Tag Archives: Steve Safran

NOBODY IS OVERQUALIFIED… by Steve Safran

Posted by Britt in Uncategorized and tagged with , , , , , ,


A few years back I had a very strange interview. There were many details that made it so, but the most telling was the lack of respect the interviewers had for me. I was applying for a job I previously held, a job I knew how to do, a job already listed on my resume. Still, I was asked repeatedly, “How would you feel working for someone who had your job?” Well, I would be fine as long as he was skilled and I could learn from him. And indeed, he seemed very smart. 


But the interviews all had something in common: they were conducted by much younger employees, and they were disrespectful both in their thinly veiled attitudes and their unwillingness to hide them. I was asked about social media with smirking assurances my Facebook account included only family member followers. They insisted that “breaking news has changed since you were last in a newsroom.” (Really? We no longer drop everything to cover it?) HR kept circling around my “experience” and whether I might feel “overqualified” for the job. Overqualified is not a compliment. I don’t apply to jobs that don’t challenge me. I got the hint.


Suddenly I’m too old. Sometime in the calendar of years, I’ve crossed over from “young and energetic” to “old guy who probably wants my job and who will tell me how to do mine.” I was told “We’re going in a different direction.” Guess which direction.


I don’t bring up this anecdote to grouse. OK, maybe just a little. I mean, I’m only partially into my 50s. I’ve given talks to companies about how to use Twitter, I follow my kid’s band on YouTube, I have a TikTok account. I’ve witnessed intergenerational conversations that span the mommy wars to the great Gen Z/millenial rift over jean and hair styles. Today, I have great job tutoring young writers of the future where it would be impossible to ignore current trends and interests. I’m not exactly pulling up to these interviews with a Filofax and an inability to turn off the flashlight on my iPhone.

I bring it up because it’s my generation’s turn to experience ageism, and it’s a huge mistake. I came across a post on LinkedIn that summarized the situation beautifully. It is by Brigette Hyacinth, author of “Leading the Workforce of the Future”:

I HIRED a person over 50. You can’t imagine the resistance I had to overcome. The HR manager was not impressed. She said he “won’t fit into our culture,” “he is overqualified.” etc. I had to put my foot down to get him hired.

Everyone is looking for that 18 year old with 20 years experience.

He was one of the best hires I ever made. He made a huge difference for the company. You can’t Google Experience.


“You can’t Google ‘experience.’” Isn’t that perfect?

Companies want to look young and hip, but they also want experience and the ideas that go with it. Generation X is experienced, hard-working, and… totally discriminated against. We’re the ones who helped developed the modern web and the mobile web, but we’re put in the same bucket as buggy-whip salesmen. We have 15 to 20 good work years left. And unlike that 25 year-old in their first job, we’re going to stick around because we appreciate the power of loyalty. We’re not looking at the job as the first of the next dozen companies that will employ us. 


So follow Brigette’s lead. Hire someone over 50. If (when) your company fights you– fight back. Ask exactly how someone can be “overqualified” for a job they might already know how to do well? If I go to the supermarket and want a job bagging groceries, they will hire me on the spot. I am overqualified for this job, save for a bad back. So how can someone be overqualified for a job in the same field they’ve worked in for 25 years? Let’s lose the “O” word from our lexicon. Ageism is wrong and it’s also illegal. The trouble is, it’s really hard to prove. All I can do is encourage employers to look at veteran employees as an asset, not a liability.


Experience matters.

http://www.pritchettcartoons.com/job-mkt.htm

 

GOD’S EDITOR, JERRY… by Steve Safran

Posted by Britt in Uncategorized and tagged with , , , , ,


Lord Almighty,


We are in receipt of the next draft of your exciting new work. We see this going multi-platform, and are already working on the movie rights. Picture Charlton Heston as Moses! For that matter, create Charlton Heston! You are God, after all.


As your editor, it’s my job to help you write the best Old Testament you can write. I should tell you I’m Jewish, so I’m a HUGE fan. I love what you’ve done with the place. Not particularly crazy about all the Egyptians walking around, but I’m sure you have your Reasons. I’m here for you.


With that in mind, some notes about the Testament:


GENESIS: Wow. Boffo! Had no idea you created everything in six days. I can’t even get the copy machine guy to come in a week. But, question: You’re GOD. Why did you need to rest? Flesh out that part. Let us know what it’s like to feel tired as a deity. How does God chill? I’m picturing Heaven’s largest Slurpee machine. It has crossover appeal.


