ABSILVER's World

I sit here this morning in Fort Lauderdale.  As someone who loves to post pictures of lovely sunrises, sunsets, and the warmth of my home today is not that day.  I woke up to 58 degree weather, cloudy and rainy and a high that won't push over 70.  Which compared to five feet of snow in upstate NY doesn't sound so tragic, but I do feel bad for those who this may be there only week here and they want a beach day. This ends up being an interesting moment in my life.  I have been trying with all of my mental and emotional might to fight the obvious moment coming to me next week.  No, it isn't Thanksgiving and seeing if I can dry out a turkey.  Yes, I do think the pumpkin pie recipe in the NY Times with Butternut Squash instead of Pumpkin is something I want to attempt, but his is not about that either. It turns out next Tuesday, I turn 50 years old.  If I turn the clock and look backwards on my family it is quite fair to say this is th...

I spent the morning writing a blog post about closets, and in great Microsoft fashion, notepad crashed while I tried to save it… or so it appears.  So, I am going to try this again because it is important to me, and I hope in some odd fashion you may find it so as well. I am speaking of closets, by definition, is when a person decides to put certain parts of their humanity and their personal life hidden from the world at large or possibly everyone else.  This can come about for many reasons.   Maybe an interracial family in the 60’s who can pass for one race or another and don’t want to be stigmatized or have their children bullied or harassed as they grow up.   It could be religious reasons, Christians in the early age of the Romans not wanting to fight lions just because of their faith.  Or, Jews in the time of the Inquisition having to publicly declare their Christianity to live while worshiping as Jews behind closed curtains and hidden fr...