Kathryn Schulz

And my dad spoke, I think, eight languages. But basically, English was the last of his many languages. And I like to think I'm a reasonably articulate person and my father could talk me out of the table. I mean, he just was beautifully gifted with languages. And I guess, fundamentally generous of spirit.

And my dad spoke, I think, eight languages. But basically, English was the last of his many languages. And I like to think I'm a reasonably articulate person and my father could talk me out of the table. I mean, he just was beautifully gifted with languages. And I guess, fundamentally generous of spirit.

You know, his response to the privations of his life were to live as generous a life as he could, both with material means, but also with his joy, with his intellect, with his energy, his happiness lay in sharing it with the world.

You know, his response to the privations of his life were to live as generous a life as he could, both with material means, but also with his joy, with his intellect, with his energy, his happiness lay in sharing it with the world.

What an interesting question. I've never been asked it before. I suppose I understand his temperament mostly as a great gift. And I'm not trying to deny my father credit he deserves. I know my father made a great many decisions about the kind of life he wanted to live and the kind of man he wanted to be, including in ways that changed over the course of my life.

What an interesting question. I've never been asked it before. I suppose I understand his temperament mostly as a great gift. And I'm not trying to deny my father credit he deserves. I know my father made a great many decisions about the kind of life he wanted to live and the kind of man he wanted to be, including in ways that changed over the course of my life.

I saw him actively become a more patient man. Patience did not naturally run strong in him, nor in me, for that matter. And I saw him make choices about equilibrium and patience. But I think in some fundamental way, I don't think my father was ever in denial about the experiences that shaped him. He didn't speak about them in great detail until I was myself an adult. But he certainly never...

I saw him actively become a more patient man. Patience did not naturally run strong in him, nor in me, for that matter. And I saw him make choices about equilibrium and patience. But I think in some fundamental way, I don't think my father was ever in denial about the experiences that shaped him. He didn't speak about them in great detail until I was myself an adult. But he certainly never...

pretended away the past. And he didn't conversely speak of himself as who he was because he had been forged in the flames of disaster or whatever. I don't think he valorized suffering as the thing that made him who he was.

pretended away the past. And he didn't conversely speak of himself as who he was because he had been forged in the flames of disaster or whatever. I don't think he valorized suffering as the thing that made him who he was.

Now, I certainly think that he had a very acute sense of what it had meant to be a Jew in the world in the middle of the last century, an acute sense of what it meant to be a refugee in this country.

Now, I certainly think that he had a very acute sense of what it had meant to be a Jew in the world in the middle of the last century, an acute sense of what it meant to be a refugee in this country.

I mean, look, my father had two brothers and one of them was just a year younger than him and for all intents and purposes shaped by identical forces and could not have been a more different human being. So there is something way deep down below the choices we make or our active will in the world that is inextricable from who we become.

I mean, look, my father had two brothers and one of them was just a year younger than him and for all intents and purposes shaped by identical forces and could not have been a more different human being. So there is something way deep down below the choices we make or our active will in the world that is inextricable from who we become.

I think that's absolutely right.

I think that's absolutely right.

Sure, and what is resolving versus what is dwelling upon and what aspects of our life we choose to emphasize versus downplay. You know, there was this sort of greatest generation stoicism, right? And this valorization of never speaking about suffering. And I don't know that that was a perfect solution, right?

Sure, and what is resolving versus what is dwelling upon and what aspects of our life we choose to emphasize versus downplay. You know, there was this sort of greatest generation stoicism, right? And this valorization of never speaking about suffering. And I don't know that that was a perfect solution, right?

I mean, my father was an ebullient character, but his mother, my grandmother, was a deeply, deeply... bitter unhappy volatile woman and heaven knows she came by those qualities honestly right I mean her life had been unrelentingly traumatic and tragic in ways I cannot fathom surviving She refused to talk about it. I tried at various occasions. So did many other people close to her.

I mean, my father was an ebullient character, but his mother, my grandmother, was a deeply, deeply... bitter unhappy volatile woman and heaven knows she came by those qualities honestly right I mean her life had been unrelentingly traumatic and tragic in ways I cannot fathom surviving She refused to talk about it. I tried at various occasions. So did many other people close to her.