My wife returned to full-time work in early December, and since we were only able to find half-time childcare for our two-year-old, I’ve been working freelance part-time and spending my afternoons as the primary parent. It’s been exhausting, rewarding, terrifying, and exhilarating. A quick summary of my experience thus far follows.Financially: I earned less on…
Toddler: “Mom, Mom! I want to tell you a joke!” My wife: “Okay, honey, what’s the joke?” Toddler: “Dad!” Me:
TL;DR: If you can’t trust your employees with 24 hours’ access to email to say their goodbyes after you let them know they’re being laid off, you have a major problem with your hiring, firing, and/or internal communications. In the first season of Game of Thrones, we get an immediate sense of Ned Stark’s basic…
I have just made both the scariest and, I believe, best decision of my professional life. My wife just returned to the workforce after having parented our daughter full-time since her birth in 2020. Our daughter is enrolled in half-time daycare, so for the immediate future, at least, I am taking care of her from…
For those in the Ithaca area, Jen and I will be performing Thursday evening at Sacred Root Kava Bar as visual entertainment for Jenn Taiga, Krauhl, Notule, and Avoidance’s dungeon synth show. Details here: https://www.facebook.com/events/5521184401309539 Hope to see a full house there!
The Ithaca Shakespeare company has been performing outdoor summer theater for 20 years, and I’ve been fortunate to be a part of it for many of them. First, through friends (and students) of mine who choreographed their fights beginning around 2006, and more recently, choreographing, training their actors, and occasionally performing since 2016. Community theater…
I recently decided to purchase more life insurance. We are a single-income household, and while my wife could go back to work in the event of something horrific happening to me, I wanted to make sure that she and our daughter would have ample time to grieve and decide what made sense for them. I…
America is the “Land of Liberty,” and we hear “freedom” invoked for nearly every political position or campaign imaginable. But there are three “freedoms” (or rights, if you prefer) discussed in our founding documents that exist in inherent tension with each other. These are: the freedom from fear of one’s safety (or the “right to…
Heron overheadLarger than the branch it’s onUnafraid to fall. Branches for the nestBrought back from some other woodsPerfect at their role.
The kingdom of Concumbria was a small but happy one, blessed with beautiful waterfalls, hikable mountains, and soil that grew the most exquisite flowers of all varieties. Its people prospered from the cultivation and sale of exotic plants, and the kingdom thrived for many years, until the monks of the Camellian order set up their…
There are three different ways to become a saint, each indicating something different about the individual involved. If the purpose of reading saints’ lives is to be inspired to live well and become a better person, some of these paths are more applicable to a modern context (at least in America) than others. First, there…
My great-great-grandfather left the Jewish ghetto outside of Kyiv and took his family to the U.S. in 1890. He was deeply involved in my grandfather’s childhood, and I have some stories of his love of learning and his gentleness that I cherish, but as far as I know his entire family also emigrated. I haven’t…
Asceticism and hermitism have fascinated me for a long time, (which might surprise those who know me as a convivial, gregarious person who loves an audience). Judaism’s focus on community are largely incompatible with such practices, so I’m not sure where the interest comes from, but I think it’s a combination of feeling daunted by…
After 6 and a half years of advising MBA students on their job searches, I finally decided to take a new job myself, with an executive search firm. I was genuinely torn about this decision, but hope that sharing my thought process here will help others in their own career decisions. I evaluated the offers…
I was asked by Northeastern’s Consulting and Advisory Student Experience (CASE) club to teach a few virtual sessions on how to approach case interviews. The first session (of four) was on Saturday, and I’m excited to share that not only was turnout fantastic (35 students), but their questions were particularly thoughtful, especially for undergrads. Since…
Jacob K. Lehman 