Suzanne Braun Levine » Family & Friends http://www.suzannebraunlevine.com Women In Second Adulthood Mon, 06 Feb 2012 17:08:41 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 en hourly 1 “EXCLUSIVE: The Biology of Nurturing Fathers” By Louise W. Knight http://www.suzannebraunlevine.com/2011/09/21/%e2%80%9cexclusive-the-biology-of-nurturing-fathers%e2%80%9d-bylouise-w-knight-for-the-women%e2%80%99s-media-center/ http://www.suzannebraunlevine.com/2011/09/21/%e2%80%9cexclusive-the-biology-of-nurturing-fathers%e2%80%9d-bylouise-w-knight-for-the-women%e2%80%99s-media-center/#comments Wed, 21 Sep 2011 22:11:08 +0000 glenlevy http://www.suzannebraunlevine.com/?p=2001 “A new study that finds testosterone declines in proportion to nurturing fatherhood is mind-blowing in many ways that are meaningful for family life and our understanding of fatherhood. I was afraid that the findings would be used against nurturing men, taunting them with loss of virility and status along with "loss" of testosterone, so I hope you will all share this supportive analysis with all those women and men who are trying so hard to reinvent parenting on kinder, gentler terms.]]> “A new study that finds testosterone declines in proportion to nurturing fatherhood is mind-blowing in many ways that are meaningful for family life and our understanding of fatherhood.

I was afraid that the findings would be used against nurturing men, taunting them with loss of virility and status along with “loss” of testosterone, so I hope you will all share this supportive analysis with all those women and men who are trying so hard to reinvent parenting on kinder, gentler terms.

Louise Knight, whose book about the early reformer Jane Addams I really loved, does a good job of summarizing them in this Women’s Media Center “Exclusive”:

Black Youth Project

Photo: BlackYouthProject.com

By Louise W. Knight
Women’s Media Center

The act of daily childcare changes fathers hormonally, and that’s all to the good of their families. The author discusses what feminists have long suspected.

The headlines were certainly eye-catching. “Fatherhood Depletes Testosterone” (Los Angeles Times), “Father’s Testosterone Drops Steeply after Baby Arrives” (Fox News website).

And the stories stressed the same point. The LA Times led with, “Hormonally speaking, becoming a father may make you less of man.” Fox News led with, “A father’s testosterone level drops steeply after his baby arrives.”  They were writing about the research finding that a new father’s testosterone levels dropped temporarily when a new baby came home….

Read the Article….

]]> http://www.suzannebraunlevine.com/2011/09/21/%e2%80%9cexclusive-the-biology-of-nurturing-fathers%e2%80%9d-bylouise-w-knight-for-the-women%e2%80%99s-media-center/feed/ 0 “IMAGINE THE SOUND OF PEACE”Shohola Bells – By David Greenbaum http://www.suzannebraunlevine.com/2011/08/11/%e2%80%9cimagine-the-sound-of-peace%e2%80%9dshohola-bells-by-david-greenbaum/ http://www.suzannebraunlevine.com/2011/08/11/%e2%80%9cimagine-the-sound-of-peace%e2%80%9dshohola-bells-by-david-greenbaum/#comments Thu, 11 Aug 2011 23:28:36 +0000 glenlevy http://www.suzannebraunlevine.com/?p=1953 “I strive to create pieces of enduring beauty,” says the renowned potter, David Greenbaum. “Clay is a glorious, humbling, sensuous, messy and most marvelous medium of expression.”]]> David Greenbaum,
Potter & Co-Founder
The BlueStone Gallery

“I strive to create pieces of enduring beauty,” says the renowned potter, David Greenbaum. “Clay is a glorious, humbling, sensuous, messy and most marvelous medium of expression.”

Many people come to the BlueStone Gallery to see and experience David’s beautiful Shohola Bells. Their forms, colors, and deep, rich sonorous tones not only inspire visitors to the gallery, but they inspired the creation the gallery’s newest video: “IMAGINE THE SOUND OF PEACE.” [video right sidebar here].

