Group therapy in a blog.
New Column: “Traveling on the Guilt Trip”
From The Jewish Week, 10/11/05
Traveling On The Guilt Trip
Esther D. Kustanowitz – Staff Writer
The most frequent vacation taken by single Jews? The Guilt Trip. We go out to parties and on blind dates because we feel guilty staying home. We have guilt from family and society, guilt for doing what we want and not what we should. We go out with our mother’s best friend-from-college’s son’s friend’s roommate, to help us answer a parental “but are you trying?†with a less guilt-ridden “yes.â€Â
Read more of the article, which proceeds to profile two excellent reads–Shanda, by Neal Karlen, and The Jewish Girl’s Guide to Guilt, edited by Ruthie Ellenson– here.
The essays in “The Guide†are engrossing, but the truth is Jewish girls don’t need a guide to guilt: we’re in it every day, battling stereotyping and religious traditional pigeonholing. We get it from our families, our friends and from the community itself, as they all urge us to find a job, date, get married, have kids, maintain a nice home, keep ourselves fit, take care of our husbands, get a hobby, and live religiously fulfilling, socially responsible lives.
This is my favorite paragraph. This describes Nice Jewish Girl Guilt PERFECTLY!!!
I really couldn’t have said it any better myself. Sometimes, after I read your columns, I wonder if you have been interviewing me without my knowing, because our minds seem to work the same way!
Great minds think alike…
Chag Sameach!
~Andrea
comedybyandrea@yahoo.com