January 31 • 2019 5
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ven Barbra Streisand slept
alone!” This is the phrase my
best friend, Tim, and I would
say to each other when holidays like
Valentine’
s Day were fast approach-
ing.
Why did we say
this? Because Barbra
Streisand is America’
s
Queen, at least to
Jews. In a career span-
ning six decades, she
has won Academy
Awards, Grammy
Awards, Emmy
Awards, Golden Globe Awards, Tony
Awards and the freaking Presidential
Medal of Freedom.
From 1971, when she divorced
Elliot Gould, until 1998 when she
married James Brolin, she slept alone.
This Jewish Goddess, one of the great-
est recording artists of all time, with
more than 68.5 million albums in the
U.S. and with a total of 150 million
albums and singles sold worldwide
slept alone.
Yes, Valentine’
s Day will soon be
upon us. No, this is not a Jewish holi-
day. Does it silently sadden most single
people? Yes, it does — even those who
call it a “Hallmark holiday” and then
weep in the shower.
But you know what? It is still hard
when you are single and you are at
Plum Market just trying to buy some of

their delicious
Hungarian
mushroom
soup and you
see endless
arrays of hearts
exploding all
over the place, pink
marshmallow hearts
and “Be Mine” candy
paper plates sold in packs of
10 for the Valentine’
s Day party
that you will NOT be attending.
You try to fight your way through
the endless bouquets of flowers burst-
ing in pinks and reds in your face just
to pick up your grapefruit-flavored
La Croix, even though it tastes like a
single Skittle dissolved in water. You
can’
t even get to the bread section
without See’
s candies laughing in
your face that you will not be devour-
ing a heart-shaped box of assorted
nuts and chews. Sorry, maybe next
year.
It is OK to be alone. In fact, a
recent U.S. census reported there are
another 110.6 million who will also
be single on Feb. 14. It is OK to be
single, especially during holidays that
celebrate love in epic proportions.
Mother Teresa, who you probably
did not realize is really the love expert,
not Barry White, said, “Let us always
meet each other with a smile, for a
smile is the beginning of love.
”

Love does not have to be married
with children living off of Lone Pine
and Middlebelt. Love does not have
to be a 2-carat cushion-cut diamond.
Love is snowplowing your elderly
neighbor’
s driveway. Love is buying
yourself a bunch of peonies, your
favorite flowers and Oprah’
s, too.
If love is meeting someone with a
smile, start smiling some more. Smile
at that preschool mom you can’
t stand.
Smile at the mailman. Smile at your
mom. You will feel the love. Most
importantly, never forget that if you
are sleeping alone right now, Barbra
Streisand did, too … for an insane
amount of years. Now, go smile. ■

Sara Berkowitz Eaker has been a professional
writer for 15+ years. She also taught English,
drama and sex education to high schoolers
in South Central Los Angeles. She has a
penchant for Sno Balls and Yiddish. She now
lives in Metro Detroit.

continued on page 8

views

for starters
Even Barbra Streisand
Slept Alone

letters

Anti-Semitism in
Northern Michigan
Ken Winters’
“
Anti-Semitism Has
Never Left — Even in Rural Northern
Michigan,” (Jan. 17, page 5) brought
to mind an incident in my own life.
It was the summer of 1983 or 1984
and we had decided to take my moth-
er with us on our one-week vacation
to paradise … Lake Charlevoix. We
had rented a house on the north
shore of the lake, and I was ready for
a week of white fish, camp fires and
relaxation. No phone, no bills and no
newspapers.
I was sitting on a lounge chair
under a huge evergreen tree when my

mom came out of the house holding
a book. “Joel, you have to read this,”
she said. I took the book from her
and looked at a beautiful picture of
Tahquamenon Falls. The caption
underneath the picture read: “... and
the Jews, the tribe accursed, mocked
him, scourged him, crucified him.”
I turned to the cover and read
the title, The Land And Waters Of
Hiawatha, edited by Penrod Hiawatha
Press, a small Michigan publisher that
printed picture postcards and souve-
nir books about the Great Lakes. Of
course, we went to the Boyne City
Library, got a copy of the Longfellow
poem and sure enough, the line was
taken directly from the classic poem

by the great American poet.
When I got back to work in the
fall, I related this story to one of
my coworkers who taught English.
She asked me if I would mind if she
brought this up to her husband who
worked in the civil rights department
at Solidarity House, national head-
quarters of the United Auto Workers
Union. A few days later, he called me
and told me that, in his opinion, this
might be a violation of the Elliot-
Larsen Civil rights Act because I had
purchased the book in a bookstore
located in a state park and a good
argument could be made that taken
in its context, the quote was inflam-
matory because it bore absolutely no

Sara Berkowitz
Eaker

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’
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Love does not have to be marri

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