ADAM AND EVE: This one’s a little tougher. I buy the Garden of Eden, and I suppose we had to start with two people at some point. But why kick them out for eating fruit? Shouldn’t we be encouraging healthy eating habits? Maybe give that a rethink. Just a thought: Kick them out for eating at Olive Garden.


THE BIG FLOOD: This has the potential to be a spinoff. I see this as a 10-part Netflix special. Noah is the first action hero! But– two of every creature? Not on this budget. How about two of every cute creature? Or just two creatures that are magical and can turn into other creatures? I don’t want to tell you how to do your job, just pitching…


EXODUS: I’m starting to sense a pattern about your attitude toward the Jews, and I have to say… what gives? For a Chosen People, you’re making some brutal choices. As God, your brand should be marketable. Suffering is love? I don’t see that testing well. Still, Moses is main character material. Totally believable and relatable to today’s pious and non-pious alike. Who doesn’t want to part water with a staff? I can’t even get a plumber on the weekends.


LEVITICUS: Wow. A lot to unpack here. So … many … rules. Good thing you had Moses to remind them, or nobody could keep them straight. And I don’t think word of mouth will “play telephone” with Your words at all. Still– a lot of good advice here about cleanliness. You might want to add in something about masks. In a few thousand years, people are gonna get all huffy about them, so Your Word might help clarify. Also, we’re confused by this part: “You shall not lie with a male as a woman.” Sounds off brand. Did a disgruntled intern slip that in? Also, your idea for a Day of Atonement is outstanding and will lead to many bagel dinners.


NUMBERS: Oddly few numbers here, for a book called “Numbers,” but we’ll take it. It’s the first title the audience will understand. Quick anecdote: I’m reading “Numbers,” and I’m thinking “Good thing the Jews have escaped the Egyptians. Should be smooth sailing now.” And then WHAM– 15,000 Jews slain for bitching about Moses and Aaron. I did NOT see that coming. (Although now that I think about it, maybe “NUMBERS” was the foreshadowing. Nice one, Holy of Holies.) Heavy story turn. I can see the scene going black right there, like a “Sopranos” ending. Which You will also develop. 


DEUTERONOMY: A bit of a mouthful, that title. Why not just “DUDE?” Give that the ol’ Godthink. This is a good wrap-up: forty years of wandering, the laws of Moses, the teachings– the whole shebang. The Jews make it to Canaan… roll credits, amirite? NO. Moses snuffs it before entering The Promised Land? I know what you’re going for, but we’re trying to sell books here. What if… and just stick with me for a second… what if Moses doesn’t die, but instead sets up a Canaan deli?


Overall, a very promising draft, O Mighty One. And I appreciated your response to my last set of notes. The wife looks just fine as a pillar of salt.


– Jerry.

Jerry better hope these editorial notes are received well…

Back To The Dungeon, Happily… by Steve Safran

Posted by Britt in Uncategorized and tagged with , , , , ,


We were any group of nerds playing Dungeons and Dragons in the ‘80s: four or five of us at a time, notebooks full of character and quest information, and two-liter bottles of orange Shasta. In the early ’80s, if you were a young teen, “D&D” was a revelation. The games we had played until then were conventional, predictable, and fit inside primary colored boxes in the den closet. You started at GO with a generic plastic pawn, and you moved your piece around the board. First person to the finish, wins. (Unless, I maintain, you were playing the game of LIFE, in which case I now recognize the real goal is to finish as slowly as possible with a car full of pin-sized children.)


Most of the cliches about D&D players were earned. Many (but not all) of us were socially awkward. We didn’t have any other plans for weekend nights, but in our defense, we also didn’t have driver’s licenses or access to mom’s station wagon. We were original nerds; we were awkward and goofy before that became mainstream, if not occasionally cool. I’m happy to see everyone embrace today’s Golden Era of Nerdiness, but let’s not forget how many of us heard this grand advice: “So don’t provoke him.” Our mere existence was often “provoking,” and carrying around velveteen bags of dice and pretending to be wizards didn’t help.


But we had D&D. It was imaginative. Part of its appeal to us what that you couldn’t really explain it to someone who hadn’t been initiated into a group. 20-sided dice? Hit points? A “Dungeon Master?” That would have sounded kinky, if we knew what “kinky” meant. (We did not.)