Fired to over 2100°F the Bells are incredibly strong and can withstand the harshest northern winters. All fittings are stainless steel and the bases are sturdily constructed of heavy welded steel and decay-resistant cedar.  No maintenance is required. The ringing mechanism is designed to produce a sonorous tone in the slightest of winds, yet retains its soothing voice no matter how strong the storm. Their form, scale and coloration are the result of a collaborative process and vision.

The BlueStone Gallery (Milford, PA) was co-founded by Bob Levine and David Greenbaum in December 2008 to provide an exhibit space and shop – not only for traditional fine art, but functional art as well – art that is as broad ranging in its intention and execution as the artists’ imagination can reach.

To find out more about the Shohola Bells, please call David at the BlueStone Gallery: 570-296-9999, or email him at info@bluestonegallerymilford.com

Better yet, visit:

BlueStone Gallery
Fine and Functional Art
104 East Ann Street
Milford, PA 18337
www.bluestonegallerymilford.com

]]> http://www.suzannebraunlevine.com/2011/08/11/%e2%80%9cimagine-the-sound-of-peace%e2%80%9dshohola-bells-by-david-greenbaum/feed/ 0 “I’m Not a Feminist But…..” http://www.suzannebraunlevine.com/2011/07/11/%e2%80%9ci%e2%80%99m-not-a-feminist-but%e2%80%a6-%e2%80%9d/ http://www.suzannebraunlevine.com/2011/07/11/%e2%80%9ci%e2%80%99m-not-a-feminist-but%e2%80%a6-%e2%80%9d/#comments Mon, 11 Jul 2011 22:52:36 +0000 glenlevy http://www.suzannebraunlevine.com/?p=1879 I was so touched by the note and poem I received from my friend Sean Strub - a feminist in good standing as well as a major AIDS activist – that I want to share it. He found the poem when he was going through his mother’s papers after she died recently. The short story he mentions, The Yellow Wallpaper, is a feminist classic, written in 1892; about a woman who is kept housebound by her husband and slowly goes mad. Sean’s mother's aversion to the word "feminist" is an example of the familiar "I'm not a feminist, but......" syndrome - a woman who walks the walk but doesn’t feel comfortable with the talk. It is clear to me - and to her son - that Janey was a feminist in spirit, which is where it counts. -- Suzanne Braun Levine]]> By Sean Strub

Janey O'Brien Strub and Sean Strub

Janey O'Brien Strub and Sean Strub

I was so touched by the note and poem I received from my friend Sean Strub – a feminist in good standing as well as a major AIDS activist – that I want to share it. He found the poem when he was going through his mother’s papers after she died recently. The short story he mentions, The Yellow Wallpaper, is a feminist classic, written in 1892; about a woman who is kept housebound by her husband and slowly goes mad.

Sean’s mother’s aversion to the word “feminist” is an example of the familiar ”I’m not a feminist, but……” syndrome – a woman who walks the walk but doesn’t feel comfortable with the talk. It is clear to me – and to her son – that Janey was a feminist in spirit, which is where it counts. — Suzanne Braun Levine

This poem was written in the 1970s, either by my Mom or my Aunt Kitty or possibly it was a collaboration.  I found it in a treasured papers folder of my mother’s, paper-clipped to a copy of The Yellow Wallpaper, a famous short story by Charlotte Perkins Gilman.  The only other papers in the folder related to the children’s book (“The Polka Dot Dilly”) my Mom and Kitty wrote and illustrated together.

Whenever I suggested to my Mom that she was really a feminist, she would get annoyed.  Sometimes she said I had “accused her” of being a feminist, as though that was something terrible.  She supported equal rights, was offended by gender-based inequities, raised her daughters as she raised her sons and taught us all the importance of independence and self-reliance.  But would she identify as a “feminist”?  No way.

If I were you and you were me,
Then who’d be who when we were we?
If both of us are just us two,
Which us is me and which is you?

