones who live in these areas, and, consequently, have
health conditions that put them at greater risk, all stemming from not having the tree canopy they
need
My project included a day partnering with Tree People to plant trees with the PLN students that
they could bring back to their neighborhoods. Instead of a nonprofit coming into their
neighborhoods and planting those trees for them, these kids will be empowered in knowing that
they contributed positively to their community. The kids learned about tree canopy, clean water,
and healthy soil, and so did the Marlborough students.
My experience working with PLN has equipped me with the tools to challenge societal
infrastructures that perpetuate inequality. Personally, I was not aware of the issues that lack of
tree canopy presents until just a few months ago, so it was really meaningful to bring this societal
problem to the attention of everyone involved, no matter what walk of life they came from,
because this is an issue we all need to pay attention to.
I am so glad my event took place when it did, because, even if it were scheduled for the
following weekend, it would have had to have been cancelled, as I know happened to many of
the other grantees in the program. The current global crisis has caused me to think even more
critically about how I can best make a meaningful difference in improving the lives of those
currently suffering economic, educational, and psychological setbacks.
The COVID-19 crisis has been challenging for all of us. For the Para Los Niños families, it has
been particularly trying. I have seen firsthand how families at PLN are suddenly unsure whether
they can rely on the meals PLN normally provides for their children, the safety and enrichment
of PLN’s childcare, or the daily wraparound services that help them stay on track. Now more
than ever, PLN children and families are vulnerable to fall behind, or go without.
I have committed to working with PLN throughout this crisis and beyond to continue to provide
the much-needed education and safety net that their students require in order to lift them out of
poverty and help lead them to a future filled with success.
I learned about the Teen Innovation Grant Program last summer as an intern in the LA Jewish
Teen Initiative (LAJTI) Community Internship Program, during which I worked at the
Federation in the Community Engagement Department. During my time at the Federation, I also
learned about the many wonderful programs the Federation supports. I told my mentors in the
Community Internship Program about my proposed project, and they encouraged me to apply. I
was excited by both the opportunity to get seed funding for my club’s service learning project, as
well as learn and collaborate with other innovative teens as I developed my project.
I was, and continue to be, deeply impressed by the LAJTI’s mission and the numerous resources
it provides for teens to enact positive change within their community and world, and I am
extremely lucky to have been given the chance to continue to participate in this inspiring
initiative. Without the Teen Innovation Grant, my club’s service learning projects would not be
possible.
I’d like to thank my amazing mentor, Andrea Sorin, for being a constant resource for me
throughout this whole process. Andrea acted as a thought partner and offered helpful advice, but
she really came through the day of the event and made a huge difference being there. The day
could not have run so smoothly without her. I cannot thank Andrea enough for her help in
making it happen.
Just next week, I will be starting as a freshman at WashU in St. Louis in the fall. I could not feel
more grateful for the time I spent working with PLN and the skills I learned, and I will take these
lessons with me as I begin my next chapter. I hope to involve myself in likeminded nonprofits in
the area empowering at-risk families and tackling educational inequality, while, of course,
maintaining my special relationship with PLN.
The Julie Beren Platt Teen Innovation Grants are part of the Los Angeles Jewish Teen Initiative (LAJTI), co-funded by The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles and the Jim Joseph Foundation, with funding from the Jewish Community Foundation.
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Imagine you have an opportunity to do something innovative and exciting…
What would you do? Where would you start?How might you make a difference on an issue you are passionate about?How might you impact a community you care about?
Now, as COVID-19 has changed the world around us, we need YOU to change our world for the better! Our Federation’s Los Angeles Jewish Teen Initiative values how a teen’s passion, talent, and creativity can help shape a community. The Julie Beren Platt Teen Innovation Grants Program allows for all of this and more by encouraging you to take a risk, experiment, and explore something you care about.
LAJTI is a community-wide initiative aimed to enhance the landscape of Jewish LA for teens and provide them with meaningful, personal, and relevant opportunities for engagement in Jewish life. We value how teens’ passions, talents, and creativity can help shape our Jewish community.
With the guidance of a mentor and a microgrant up to $1500, JBP TIG encourages teens to take risks, develop impactful projects, and create meaningful connections with others.
WHAT A JULIE BEREN PLATT TEEN INNOVATION GRANT CAN OFFER YOU
Funds: This program offers awards up to $1,500 to empower you to play an active role in turning your idea into reality.Mentorship: You will be paired with a mentor who acts as a thought partner and can offer guidance as you work toward new goals.Support & Inspiration: You will participate in three workshops during this 6-month program. Our workshops will give you the opportunity to learn, collaborate with other innovative teens, and inspire you as you develop your project.