D&D games were card nights for the (mostly) boys of the under-18 set. We didn’t have the cash to make poker interesting, but we were an imaginative bunch, and this was an interesting game that tapped into our fascination with sci-fi fantasy worlds we found in beloved books and movies. But as the years went on, our group waned. We left for college, we acquired friends who didn’t attach a velveteen pouch to a belt loop… some of us started dating. The game stopped as our nascent adult lives began. But memories of epic 1984 games recently popped up in a Facebook Group Chat and the reminiscing began.


Scattered across the country and over time zones in the midst of a lingering pandemic, getting together for a game would be impossible. But, thank you Internet, we can assemble together virtually now. Remember– nerds founded the Internet, so D&D is practically baked in. It’s not hard to find sites that are the equivalent of Zoom D&D. However, though all of us were enthusiastic about setting up a game, nobody was volunteering to be the Dungeon Master. Simply put, it’s a hard job, and in the digital world none of us quite knew how to do it.


Enter Izak Safran.


My son, (bragging Jewish father here) who is about to graduate from Rensselaer and really has better and less nerdy things to do during his Senior Spring, answered my entreaties to be our Dungeon Master, and did so with good humor. Izak is a longtime D&D player and has “DM-ed” some great games. He was patient enough to take our wandering tribe through the three-hour trouble-shooting process that plagues most Zoom meetings in our demographic. “Can you hear me? Do you see my screen? YOU ARE ON MUTE.” He was patient with this bunch of old guys, and set up each of our characters– hit points and all. Whatever that means.


So, nearly 40 years later, we’re back. Our first quest is stolen straight out of the movies. We’re an old team of mercenaries called back into action because of our uniquely compatible powers. And that feels true to us. We are back together. We’re brothers. We’ve fought together in those shag-carpeted, wood-paneled ‘80s basements. We’ve argued passionately about a course of action, celebrated a completed quest as heroes, and together battled and endured evils both imagined and real (“don’t provoke him”). And somewhere lurking under the facade of these 53 year-old men are boys, pretending we’re mystical beings of our own making, working on clever names for our characters. I’m Botwulf of Thorney who you may know as St. Botolph, for whom Boston is named. And– Britt will like this especially– Botwulf is very religious. (Ed. note, Britt does like this.)

That’s the power of fantasy made sweeter with the tinge of nostalgia. Grab your Shastas, boys. It’s time to defeat the monsters. Together.

Summer Without Camp… by Steve Safran

Posted by Britt in Uncategorized and tagged with , , , , , , , , ,

What all of us need this summer is a place for the kids to go where they can play, swim, and just be outdoors with their friends. A place with a lake, a baseball diamond, goofy songs and goofier crafts, paths through ancient pines… a place of their own.

They need summer camps. For parents trapped with school-aged kids, the need is bordering on desperation this year. And like so many of the things that could make any of this more bearable, they’re closed.

“Out of an abundance of love for everyone in our camp community, we cannot compromise the safety of our campers, teens, and staff … ” was written in a Camp Tel Noar email. Disappointed parents who had hoped their children would be able to trade Zoom screens for canoes in a few weeks opened similar messages. Tel Noar is a New Hampshire institution: a 75 year-old camp I attended as a kid from 1977-1981. It, along with Camp Tevya and Camp Pembroke are part of the Cohen Foundation camps, all three of which have announced they will be closed. This will leave them in serious financial trouble.

Summer camps don’t generally have endowments. Tel Noar (translation from Hebrew: “Youth Hill”) shared that they already “spent $3 million in facility maintenance, repairs, staff salaries, insurance (and) utilities.” At the same time they’re breaking the news that camp is canceled, they need to ask for donations to make up the shortfall. But, let’s face it, only a super-generous donor is going to mail the full tuition while their kids stay home. It won’t happen. Like some small colleges, a few of our beloved camps won’t survive.

However, summer camps are historically resilient, possibly because they are managed by people who provide a yearly respite from the worries of the world. Cape Cod Sea Camps in Brewster, MA is nearly 100 years old. It has seen its share of world-changing events: “Cape Cod Sea Camps has provided a camping experience every summer since 1922 and have held camp through the Great Depression, World War II, the polio epidemic and numerous other global events.”

