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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ou 

earts 

g all 
place, pink 
allow hearts 
Mine” candy 
lates sold in packs of 

’
s Day party 

Love does not have to be marri

living off of Lone Pi

t ha