Prayer

Praying now for all the families in the south of Israel, including my own family there, the kids I know in the army, and the kids I don't, and the miluimnikim that might get called up at any time.

Praying for our own city of Modiin, and the ganim that are now required to have a security guard at all times.

Praying for the families without heat or hot water in these cold rainy days.

Praying that the rain this year is sufficient.

This morning when I drove to work, it was cold, dark, and wet. May God bring us safely into sunshine, warmth, light, and peace.

Communism is the Opiate of the Masses

Every day on my way home from work, I pass by, in true Israeli advertising fashion, 2 or 3 billboards by the HOT cable company (Heb/Rus only). They all say (approx. translation) "We need revolutionaries!" There is a picture on the side of Che Guevara, in an earpiece. Apparently, they need customer service representatives, people who are going to reinvent the meaning of Israeli customer support. (Job hunting? Take note, revolutionaries!)
What strikes me as funny every single day is that its simply not true. They don't want support personnel of the likes of Che. He would murder all the management. It gets me every day, and someday I am going to pull over and photograph it and post it here. Its completely twisted.
Ben and I talk about things like this often. I knew he would have a good one on the Che billboards - and he does. Che Guevara would be rolling over in his grave if he knew that his face was being used in Israel to sell cable television. Cable television! And with an earpiece on!
Israel is not the only place to do something stupid like this. Benicio del Toro, when accepting his "Best Actor" award for Che, dedicated it all to Che. Which is kind of funny, seeing as someone like Che himself would have mowed Del Toro down, together with the rest of Hollywood. I don't think he treated artists very nicely.
I'll never forget the day we saw someone in the mall wearing a Mao Zedong t-shirt. It really got Ben angry and he went up to him and told him off for wearing a shirt with the face of someone who killed 60 million people. And we mourn our 6 million in Europe! The guy didn't know what he was talking about. "Who is Mao? A Chinese dictator? My girlfriend bought it for me."
That's all. The man who killed 60 million is now just "a Chinese dictator" - doesn't matter very much.
It takes a little while to realize that it really doesn't mean anything. The billboards are just saying - we need something different. Perhaps the movie tries to say a variety of different things, but at the end of the day, it wants to sell tickets. The t-shirts - just making money for some guy with a stand in the Tel Aviv Central Bus Station.
I wonder that Communism is really kind of dead in our little end of the world - so dead that its turned into Pop Culture. Its kind of cool, in the way that JNCOs once were. So dead, that when people far to the left of center try and spread the wealth too much, they don't really remember what they are asking for. Maybe we should try and take it a little more seriously.
Anyone for sending letters of complaint to HOT and the media?

20 of the World's Most Beautiful Libraries

A friend sent this to me, and I only wish the photos were higher quality.
My fav is the Rijkmuseum Library, Amsterdam. How long would it take you to climb those stairs? I have a real fear of heights but suppose it might be tamed in the presence of so much information.

Volunteering - hmm

The company I work for does a great deal of volunteering work - which I think is great. I think its great that the company provides opportunities to volunteer in areas that are close to us, both physically (like in the neighborhood over) and otherwise (ideologically? theoretically? intellectually?)
That said, I don't feel behooved at all to take part and I wonder if that's not the way its supposed to be. Am I supposed to feel pressured to take part in a project just because my department is supporting it? Does our workplace come into our lives so much so that it dictates how we volunteer our time? And is it selfish that I want to keep that time to myself - and is it so bad to be that selfish? Am I purposely setting myself outside of the company culture - and is that ok?
Don't get me wrong - I'm not against helping out in the community. Although I will say that when it comes to working with complete strangers, I'd much rather cut them a check. Especially with children - I'm not so great with children. I treat my own more like an adult that I probably should. Well, and disabled adults, or adults that are mentally or emotionally disturbed, which is usually the groups of people you work with when you volunteer.
Agreed that these are great projects, even necessary, one might say. But not every time do I have to say, "Well if no one else will do it, I suppose I will."
People always complain that they never have time for themselves. I do like to make time for myself, and reserve time for myself, and I don't think that I should be ashamed to say it. It's not selfish, its healthy.
Volunteering should make you feel good - this type of thing never does make me feel good. I mean, I would love to volunteer, lets say - at a charity gift shop where you get to see all sorts of cool used stuff. Or at the Jewish Agency Archives - whoo hooo! That's my retirement "job".
I think I'll leave the dealing with children and strange adults to those who get more out of it. Hope that's ok.