But this year, even their cabins will be empty.

unnamed

Waterfronts are usually the hub of the summer camp experience 

In the overall scheme of world events that include a rising death toll of a global pandemic, canceling a season of camp isn’t at the top of the headlines. But it is heartbreaking for the thousands of children for whom camp life is an escape from their own world worries. It’s also a rite of passage, often the first time a kid tastes freedom and learns how to steer that privilege. Camp is where time does funny things, where the days go on forever, but it all ends too fast.

I had the joy of returning to Camp Frank A. Day in East Brookfield, MA last summer to teach podcasting, and it transported me right back to my counselor days in the mid-’80s. Everything was the same: the boathouse, the waterfront, the cabins, the dining hall– it was eternal and ruggedly beautiful. Teenage counselors haven’t changed, either, happily sharing the camp gossip once they realized I was one of “them.” I made new friends. Never before did grilled cheese and tomato soup evoke so many memories. Is there such a thing as “camp sandwich griddle grease” they order in bulk?

unnamed-2

Stevie teaching budding podcasters last summer

For the summer of 2020, Camp Day faced the same agonizing decision as their colleagues. The staff and its board debated, looked at the current environment, acted with the caution of the day, and emailed its community: ” …that there is too much uncertainty surrounding COVID-19 for us to confidently operate a safe and high-quality residential camp this summer.”

I still have friends from summer camp, friendships forged 40 years ago as we shared bunk beds and bug bites for only eight weeks of a handful of summers. Think about that. I’ve had co-workers whose names were forgotten after years in the same offices, if I ever knew them at all. But camp is different. It’s intense. Your bunkmates are your brothers. And the girls? So many firsts all crammed into the time it takes a ChiaPet to mature.

The first time I asked a girl to dance was at Camp Tel Noar. (It was followed shortly by the first time a girl rejected my offer to dance). The first “date” I had was at camp. I was nine. We had a field trip to Canobie Park and I asked Ellen G. if she would go with me. She was very nice. About halfway through our time there, I lost our ticket. It was a harbinger of dates to come.

Camp builds independence and the kind of self-confidence that emboldens a nine year old to ask a girl on a date. College shouldn’t be the first time a kid is really away, feels the pangs of homesickness, and learns to overcome that. Over the years, I became a happier kid at home from spending a summer in the woods.

All of these rites of passage and moments of joy and firsts are on hold. Camps that weathered wars and economic collapse have been felled by a virus. The waterfront will be still. The baseball diamond will remain pristine. The bunks, the dining hall, and the lake will be as still as they are in January.

Sound taps.

See you in 2021. I hope.

unnamed-3

Stevie (far left in the shorty-shorts and Hawaiian shirt) and his bunk on his first tour as a counselor.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And Hero is his name

Posted by Britt in Uncategorized and tagged with , , , , , , ,

The decade has seen us weather the toddler to teen years, from kindergarten to high school. Facebook memories from 2009 portray an exhausted mom who yearned for adult conversation and bubbly. A fairly big chunk of the 2010s included diagnosis, treatment, recovery, and the never-ending aftermath of breast cancer. The past few years, Lees agonized over standardized testing, essay writing, and the sleep-depriving anxiety that accompanies high school admissions. Stevie navigated divorce, dating, neuropathy, migraines, college application stress for three children, and got cancer. More recently (because God is good) he’s experienced the miracle of new love and marriage. Steve wrote about all of these moments candidly and with humor. More often, I just complained about cardio. Our shared bloggy pursuits even went viral twice this decade. As 2020 begins, there is more good than awful in the accounting, but we’ll take “boring” for the next 10 years, please.

Boring, it won’t be. In the dark days surrounding the solstice, the Lees felt keenly bereft of joy. The stress of the holidays piggybacking onto an overly long and expensive home renovation project and three (minor, but still) car accidents and midterm exams plus a brief but serious consideration of a new job and move was enough already. Taking a hard look at all of the hard work all of us were doing—board meetings, conference calls, Latin declensions, concussions and cross country meets, fundraising, editing, international meetings, and too much travel that did not include umbrella drinks– we realized there wasn’t a lot of FUN happening. And so in what appears like the Lee Family’s Most Impulsive Move, we got a dog.

Decidedly not boring.

After years of insisting that I “am allergic” and “refuse to pick up poop” and “will never budge,” we got a puppy. A tiny, sort of hypoallergenic (y’all are really overselling this notion), absolutely adorable mini Bernedoodle is sleeping at my feet right now. Is this just more work? Maybe. But with teenagers doing the lion’s share of puppy play and taking the night shift, so far it seems like we adopted a big dose of joy in the softest, cutest, littlest package. And Hero is his name.