Read our Online Information Guide to learn more!
The post Los Angeles Teens Changing the World: Tikkun Olam appeared first on We Said Go Travel.
October 1, 2020
Searching for Answers, “Finding My Father” with Deborah Tannen
Thank you to Thrive Global for publishing my article about Deborah Tannen’s book, Finding My Father.
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Did you ever wonder about your father’s life before your were born? Deborah Tannen wanted to know more and spent decades interviewing her father and reading his journals after he retired. He was a writer, kept copies of his letters and was thrilled for her to not only read them but also discuss the contents with him. She shares this journey of discovery in her book, Finding My Father.
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After I graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in Women’s Studies, Tannen’s first book, “You Just Don’t Understand: Women and Men in Conversation” was published in 1990. It fascinated me and many others as it remained on the New York Times Best Seller list for nearly four years, and was translated into 30 other languages! She also wrote books about siblings and the mother-daughter relationships. Both of these books, “You Were Always Mom’s Favorite!: Sisters in Conversation Throughout Their Lives” and “You’re Wearing THAT?: Understanding Mothers and Daughters in Conversation” were also New York Times best-sellers.
[image error]Eli Tannen, Photo courtesy of Deborah Tannen
She has written about how we talk in our families, at work and to each other. It makes sense to me that she would explore her relationship with her father and his connection to his wife and his mother. This book is a love letter to her father.
Tannen learns about his choices and challenges from his abusive mother to his concerns that he would die young leaving behind a wife and young children as happened to him when his father died. His goal was get his mother and sister married and settled before found his own happiness or considered getting married himself.
His early life in Poland were some of his best memories despite the many hardships like hunger, cold, and poverty. “When there was no coal or wood to burn, they kept enough in the stove for cooking, and that’s the only room that was warm.”
[image error]Photo courtesy of Deborah Tannen
I was surprised by many of Tannen’s discoveries about her family. Her grandmother ran a school during the German occupation of Poland in the First World War. “Many Jews served in the German army during the first, and the German rabbi who came to Poland in hopes of improving education for Polish Jews was appointed a chaplain in the army.”
Her father was raised in a Hasidic Jewish family and while the boys were studying Torah, the girls of the family received a secular education and became very successful. As Tannen recounts, “It still stuns me to think of the professions these women, born in Poland in the 1880s, attained: my grandmother, a school principal; Eva, a periodontist; Bronia, a philologist; Magda, a high-ranking official in the Polish government; and Dora, a mathematician and physicist who was a student—and lover—of Einstein, became pregnant with his child, and had an abortion.”
As Tannen explained more about Eva, I wished that I had journals to read about my own family history. I wonder what my relatives might have become or who they met! Tannen’s father told her: “My grandmother’s sister Eva studied dentistry in Poland. She came to the United States at twenty-one, in January 1914, just before the First World War broke out. Retraining at Temple University, she became the first woman periodontist—and the first woman dentist—in Newark, where she continued to practice until she retired at eighty-four. So Eva was a pioneer, if not a revolutionary. As late as the 1950s, only 1 percent of dentists were women.” I was mesmerized to learn “that many of the first women dentists in the United States were immigrants.”
[image error]Deborah & her father laughing together when he’s 97
Photo courtesy of Deborah Tannen
[image error]Deborah & her father laughing together when he’s 97
Photo courtesy of Deborah Tannen
She recounts her father’s life including when he had 68 jobs from the “years between 1933, when the finance company folded, and 1941, when he took the position in Danbury: eight years of the Great Depression.” While times were challenging, the information is a treasure trove of what life was like as well as her father’s hopes for the future.
At one point, Tannen and her father discuss: “Your mother wasn’t my girlfriend. Helen was my girlfriend.”
He explains: “Mother typed my master’s thesis.” Typing his thesis for him certainly is sort of like a girlfriend. “It’s funny that she was typing it,” I say, “because in your thesis you argued against the idea of marriage, right?” “Yeah!” He laughs. “That was my own personal idea, this idea that I was against marriage. I thought it’s not a good idea, marriage, at all. But the curtain behind which I was arguing it was the Roman law on marriage. At that time I had studied it.”
[image error]Deborah Tannen’s parents at their wedding
Photo courtesy of Deborah Tannen
Tannen and her father continue to discuss the two women in his life and his decision of who to marry as well as if they “had sex, he would have felt obligated to marry her…To deflower a girl who was a virgin. Macht unglücklich we used to say, made her unglücklich, unfortunate—ruining her whole life.”
I was engrossed in the descriptions of their conversations and I wonder how many people have the opportunity to extensively interview their parents. Tannen learns that her father had a dream to “live in different countries, as soon as I got my mother and sister married.” This was also her wish too and she wonders: “Maybe I got it from you without knowing it.” We inherit aspirations from our family without always realizing it.