I know, I know, it’s easy to see
that you are you and I am me!
I know, I know, it’s silly to fuss,
but which is me when we are us?

If she joins he and he joins she,
Then are they they or she and he?
If you and he team up in two’s,
Then are you you or are you you’s?

I know, I know, it’s silly to stew,
But is you one or is you two?
I know, I know, it’s silly to fuss,
But which is me when we are us?

– Janey O’Brien Strub and Kathleen O’Brien Gallagher

The Yellow WallpaperThe Yellow Wallpaper, one of Gilman’s most popular works, originally published in 1892 before her marriage to George Houghton Gilman.

]]> http://www.suzannebraunlevine.com/2011/07/11/%e2%80%9ci%e2%80%99m-not-a-feminist-but%e2%80%a6-%e2%80%9d/feed/ 2 Honoring Esther http://www.suzannebraunlevine.com/2011/06/29/honoring-esther/ http://www.suzannebraunlevine.com/2011/06/29/honoring-esther/#comments Thu, 30 Jun 2011 00:11:57 +0000 glenlevy http://www.suzannebraunlevine.com/?p=1864 Esther M. Broner, who died this month at 83, was a true woman of valor - generous to her friends, nurturing to her children, and devoted to the dignity of women. She wrote 11 books of fiction and non-fiction - all with a mystical subtext, was a philosopher, a witch (the good kind), and a believer in ritual.]]> By Suzanne Braun Levine

Esther Broner

Photo Credit: Joan L. Roth

Esther M. Broner, who died this month at 83, was a true woman of valor – generous to her friends, nurturing to her children, and devoted to the dignity of women. She wrote 11 books of fiction and non-fiction – all with a mystical subtext, was a philosopher, a witch (the good kind), and a believer in ritual.

One of her greatest achievements was the creation of a Feminist Seder and “The Women’s Haggadah” to go with it.

The following ”translation” – it is really a transformation – of the biblical description of a Woman of Valor demonstrates how effectively she saved the best of traditional wisdom and made it meaningful to women everywhere.

A Woman of Valor

Who can find a wise woman? For her price is far above rubies.
Those in her house safely trust her for she heeds the words of her children,
She works alongside her beloved, but outside the walls of her house,
Outside the gates of her garden, she hears the cries in the city,
The cries of women in distress She is their rescuer.

She rises at dawn to organize. She rises before light to make orderly the day.
She stretches out her hand to unchain the chained woman,
The woman without recourse, the women not paid their worth on this earth.

She travels back from the city to the shade of her garden.
She casts off her fine linen of purple and crimson.
Clad in dignity and compassion, she seeks peace in the household,
The ways of peace in the city.
Of praise she is worthy.
Many women have done wisely
But she, my beloved, inside or outside of her garden wall,
Is the most precious of them all.

– Interpretive translation by Esther Broner

Remembrances of Esther by Letty Cottin Pogrebin, author activist, and feminist, who participated in just about every Feminist Seder Esther conducted (she is the woman leaning on a pillow in the photo above) in The Jewish Daily Forward: “Esther Broner, Activist, Author, Mother of the Women’s Seder, Is Dead at 83.”

“Esther M. Broner” (Obituary) by Kathryn Kish Sklar, The Jewish Women’s Archive.

]]> http://www.suzannebraunlevine.com/2011/06/29/honoring-esther/feed/ 1 Mother’s Day Is For Daughters Too. http://www.suzannebraunlevine.com/2011/05/05/mother%e2%80%99s-day-is-for-daughters-too/ http://www.suzannebraunlevine.com/2011/05/05/mother%e2%80%99s-day-is-for-daughters-too/#comments Thu, 05 May 2011 13:20:14 +0000 glenlevy http://www.suzannebraunlevine.com/?p=1803 By Suzanne Braun Levine

Suzanne Braun Levine Mother's GraduationI have always thought of Mother’s Day as a celebration of my mother, the Main Mom in the family. I made plans designed to please her and honor her on her Day. Eight months ago she died, and so this year, for the first time, I am the last mom standing. It is a weird feeling to have the day to myself, especially when my inclination is to spend it missing her. Yet when I think of the two of us as mothers, I see the two-way street that runs between a mother and her daughter-as-mother. It is the most intimate connection between one generation and the other, I think, because it is as mothers that we share the most profound experience of our lives – the joyous moments and the painful doubts, the need to be appreciated and the even stronger need to be reassured that we did the best we could.