My boys went back to school today. On the 2nd, because their school is totally finger horns metal when it comes to the calendar. When Brodie brought a whimpering puppy to me at 4:30am, asking me sweetly to take over, I did this happily… but I’m still drinking coffee in jammies and have been up for FIVE HOURS. Am I counting the minutes until they get home? Maybe. Is Hero checking couches for napping humans because so far that’s all he’s seen us do? Yup. But those of you who are likening this stage to having another baby never experienced Brodie as a baby. This is hardly the lonely and exhausting time suck that was stay at home parenting with a newborn. And I could probably take Hero with me to get a pedicure. Perspective.

It was thought- and conversation-provoking timing to get a tiny new family member as the decade closed on such a huge portion of my boys’ lives. Will it be so sad to leave Hero when they go to college? Will Hero be alive when they get married? What will life look and be like in 2030? For the first time since my boys began high school, and now a handful of their friends started college visits and dove deep into application stress, we’re looking at the future with more what if/what’s next optimism. As my boys focus less on have-to’s and more on could-be’s, Bernie and I are clearing the calendar of stuff that doesn’t really need to be on it. We have a sleepy, fun, soft, love me love me love me puppy to Instagram. Together. And that makes him a Hero, indeed.

80434665_10156966747018284_7550571679102009344_o

Please note my utter RESTRAINT in only posting one puppy pic

Smangry… by Steve Safran

Posted by Britt in Uncategorized and tagged with , , ,

How could he insult me, unprovoked, for the second time this year? He can’t really be this upset, I thought, reading a smug and angry (smangry?) comment to a joke I posted on Twitter. I mean, this isn’t some random troll—it’s my cousin. How did we get here? Why?

Because of Donald Trump, that’s why.

Since 2016 we’ve all read about family reunions stressed, friendships tested, and social media relationships obliterated because of the man who occupies the presidency. Today, I felt it keenly. I’ve only muted or “un-friended” two people in my entire social media history of 12+ years. One was a relative who made an outrageously homophobic slur. And today– my own cousin.

It hurts my heart that someone with whom I’ve shared genes and family dinners would set out to insult me. Publicly. But like too many people these days who react emotionally to opposing political views, the insult felt personal and on purpose. My cousin has become very sensitive to criticism of Trump. And on this historic day that the House impeached the president, I made a tame observational joke on Twitter:

“When history asks Tulsi Gubbard where she was when the House voted to impeach Trump, she will be able to say, loudly and clearly, “There!”

Not much of a joke, frankly. (WA-wa.) It had a shelf life of maybe 30 minutes. And note– it wasn’t even an attack on Trump. I don’t generally say a lot about the president on social media. It’s boring. There’s so much more interesting material to talk about. Like pants.

But my tweet raised some hackles. I will not reprint his reply, as I would never do so without permission, and I ain’t asking for permission. In short, he defended Tulsi and insulted the Democratic leadership with not particularly clever, off-color nicknames.

Mute.

This is disappointing and upsetting because I love debate. I think back to life at Trinity College in the ‘80s and the great debates that happened in classes, and likely less great but just as entertaining back-and forths late at night with friends. I especially remember one debate where, after a good half hour, an exasperated challenger finally said “YOU CAN’T POSSIBLY BELIEVE THAT!” and I responded, “Of course I don’t.”

The debate was the point.

Debate is to civics as testing is to the scientific method. Positions need to be examined for logic and merit, and public discourse is the “bench research” that generates data that lead to solid conclusions. Testing works well in a lab because the conditions are controlled (and because lab rats don’t ask you who you voted for). However, we have lost any attempt at control, or the ability to debate properly. Instead, debate has become argument. People are throwing lab rats against the wall and insisting rodents can fly.

Insults and arguments are the enemy of debate. True debate leaves both parties smarter. I may not agree with your position at the end but, dammit, I hope I learned more than when we started. Even if no new facts were uncovered, I now know something about you and your worldview. And that enriches me. Debate is at the core of this country. The great Enlightenment thinkers’ debates led to our founding documents. They didn’t sit around calling each other “Wacky John Locke” and “Fathead Thomas Hobbes.” Then again, they didn’t have Twitter.

