The letters

Letters to my grandchildren and yours.

Signed, dated, and written slowly — on purpose. Filter by topic below.

Thoughts on Confronting a Personal Crisis

My dear family members, At this moment, some of us have already recognized the coronavirus’s advance on the United States as a personal crisis. Given what we know, what we are being told by the finest medical scientist w…

Thinking About Clean Energy and Mr. Trump

Over the weekend, President Trump criticized the Biden camp and the State of California for their support of sustainable energy technologies. He pointed out that California’s stupidity had resulted in their energy shorta…

Thinking About Failure

Dear grandson, Well, there must be a lot going on in your life to be disinterested in hard cash! So, there is $350.00 of birthday money waiting for you as soon as you send me a bank account number so I can Zelle it to yo…

Getting Up and Showing Up

My dear grandkids: Sometimes I run across a phrase that captures a core truth. I happened on this earlier today. Some of you have already entered your working life, taking on part time jobs. Others of you are not far awa…

On Trusting in Life

Dear Grandson, Thanks for calling me the other day. It feels really good to hear such an enthusiastic thank you for a small gift. We all say, oh, it doesn’t matter. But that is not really true. It does matter to people.…

Life's Uncertainties

Hi, Your grandmother was telling me a bit about your conversation yesterday. WOW! Being 20 years old ain’t easy. I heard a comment this morning, a French saying, “Life is like a shipwreck. You save what you can.” Now, th…

On Disappointment

Dear Grandson, Well, life really sucks sometimes, doesn’t it? You went through a huge effort applying to a couple of schools and you got rejected. That’s the word, right? That’s how it feels. Like a slap in the face. And…

Welcome to Adulthood

What can we say about Addison Jack Chandler? I started writing letters to you when you were eight years old. We have explored quite a few topics. Your interest in karate and baseball. My hope to establish a deeper relati…

Life as a Pyramid

Dear Danny, Here’s the <strong>attention grabber:</strong> The world has become hard to understand. What you needed to do growing up in the past, to be successful in your life, has changed. It has changed so much since I…

10 Traits to Success

Dear granddaughter, How are you? I am looking forward to seeing you later this summer. What is going on with you? What are you doing this summer? When do you start back to school? I enclosed an envelope. If you get time,…

Skills to Bring to Google

Dear Grandson, So how do you like being 13 years old and being a full adult in the Jewish world? I hope you feel really good about that. We were very happy to be at your ceremony, to be celebrating with you – fedora and…

Self Evaluation

Dear Grandson, I have two reasons for writing you a letter. The first is rather simple: to send another letter with this one and explain what it is all about. The second reason is personal, between you and me: to convey…

About War

Dear Grandson, How exciting to go to the mailbox and find a letter from you. Regarding the card game, you’ll need to show me how to play, when I see you the next time. I was wondering, looking at your letter, are you lef…

On Writing Letters

March 12, 2013, Dear Grandson, I have been doing a lot of thinking. You are very special to me. My name is your middle name. You will remember me forever. So, maybe we should get to know each other better. Addie, I know…