WRITER
Speeches by day. Essays by night.
"Words are sacred. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little." - Tom Stoppard
ESSAYS
HUFFINGTON POST, March 2024
My father came back into my life via the post office.
"During the summer I turned 14, I came home to a typewritten letter waiting for me on my bedspread. My dad had entered a drug treatment program — part of his rehabilitation was writing to his family about what he’d been through, and to apologize if necessary.
Apologies were necessary.
My father had disappeared five or six years before, after a custody battle and then a failure to pay child support. Since then, we’d moved away, and my mother remarried and had a second child. The few memories I had of my father were mostly of a swimming pool that made my eyes bloodshot, animals that I loved and an awful skin rash I picked up when he’d taken me to Hawaii without telling my mother."
NEWSWEEK, February 2021
Exploring extracurriculars with zero expectations, except perhaps, joy.
"Sometime in March or April, my son found his back way to the piano and taught himself to play again. At first, he would play for only a few minutes. By summertime—three months into quarantine—he installed himself on the piano bench for three or four hours a day. While it wasn't always calming for the rest of the family, playing seemed a salve to him, my extroverted boy who'd been forced to trade a stimulating social life of middle school, soccer and theater for six hours a day of Zoom school...The piano is clearly his alone; he has no desire to "turn it into something big" or "consider his future." Yet—and maybe because of this—he continues to play with a look on his face that reminds me of when he was a little boy coming off the soccer field: pure joy."
SHONDALAND, September 2021
The incomparable joy of visiting a bookstore in real life.
"For all of us who are comforted and inspired by the written word, and by the ability to connect to one another because of it, may we be heartened to know there are still places where one can discover who we want to become."
THE JEWISH JOURNAL, December 2021
"Beverlywood Bakery is where my grandmother — my Bubby — and I got off the public bus after shopping at the May Company department store every Saturday of my childhood. I always got a free rainbow sprinkled cookie if I was quiet while Bubbie selected her goods: challah (medium-sliced), marble loaf, rye bread (thin-sliced) and always, chocolate chip rolls. If you haven’t had a chocolate chip roll — especially the kind made at a Jewish bakery — stop reading this and go get one immediately. You will discover a delight of buttery, chocolate-studded pastry so delicious that, when you take a bite, all you will be able to think about is the next one."
USA TODAY, January 2022
Sex and the City's "And Just Like That" gets longtime friendship right
"My own group of besties have gone through divorce and sickness, big wins and life-changing losses. Unlike the "Sex and the City" ladies, we do not share the same city or even the same state, but we stay connected in all the ways we can. We stretch our 30-year friendship across ourselves like a cozy blanket on a cold night. "What’s the latest?" we ask, listening patiently for the answer. We do what we can; we text, we call, we say in a million little ways I’ve got you and thank you. We choose, for a lifetime, to stay."
SACRAMENTO BEE, January 2024
In a divided world, sometimes the best place to connect is on the road.
"Whether it’s the absence of the distractions of normal life or simply a gift from the universe, the people placed in my path on these travels have uniquely expanded my world, and their impact has stayed with me long after the trips are a distant memory."
NEWSWEEK, May 2021
Science supports Biden's plan for Federal Family Leave
"When I heard about the proposal, what immediately came to mind was an old photograph I discovered recently of my mother lovingly holding my newborn self; seeing it had been a revelation—and a confirmation of why I'd always known how much I was loved, despite having a difficult childhood. I'd previously thought the degree of my mother's love helped cushion me from the impact of an absent father, an angry stepfather and an awkward teenage-hood; now it made me wonder about the power of love as protection."
USA TODAY, May 2021
We've survived the worst year of our lives. Let's not lose our minds over a hot dog.
"In April, my family and I entered our local Triple-A baseball park for the first time in almost two years. As we strolled into the stadium, the crowd was masked, polite and socially distanced. We walked through the gates in wonder that it was all still there — the stands, the concessions, the wafting smells of popcorn and hot dogs. Aside from the masks and the reduced capacity, it felt exactly like every baseball game I’ve been to since my first one at Dodger Stadium, a lifetime ago.
Until we got hungry."
MEDIUM, September 2020
Want to save the republic? Find your Kippy Kaufman.
" Scrolling through her page, I realized my new friend and I had diametrically opposing political views; no, this can’t be, but she was so lovely. As though having a different view of the world and being lovely couldn’t both be true. Of course, I still accepted, she was Kippy after all: the fact that she supported our current president was not going to keep me from being her friend — Facebook or otherwise. Over the past seven months, we’ve messaged each other and shared updates and joys: Greg’s miraculous recovery from a long coma, my niece Ainsley’s progress from four-pound preemie to thriving infant. As the world has since closed in around us, as we’ve sheltered in place, Kippy and I have held virtual hands."
About Geralyn
I'm a speechwriter for a public utility company with the most ambitious climate goal in the country. I also contribute freelance essays to some of the nation's top publications. My goal for both is the same: to move people, to connect the dots, to help better connect us to one another and to our world.