I hope the children and young adults are learning the art of debate in schools and on college campuses. I hope they are engaging in better exchanges than what is being demonstrated on cable news channels and in Facebook comment threads. We have to learn how to disagree respectfully. We cannot continue divided, launching “smangry” comments into the ether, and harming our relationships with each other. To do so is to declare failure on the American Experiment. And that is the most important theory being tested right now. Insults and party-line adherence at all costs will only speed our failure.

Rat cartoon

Reconciling October

Posted by Britt in Uncategorized and tagged with , , , , ,

When I get overwhelmed with posttraumatic cancer reminders (e.g., beloved family and friends newly diagnosed, an unfamiliar bony ache, the entire month of October), I text Stevie. He gets it. I hope all of us touched with the terror of unbridled mitosis have at least one killer cancer buddy. My Shitty Sorority friends and I have a legion lingering only a few keystrokes away, armed with sympathetic emojis to ease our Pinktober ennui. I was warned that the initial October after diagnosis and treatment would be… a lot. And for me, the first time I was aware of all of the awareness, it was in the aftermath, when I had already acquired implants and more than an inch of hair. Still, I probably became a bit of an asshole.

After a few years, I mellowed and even championed my own boys’ desire to Walk for the Cure. Ever supportive April expensively sponsored swanky evenings at the BCRF Hot Pink Party, where she grabbed my hand with love during the patient stories, and then again later to drag me to the dance floor. A good friend knows you need hand holding for both. Especially in the beginning. Those fancy nights were the only times I felt anything close to accomplishment? pride? relief? Or some mix of those that bolder women must feel when they say they “beat” this disease. I’ll never have that much bravado, no matter how many champagne flutes I’ve drained. The only way we’re ever going to “beat” breast cancer is with research for metastatic disease, and the BCRF is probably the best place for your donations to support scientists actually working (not walking) for answers.

Nearly eight years later, cancer could/should be very much in the rear view mirror. And it would be if there weren’t devastating daily reminders from scars, Tamoxifen… and the entire month of October. Even so, more often text exchanges with Stevie are about marriage, must-see Netflix shows, and why there should be a law mandating teenage boys sit to pee. With two of them in the house alongside a rotating cadre of handymen, electricians, and roofers, I’m occasionally one Chlorox wipe away from losing my trademark sunny disposition. So when the canister reminds me I’m also cleaning for the cure, it’s hard not to get grumpy. It all becomes… a lot. Especially in October.

Next week I’m flying to the Midwest to support one of my favorite people as she starts this journey from diagnosis to healing. My phone is full of hundreds of texts from friends, friends of friends, cousins of friends, dry cleaner’s sister-in-law, babysitter’s bridesmaid, and women of ever-further degrees of separation that become obliterated when I’m asked to be their point person as a breast cancer veteran. Dear friend Emily called it my Cancer Concierge Service, and mostly I am happy to pay forward the support I received years ago from Lisa and Kelli and Hester. There is a call/text at any hour level of intimacy between those of us in the Shitty Sorority. However, this will be the first time I’ll be offering a week-long fluff-your-pillows-and-strip-your-drains on call service.

Maybe because I just came home from Bible study, or because I love to tie these essays up with a bow, I find a bit of grace in having the time to give and a familiarity with this exact disease to help someone I’ve known and admired my entire life. To hold her hand through this. To be her killer cancer buddy. Though I have the personal and surgical experience to be helpful, I’ll be referencing the lessons I learned from those of you who amused, supported, and loved me eight years ago. In this long, dark month when so many essays will instruct us on what not to do or say or expect from our cancer-ed friends, I’m thinking about all of the hilarious, generous, and awesome things done for me. And I’m asking for your best prayers/juju/vibes once again.

This time, for Diane.

IMG_7485

Dreaming of a day we won’t need a breast cancer themed month and can focus on rebranding October to support parents of teenage boys everywhere

Social Mourning… by Steve Safran

Posted by Britt in Uncategorized and tagged with , , , , , ,

This past month, one of my childhood idols died. He was my camp counselor during the late ‘70s at Camp Tel Noar (CTN) in Hampstead, NH. Steve Levy  was everyone’s favorite: smart, funny, and oh-so-cool. I learned a lot from Steve. He brought his music collection to camp and played Led Zep, The Who, The Stones and music otherwise inaccessible to nine year-olds. He taught drama and was one of my first directors, witnessing my transformation into the role of “theater kid” that lasted through college. He would also sneak us leftover Chinese contraband, waking us at midnight for a bull session and cold noodles.