The day after my daughter was born my mother gave me a gaudy pink plaque that read NUMBER #1 MOM. At the time, I thought the evaluation was somewhat premature, but as the years go by I look to where it sits on the shelf above my kitchen sink in times of parental defeat and self-doubt and find reassurance in the message. In those moments it reminds me of a secret we mothers share – that as much as we all want to be a Number One Mom, none of us feels like she is, by acknowledging that secret we empower each other to appreciate that each of us is as good as it gets.

Happy Mother’s Day – and keep up the good work!

]]> http://www.suzannebraunlevine.com/2011/05/05/mother%e2%80%99s-day-is-for-daughters-too/feed/ 2 FOUR OF MY FAVORITE NEW COOKBOOKS – They Are Pretty Spectacular Books. Fantastic Holiday Gifts! http://www.suzannebraunlevine.com/2010/11/18/four-of-my-favorite-new-cookbooks-they-are-pretty-spectacular-books-fantastic-holiday-gifts/ http://www.suzannebraunlevine.com/2010/11/18/four-of-my-favorite-new-cookbooks-they-are-pretty-spectacular-books-fantastic-holiday-gifts/#comments Fri, 19 Nov 2010 00:11:00 +0000 glenlevy http://www.suzannebraunlevine.com/?p=1318 By Emilie Hardman, founder

The Conscious Kitchen

Here are four of my favorite new cookbooks for this holiday! These are pretty spectacular books and would be fantastic gifts! The descriptions are from a favorite place for book lovers – The New England Mobile Book Fair whose motto is “I only came for one book…”

Celebrating Japan’s Vegan and Vegetarian Traditions

By Elizabeth Andoh

Ten Speed Press/2010/Color Photographs

The first book to introduce Japanese vegetarian and vegan cooking to Western cooks, from an authority on Japanese cuisine. With its range of elegant and satisfying recipes, Kansha will appeal to anyone with an interest in the food of Japan.

The Dumpling: A Seasonal Guide

By Wai Hon Chu

William Morrow/2009/Color Photographs and Illustrations

The most comprehensive and wide-ranging anthology of traditional dumpling recipes available.

This globetrotting cookbook takes its dumpling-loving readers across the globe and walks them through their favorite recipes as well as offering some creative challenges for the truly dedicated home cook.

Beyond the Great Wall: Recipes and Travels in the Other China

By Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid

Artisan/2008/Color Photographs

2009 James Beard Award Winner!

2009 IACP Award Winner!

A bold and eye-opening new cookbook with magnificent photos and unforgettable stories. In Beyond the Great Wall, the inimitable duo of Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid–who first met as young travelers in Tibet–bring home the enticing flavors of this other China. This is a must-have for every food lover and an inspiration for cooks and armchair travelers alike.

Chocolates and Confections at Home with The Culinary Institute of America

By Peter Greweling and The Culinary Institute of America

John Wiley & Sons/2010/150 Color Photographs

Chocolates and Confections at Home offers detailed expertise for anyone who wants to make truly amazing homemade confections and candies. The Culinary Institute of America and baking and pastry arts professor Peter Greweling provide recipes and step-by-step techniques that make even the most ambitious treats simple for any home cook.

The ideal resource for anyone who wants to graduate from chocolate chip cookies to create impressively decadent delights.