It was sad to learn about how her father was abused by his mother. “Not only insulting and berating him, but having screaming fights with him in private—and with strangers and neighbors in public….She was physically violent.” When he was nineteen and been financially supporting her for over five years, he wrote that: “she picked up a heavy stick and belabored me with all her might and kicked me so hard that the marks shall yet remain for quite a while.” He wrote about being suicidal and felt doomed because after his father died at twenty-seven of tuberculosis, his mother raised him and his sister on her own and complained about it all of his life.
Tannen discusses how: “Memory is like that. We mix things up, we get things wrong. But what matters is how a memory fits into the story of our lives.” She is able to take the time to untangle the truths and the stories that created her father’s life.
[image error]Deborah’s parents at her wedding in 1988
Photo courtesy of Deborah Tannen
After her mother, Dorothy died at 93, her father wrote a letter to his friends:
“I wanted her to live at least to 110. I don’t know how I can go on without my Dorothy. We’ve been married only 71 years, but I loved her since she arrived in America at age 12. Truth is I do not know what I’ll do, what I can do, without her. To me her loss is equivalent to the loss of a saint, the kind that may never walk again on earth.”
He was fourteen when they met and she was his best friend’s 12 year old younger sister. He deeply loved her for seven decades and wrote her poems.
[image error]A family gathering at Circle Lodge in 2001
Photo courtesy of Deborah Tannen
Despite struggles with work, family life and war, Tannen’s parents “created a family full of liveliness, warmth, and love.” Their long marriage was a gift as were the letters and journals which allowed Tannen to better understand her family.
[image error]Deborah Tannen Arlington, VA
Photo by Jonathan Timmes
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Read my article on THRIVE GLOBAL
The post Searching for Answers, “Finding My Father” with Deborah Tannen appeared first on We Said Go Travel.
September 29, 2020
I am a Winner! We Said Go Travel News Sept 2020
Sept News 2020 with We Said Go Travel:
I was honored to win in the Southern California Journalism Awards for my print story in Hemispheres Magazine for United Airlines about Rembrandt!
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G6. PRINT MAGAZINE FEATURE, Under 1,000 Words: Any feature.
Lisa Niver, Hemispheres Magazine for United Airlines, “Painter by the Numbers, Rembrandt”
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350 years since his death Rembrandt and United Airlines
I was a finalist for FIVE Southern California Journalism Awards!
Thank you to everyone who has supported me and to all of the outlets who published my work. Please click here for my print, digital and broadcast content which is nominated. Thank you to the Los Angeles Press Club for this opportunity to be recognized!
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Happy New Year! Rosh Hashannah and Yom Kippur 5781!
During the month leading up to Rosh Hashannah and Yom Kippur, I think about what has happened in the year that is ending. As I have this chance to reflect on what went well and what I want in the new year, I set goals. During the pandemic, I have had to pivot and write more about books as I have not been traveling.
What will you focus on? Cantor Emma from Stephen Wise Temple asked us:
What are the things we want to let go of from this past year? Where were we successful, our best selves? Where did we fall short? Who do we want to reconnect with or make amends to? What have we learned from the unique challenges during this pandemic? What are our hopes, dreams and goals for 5781 (2020-2021)?
At this time of year we say: “G’mar Hatima Tova” which means may you be inscribed into the Book of Life with a good seal. It is not too late to change the decree, listen to the shofar and be called to attention, to worship, to community, to something new! What will you commit to?
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Thank you to THRIVE GLOBAL for publishing my articles about books:
For The People: Kamala HarrisWhich Path Will You Pick? Jodi Picoult’s The Book of Two WaysSearching for Answers, “Finding My Father” with Deborah TannenWomen Do Need A Lab of Their Own: Rita Colwell
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Due to COVID-19 pandemic, I have been in Los Angeles since March 9, 2020. That is 204 days. I have been focused on what can I do and have been publishing new voices on my site! Learn about these projects here.
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During COVID19, I have been invited on many podcasts! You can listen to them on my new Podcast page.
Thank you to Collin Mitchell for inviting me on Sessions by Monster Chat
Let’s Talk TRAVEL on Sessions with Lisa & Collin!
Thank you to Jordan Scheltgen from Cave Social for inviting me on Mind Your Marketing Podcast.
Mind Your Marketing Podcast with Lisa Niver & Cave Social
Enjoy my video of the waves at Santa Monica Beach. I filmed with my new LGV60ThinQ phone. I am grateful that the beaches in Los Angeles are open and I am able to walk and listen to the ocean. One day I saw dolphins!
