Intimate Struggles, Global Politics

CULTURE W I N T E R 2 0 1 1 W W W. T I K K U N . O R G T I K K U N 85 and trained. What is helpful is the possibility of teshuvah, returning to the intention. The good news is that I can return no matter how many times I forget, fall down, or wander off. Weinberg’s message of courageous honesty and optimism invites us to think about our own narrative as a source of wisdom and redemption. We ask ourselves ,whatgifts,andwhatwounds,haveI receivedfromgenerationspast?Howhave these been celebrated and transformed through my own children? What are the stories that I tell about my own life? Is this the narrative that I want to write for myself, my family, this planet? Where is God hiding in my story? In her work as a rabbi and teacher and in the pages of this book, Weinberg’s very personal revelations powerfully serve to open the hearts of her audience. In doing so, she draws out the caring in each of us that mobilizes acts of creating a more just, peaceful, sustainable world. She writes, “I wishtheworldaglobalSabbathpractice,a rest from harming our beloved mother, this planet, taking her into our hearts as she cradles us in her arms.” Weinberg has powerfully shaped the Jewish story throughout her career because her case for why engagement in spiritual life matters is so compelling: I want to tell you what I know: It is more and more urgent to love ourselves , each other and the earth, through our differences, to make life, especially for the weak among us, safer and healthier in the air, water and earth. I know it is more and more urgent to help our children know the nearness of Divine love as they walk into the unknown. It is my experience that a renewed dedication to awakened spiritual practice will serve us well on this journey. I RabbiMargieJacobsisaconsultanttotheInstitute for Jewish Spirituality, teacher of mindfulness meditation and Hasidut, life coach, and ritual facilitator. She lives in Berkeley with her husbandandtwodaughters. [FILM] INTIMATESTRUGGLES, GLOBALPOLITICS GRACEPALEY:COLLECTEDSHORTS LillyRivlinProductions,2010 Reviewby ElizabethRosner V iewers of Lilly Rivlin’s inspiring film Grace Paley: Collected Shorts are in for much more than a portrait of the artist. Whether you are being introduced for the first time or being given the chance to become reacquainted with a much-beloved writer, this richly quilted narrative offers multiple views of a woman extraordinary and exemplary in her authenticity .GracePaleyisvastlymorethana sum of her parts: poet, mother, teacher, andactivist. Rivlin’sdocumentaryeffectivelybreaks down Paley’s life and work into segments, with quotations from the author as well as from her many friends (including luminarieslikeAliceWalker ),andherhusband, daughter, and granddaughter. Yet the net effect is to see how the different areas of Paley’s life joined in a vivid and unified whole.Forher,clearly,therewasnocontradiction between feminism and marriage, between a life devoted to protest and one devoted to family. Even as Paley worked introspectively to write about her most intimate struggles, she also showed dedicatedsupportofwomen ’srightsonaglobal scale. In the film, images of her participation in numerous demonstrations are seamlessly interwoven with clips of her reading aloud from her beautifully crafted andunforgettablestories. GracePaley’sfearlessconvictioninvites me as a writer to remember the power of words to make a difference in the world. Forher,storytellingwastrulyaworthwhile endeavor; art and activism could be, withoutanydoubt,mutuallyinclusive.She explains that through writing purely in the voiceofher“AuntRose,”shefoundherown voice; eventually the stories of women and their difficult lives “pressured” her to give them“theopendestiny”oflifeonthepage. “That’s what I was doing during the women’s movement,” she says at one point in the film, “writing stories about women.” Thecommentisofferedasakindofbelated revelation,inrecognitionofthissignificant contribution to what she called “the most importantmovementintheworld.” Standingtallatfivefeetoneinch,Paley expressed determination and purpose through her bearing as well as her speech. Called a “Jewish prophet” by one of her fellow members of PEN, she insisted on incorporating the death-sound of “Chernobyl”intoherpoetry.Politicalfrom the start—she joined a socialist organization at the age of nine—it was no surprise that,yearslater,shetraveledtoVietnamin 1969 as a representative of the anti-war movement, or that she spent a week at the Women...