Steve wore a signature necklace. This was no Jewish Star of David or Chai symbol. It was a wrench. When I asked him about it, his four-word reply was a more profound insight into the human condition than any after school special was offering:

“We are all tools.”

Other counselors caught on, and naturally, started wearing wrench necklaces, too. Now they were all tools.

Screen Shot 2019-02-11 at 1.10.05 PM

Steve Levy left CTN and began a professional career in standup comedy and acting. I followed his career with enthusiasm. It’s always a thrill to see someone you know on TV, and better still when it’s your childhood idol. When he had a cameo on “The West Wing,” I nearly lost it.

SteveLevyL

From the West Wing: Steve and associate trying to convince Josh Lyman of something or other. 

He was on “Ray Donavan” and “JAG,” too. And then, Steve died of a particularly vicious form of cancer that first took his nose (a legendary nose at that), when he was just 58. You should read his amazingly touching, funny account of his life with nose cancer.

Now. We’ll wait.

I’d been in touch with him, the way you can in the era of emails and social media. But in the past 40 years, I never saw him. Steve lived in LA, and I never made the time. I regret that.

There are many of us who share camp memories of him or were genuine fans outside of the world of CTN, and it made me start to wonder about our collective mourning on line. People may share sad news tragically close to home on Facebook, but more often you’ll see a nostalgia thread after their favorite pop star passes. Something about social media makes us share the fact that we saw David Bowie on the Glass Spider tour… and also that one time at Whole Foods. That’s not necessarily deliberate; social media asks, “What are you thinking?” If you’re upset about something, that’s what you’re thinking. It’s a new kind of grief: Social Mourning.

Steve’s death reminds me of another loss that still stings– the murder of my friend Stu Meltzer on 9/11. If you follow me on social media, you’ve seen my yearly tributes. I want to share the karaoke-style tapes we made in 1990. I want keep his memory alive. I still miss him. But every year I also wonder if I am making this about me. Am I benefitting from unwarranted sympathy every September 11th? It’s Stu’s family that mourns most deeply. Does my public display of bereavement, however genuine, take a piece of that? Who am I to write about loss when they lost so much more? I’m simply one of the hundreds of people who mourn for Stu. Or… maybe our Social Mourning allows all of us to feel that closeness in our grief, even for just a moment as we blow on our morning coffees and scroll through our screens.

I’m going to surprise the heck out of Churchy Girl Britt now and turn to Judaism for a moment. I do this because I genuinely appreciate the Jewish rules on mourning. Among the most important is the concept of Yahrtzeit. Literally, it means “time of year” but really it means “time of one year.” Jews are instructed to recognize these sad anniversaries. There is even a candle involved, though I have yet to light one outside of the rare blackout.

(My Jewish friends may fault my Yahrtzeit candle usage, but I figure the Almighty’s cool with it, since His first act was to create light.)

In addition to the candlelit remembrances, it’s also standard protocol to go to Sabbath services the week of the Yahrzeit. I have never done this with any frequency, and I really loved my grandparents. But I will post about Stu every year, and write a blog remembering my favorite camp counselor. Is social media the new Yahrzeit? 

What are our intentions when we share our grief on line? What are we saying when we lament the loss of someone we only ever saw at Whole Foods? Or mourn someone we haven’t seen (in person) in more than 40 years? Are we pulling focus to ourselves to share our grief? Or are we compelled to tell the crowd “Look! I’m sad David Bowie’s dead, too!” for fear someone will take you to task for not posting “Heroes?”

I don’t know.

I’m a tool.

News Without Noise…by Steve Safran

Posted by Britt in Uncategorized and tagged with , , , ,

Remember what it was like to get the daily news back before it was terrifying or held in your very hand? Before the wrong combination of likes or dislikes or posts or comments could brand you as UNCLEAN for billions to mock or deride, even though you might have only accidentally landed on cut/paste/post while searching for car keys or spare change? Remember when an essay masking as “news” couldn’t be immediately discounted by snopes.com, or when journalism itself was a noble profession assumed to be grounded in a search for truth?

This is my life right now, and I completely enjoy it.

