Happy New Year

Hello again. I haven't been posting very much this past year, and not at all in the last few months. That's partly because it's been the busiest year of my life at work. Because of thre recession and because of economic stimulus funding, we've been able to add new programs and help many more people who were about to lose their homes, or who needed food stamps and fuel assistance to make sure they could both heat and eat...or who took the longer view and enrolled in our job readiness course, believing that sooner or later, jobs would be available again. That's all to the good, of course--but it has meant I have personally been responsible for submitting four times as many reports to Washington as in 2008. I came home each day and felt more like going to bed than like writing a blog.

I have to admit, though, that what really held me back was the sinking feeling that nobody was listening. I am not so vain, or so enamored of the sound of my own voice, as to send my words out to the blogosphere just for my own satisfaction. Making a difference has always been my passion. Feeling as if I made no difference whatever has kept me from trying, and therefore, I failed to make the small impact it is in my power to make. I am sorry for that. I will try to do better.

I feel a little bit like Peter Pan asking this, but if you want to see more writing from me, please clap your hands--I mean, show your support. Comment on what I've written. Repost pieces you think your friends will want to read. Keep the conversation going. As we begin a new school year and a new year on the Jewish calendar, I hope we can write a new chapter in this book of life.