Peter Reinhart’s Artisan Breads Every Day: 50 Fast and Easy Recipes for World-Class Breads

by: Peter Reinhart

Ten Speed Press/2009/Color Photographs

Renowned baking instructor Peter Reinhart distills his professional techniques down to the basics, delivering artisan bread formulas that require minimal effort and time. Peter Reinhart’s Artisan Breads Every Day offers high-caliber versions of classic breads using the best techniques to create the highest quality loaves in a fast and convenient fashion. A conscientious teacher, Reinhart coaches readers on shaping tricks, oven techniques, and methods for doing away with expensive bakery tools.

Features 50 recipes for bread, bagels, pizza, and Reinhart’s first-ever pastry recipes. Peter Reinhart is widely acknowledged as one of the world’s leading authorities on bread. He is a full-time baking instructor at Johnson and Wales University and the owner of Pie Town restaurant in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Best Wishes to all!

Emily

PS The Conscious Kitchen blog is being re-designed. Enjoy photos of my Cake and Cupcake Collection at QuintanaRoo’s photostream on Flickr®

http://bit.ly/9EXJgA

]]> http://www.suzannebraunlevine.com/2010/11/18/four-of-my-favorite-new-cookbooks-they-are-pretty-spectacular-books-fantastic-holiday-gifts/feed/ 2 OUR “CIRCLE OF TRUST HOLIDAY BOOK LIST” – STARTING NOW – ADD YOUR FAVORITES! http://www.suzannebraunlevine.com/2010/10/27/our-2010-%e2%80%9ccircle-of-trust-holiday-book-list%e2%80%9d-starting-now-add-your-favorites-2/ http://www.suzannebraunlevine.com/2010/10/27/our-2010-%e2%80%9ccircle-of-trust-holiday-book-list%e2%80%9d-starting-now-add-your-favorites-2/#comments Thu, 28 Oct 2010 02:12:53 +0000 glenlevy http://www.suzannebraunlevine.com/?p=1259 OUR 2010 “CIRCLE OF TRUST HOLIDAY BOOK LIST”

Many of us are starting our Holiday Book-Gifting lists! I am making my own list and adding to it daily. And, I am checking in with my Circle of Trust.

What are you reading? What books do want to give? What books would like to receive this year?

We’re creating a “CIRCLE OF TRUST HOLIDAY BOOK LIST.” Join us and add your favorites to the list…

Put book titles – with any personal notes on why you loved the book – in the Comment Section. We’ll publish the entire list and updates as a Feature you can email to family and friends; share on your Facebook page and Twitter.

And, if you have website – you can reprint it there.

Because laughter is so important to all of us here, several friends have already suggested “GROWING UP LAUGHING,” by Marlo Thomas.

Marlo’s new book is a memoir that debuted on The New York Times bestseller list this week and inspired her new website. It is a community – a place for an on-going conversation with Marlo and friends – women like you and me!

Take a look: www.marlothomas.com

]]> http://www.suzannebraunlevine.com/2010/10/27/our-2010-%e2%80%9ccircle-of-trust-holiday-book-list%e2%80%9d-starting-now-add-your-favorites-2/feed/ 11 BOB’S BIRTHDAY! http://www.suzannebraunlevine.com/2010/08/04/bob%e2%80%99s-birthday/ http://www.suzannebraunlevine.com/2010/08/04/bob%e2%80%99s-birthday/#comments Thu, 05 Aug 2010 02:03:26 +0000 glenlevy http://www.suzannebraunlevine.com/?p=1193 We celebrated my husband Bob’s 70th birthday by easing him out of his comfort zone with a raft trip down the Delaware River…






(Clockwise from upper left: Josh, Dave, Joanna, Me, Joann and Bob)

Joining us were our children Joshua and Joanna and Dave Greenbaum – a wonderful potter and Bob’s partner in the BlueStone Gallery - and his wife Joann Wells Greenbaum, also an artist, who did this drawing. The checkered tablecloth was as far as we got with our picnic before it started to rain.

But, I was a warm rain and the lunch was still delicious at home later.

A great time was had by all.