There’s very little I like about Life Without Screens, mind you. My DVR is bloated with episodes I’ve missed, and is now groaning with repeats of shows gone by. My fault. I never envisioned a two-month hiatus from must-see TV. But I am actually improving: up to about an hour of screen time a day now, nearly as much allotted to a well behaved first grader. While moving video will still hurl me into dizzy fits and land me back in my bedroom cave, to Britt’s enormous relief, I’m not sending badly-typed copy either.

I broke my typewriter. And this wasn’t in a fit of frustration. I really meant well, and threaded a c.1930s style ribbon quite expertly, I thought. But maybe not so expertly since all of the keys to the left of “V” now strike the paper in concert, sticking there like so many commuters stopped at a locked turnstile. I may be excellent at fixing electronics, but I’m a hopeless handyman.

main-qimg-49ca4c894a36f015220b7d8b3b4b1c52-c

What I have discovered in my forced vacation from screens is the news. A journalist discovering news? Yes. The news that lured me into this field in 1992 is back, at least the way I consume it. I have an Amazon Echo (“Alexa? What’s the news?”) which gives me frequent national and local updates from NPR and WBUR. I read honest to God newspapers when I can tolerate the light. I discuss current events with Kim and kind friends who have been coming by to visit. It’s 1989 up in here.

I’m a digital media guy, and I wouldn’t like to live this way forever. I’d prefer to get news from a variety of sources around the world. Due respect to our city’s newspapers, but I prefer many different points of view. And I’ve always been the social media guru, traveling from station to station to lecture the importance of a strong social media presence. Photophobia kept me, until this past Sunday, from more than a minute in the light without severe pain. But one glance at a simple news story after a two week break, and I was reminded why I don’t read Facebook comment threads anymore.

News has become, in large measure, a kernel of truth surrounded by outer shells of noise. The networks are all the same:

CNN: TRUMP SAYS A THING, COULD END HIS PRESIDENCY

FOX NEWS: TRUMP SAYS A THING, HILLARY STILL NOT IN JAIL

MSNBC: TRUMP SAYS A THING, HERE’S A MEANDERING HOUR THAT WILL NOT MAKE IT ANY CLEARER IF IT’S A THING AT ALL

I love digital media. But I have to tell you, it’s like I’ve been chasing a runaway ticker tape for 20 years, and I finally just get to linger over some clean copy in Courier. Take my advice. This summer, even for a few days or a whole week, do this:

Go dark.

 

In the Dark… by Steve Safran

Posted by Britt in Uncategorized and tagged with , , , , ,

For the past two weeks, I have been living in a Hell that feels especially designed for me. The staff at Dante’s Fitting Punishments were inspired when they green-lit this one for Stevie: I can’t look at a screen without getting sick. Yes, your faithful computer-addicted correspondent, status updater, and occasional blogger is writing this on a 1936 Royal Portable typewriter, fitted with an ancient ribbon that makes this draft a bit of a challenge to read, and more than a pain in the ass for Britt to transcribe.

A fortnight without screens has been—forgive me, for “fortnight” and this pun—an eye-opener. Make no mistake, this isn’t one of those Author Unplugs and Discovers Life essays. No, I’m way behind on a lot of important work. Among other pressing tasks like taxes, kid graduation, and wedding planning, there is a softball team to organize. Not that there’s any danger we’ll ever play, with incessant nor-easters making fools of our Opening Day.

I have, however, rediscovered books—the bound and print kind!

Side note, on the 1936 Royal Portable, typing that exclamation point required period, backspace, apostrophe. With an economy of keys, a capital “I” subs in for a number one. And though this trusty, 30lb “word processor” inside of its carrying case was the war correspondent laptop of its day, it would easily topple a tippy Starbucks table. If I want to write, I’m stuck right here at home.

Luckily, I can tolerate sound and I’m searching through the free audio plays at archive.com, though I need to have my faithful fiancée or son Simon queue up “Henry V” for me. Any more than a quick glance at a screen makes me dizzy and initiates instant, blinding headaches. I can only use them briefly, in the dark, with the “Night Shift” setting that takes out the blue light.

Part of the reason I’m sharing (typing) this is to query others about similar experiences. This is scary. I’m worried. The doctors I’ve consulted have ruled out the terrifying possibilities I might find on WebMD if I could look at a damn screen, but they have no diagnosis yet. Until they do, I feel like an outcast, alone in the dark, bumbling through a non-screen life in an all-screen world. And as much as I love my loyal 1936 Royal Portable, I really miss my Mac.

IMG_1683

My “laptop,” the I936 Royal Portable