WHERE CAN YOU FIND MY TRAVEL VIDEOS?
Here is the link to my video channel on YouTube where I have over one and a quarter million views on YouTube! (Exact count: 1,253,725 views)
Thank you for your support! Are you one of my 2,862 subscribers? I hope you will join me and subscribe!
For more We Said Go Travel articles, TV segments, videos and social media: CLICK HERE
Find me on social media: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, and at LisaNiver.com. My social media following is now over 160,000 and I am verified on Twitter.
My fortune cookies said:
“Use your abilities at this time to stay focused on your goal. You will succeed.”
“It’s time to treat yourself to something special.”
Stay safe and healthy! We will travel again….Happy New Year 5781!
Lisa
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The post I am a Winner! We Said Go Travel News Sept 2020 appeared first on We Said Go Travel.
September 25, 2020
September 24, 2020
Thank you! My YouTube channel is now 1,250,000 views!
Thank you for all of your support!
My We Said Go Travel YouTube channel now has over 1,250,000 views!
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Thank you for all of your comments, likes and subscribing to my channel!
The TOP TEN VIDEOS on my channel
All Aboard the Train! Rocky Mountaineer is leaving Vancouver
Saved by the Seligas in Falealupo, Samoa
19 Monywa Arrival and Night Market, Myanmar (Burma)
Gili Meno: the Good and the Bad
10 Moving about in Mandalay, Myanmar (Burma)
Surprising Surat Thani
5 beaches: Hiking in Koh Tao
7 From Kolkata to Puri by Night Bus, India, Nov 2012
Barton G: A restaurant and Theater of Food
Tonga’s Got Talent 2011
Thank you for all of your support!
My We Said Go Travel YouTube channel now has over 1,250,000 views!
The post Thank you! My YouTube channel is now 1,250,000 views! appeared first on We Said Go Travel.
September 22, 2020
Thank you!! https://t.co/ZIt0AiNnKn
— Jodi Picoult (@jod...
Thank you!! https://t.co/ZIt0AiNnKn
— Jodi Picoult (@jodipicoult) September 22, 2020
The post appeared first on We Said Go Travel.
September 21, 2020
Watch KTLA’s LA Unscripted at 7pm!
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KTLA’s new lifestyle show, “LA Unscripted,” launches Monday, September 21, 2020
— LA Unscripted (@ktlaunscripted) September 17, 2020
Get ready LA, we are bringing something new and different to local tv!
Join @DaynaDevon, Monday at 7pm for our very first show with @mtelles and @libertechan.
And don't miss our special sneak peek on Emmy Sunday from 12-2pm on KTLA. #KTLAUnscripted #launscripted #KTLA #LA pic.twitter.com/wVgL3GK8sC
The brand new half-hour show is hosted by KTLA’s Dayna Devon, Megan Telles, and Liberté Chan. Watch it each weeknight at 7 p.m.
Viewers will discover Los Angeles in a whole new way, focusing on the people, places and personalities that make the city and Southern California the most unique, diverse and vibrant place in the world.
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“‘LA Unscripted’ will deliver engaging content across a wide array of topics that audiences can apply to their day-to-day lives while featuring KTLA’s recognized talent,” said KTLA’s vice president of news, Jason Ball.
You can also watch “LA Unscripted” on KTLA.com and the KTLA 5 News app.
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“We are excited to bring this fresh new lifestyle program to Southern California,” said Janene Drafs, vice president and general manager of KTLA. “Our loyal viewers, advertisers and marketing clients have been looking for a weeknight program like this — something new and different — for a long time.”
FIND MORE LA UNSCRIPTED at
TWITTER: https://twitter.com/ktlaunscripted
INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/ktlaunscripted/
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/ktlaunscripted
WEB: https://ktla.com/la-unscripted/
Ready for #KTLA’s New Lifestyle Show #KTLAUnscripted starting #Monday Sept 21 7pm? @libertechan @DaynaDevon @mtelles @ktlaunscripted @KTLA
— Lisa Niver
preview on @SamOnTV https://t.co/QBHAATtl7n pic.twitter.com/sddiRPh0UR(@wesaidgotravel) September 17, 2020
Created and produced by KTLA-TV’s Vice President of News, Jason Ball, and Executive Producer, Kimberly Cornell, LA Unscripted is a high energy, half-hour show that uncovers the city’s hidden hot spots, trendsetting new cuisine, staycation travel tips, Insta-worthy life-hacks, and style-smart secrets.
“Most of life’s best moments can’t be planned, and on LA Unscripted, viewers can expect anything and everything to happen,” said Ms. Cornell.
Honk if you love LA Unscripted
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