For information on Bob and Dave’s Gallery, visit:

www.bluestonegallerymilford.com

To see of more Joann Wells Greenbaum’s art, visit her at:

www.joannwellsgreenbaum.com

http://www.etsy.com/shop/joann100

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Joann-Wells-Greenbaum/78344565080

]]> http://www.suzannebraunlevine.com/2010/08/04/bob%e2%80%99s-birthday/feed/ 1 EASING THE WAY http://www.suzannebraunlevine.com/2010/07/13/easing-the-way/ http://www.suzannebraunlevine.com/2010/07/13/easing-the-way/#comments Wed, 14 Jul 2010 02:14:31 +0000 glenlevy http://www.suzannebraunlevine.com/?p=1172 By Suzanne Braun Levine

When my mother died recently at 94, I felt sad at losing her, but also relieved after several years of slow decline during which I always felt I was one degree of deterioration behind in caring for her. And I felt grateful – grateful to her for the loving and gracious way she took her slow leave, and very grateful to the Hospice team that guided our last months together. Thanks to them, she died at home, smiling to the end.

I want everyone to know about the individuals who formed her team and about the services that are offered by the program, which is run by the Visiting Nurse Service of New York – and covered by Medicare. Soon after she was released from her last hospital stay, we were approved for Hospice care and from then on, I felt we were both in good hands. The first consultations were with the intense young Dr. Hutchison, who patiently and sympathetically explained the alternatives that I (as her health care proxy) needed to consider in order to guide my mother’s treatment, and reassuring Nurse Rosalie, who gently introduced me to the likely treatments she would need. (They also reviewed her medications and discarded those that no longer applied under the circumstances.) The conversations took place at my mother’s bedside, with all of us including her with smiles and gentle touches.

From then on, I knew I had a team behind me. I realized that the crisis calls I had been living in dread of for the past five years, would go to their 24-hour hotline first, as her caretakers were instructed. Rosalie or her deputy visited at least once a week, Dr. Hutchison every few weeks and every day at the end. They were joined by Rivka the social worker, who listened with compassion and advised without jargon. None of them spent less than half an hour with her. They, in turn, arranged for other optional services – someone to wash and color her hair, health aides to give her caretakers a few hours off, and a dog trainer who volunteered to bring his golden retriever Daisy on visits to the bedridden. Since she had in her professional life as a social worker, developed just such a program for hospitalized kids, this was an especially poignant gift.

With their support I was free to concentrate on enjoying her laugh, basking in her loving smile, and trying to interpret her unraveling sentences until I just let myself drift along with her. After her peaceful leave-taking, I was reminded of the line from Hamlet, “May flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.” The Hospice team were her angels.

For information on:

The Transition Network Caring Collaborative:

www.thetransitionnetwork.org

“Partners: TTN-Caring Collaborative & Visiting Nurse Service of New York City” (VNSNY): http://bit.ly/aqvQvs

Visiting Nurse Service of New York:

www.vnsny.org

]]> http://www.suzannebraunlevine.com/2010/07/13/easing-the-way/feed/ 4 A NEW CAT IN MY LIFE http://www.suzannebraunlevine.com/2010/06/22/a-new-cat-in-my-life/ http://www.suzannebraunlevine.com/2010/06/22/a-new-cat-in-my-life/#comments Wed, 23 Jun 2010 02:04:15 +0000 glenlevy http://www.suzannebraunlevine.com/?p=1145 Tito (short for Gatito, little cat) is the newest addition to our household. My daughter found him in an alley in Buenos Aires, where she has been living for the past two years. He was a half-starved kitten, infested with fleas. She took him in, dealt with the fleas, and now he is a feisty – and very long – fellow.

When she moved back from Argentina last month, Tito came with her. He didn’t enjoy the 16-hour plane ride, but he took over our apartment as soon as he arrived. We have been cat-less for a while, so he has really filled our hearts as well as our home.

My daughter took this photo the other day, which happened to be my (69th – ouch) birthday.

suzanne

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