That said - one of my favorite Ani Difranco quotes is:
'cause i know the biggest crime
is just to throw up your hands
say
this has nothing to do with me
i just want to live as comfortably as i can
you got to look outside your eyes
you got to think outside your brain
you got to walk outside you life
to where the neighborhood changes

Something to think about. How do I incorporate this into my life?

You Don't Have to be Rich to be Orthodox

Or you didn't use to, at least.

Hear, Hear.

Not So Unfulfilled

I thought I'd have done so little of these, but actually, am not too bad.

I stole this from Rachel You copy the list and then color the ones you've done.

The ones I'm sure about I painted purple and the ones I'm not sure about are green.

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland/world
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang/played a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables.
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run (are you kidding??!!)
32. Been on a cruise (not a long one, but a dinner cruise)
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors (I suppose this depends what you mean by ancestors. I've been to Jerusalem, but never to White Russia.)
35. Seen an Amish community (not a community, but I've asked a guy in a buggy in Amish country for directions to the nearest gas station)
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business (I won't count my husbands.)
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Gotten flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Made a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee

Leave a comment to tell me you've posted yours!

Some things I've Noticed

I think this blog is turning into a place where I muse about odd or semi-interesting things I've noticed. Or appreciate. I don't know if anyone else is interested....but hey that's the beauty of the internet. If you're interested, great. If not, reading blogs that are only semi-interesting is a great way to zone.

So thing #1 for today. I've recently been getting a lot of Linked-In connection requests. And the thing I always get a kick out of on these requests, is the option to say "I don't know this person". Meaning, you can either accept or reject the invite, or just plain say - "I don't know you." For some reason that really cracks me up. I'm always tempted to say "I don't know this person" just for kicks.

For example, my brother-in-law just Linked-me-In (can that be the verb for adding a contact on Linked-In? Similar to friending on Facebook? The spellchecker just caught both "friending" and Facebook. I wonder when that will stop. I just added it to my dictionary). Anyway, I think it would have been a riot if I'd said "I don't know you." Maybe not so nice, but still funny. For the record, I Linked-him-in. I'm just that nice.

Another thing I noticed (thing #2). Yesterday, I got the most unbelievable amount of Facebook Happy Birthday notes. Maybe somewhat believable, I don't know. Probably there are other people out there who have more. But I got a lot. I didn't know there were so many people that liked me so much to go out of their way to wish me a happy birthday! It made me feel really good, I kept checking it every half hour or so.

See, I see people's birthday notices on Facebook all the time, and hardly ever say Happy Birthday. I guess I'm not such a good Friend like that. I don't know, most of these are people that I hardly speak to, never see....or always see and I'll tell them happy birthday in person. Its nuts saying happy birthday to everyone you know - sometimes I have two or three birthdays a day! Or week! I just can't be bothered.

But yesterday really made an impression on me. These people hardly speak to me either, and never see me, and still they made the effort. Good for them, and perhaps it's time I started to also. If it made me feel so good, probably it would other people too.

Thing #3 to share: Yesterday, Eden told me that for my birthday, she would draw a picture of Mommy dressed as a clown because it would be very funny. I thought that was funny in itself. Less funny when she cried when the picture that Daddy (not Eden) drew of Mommy dressed as a clown didn't look too much like Mommy. Eden, we're not all portrait artists.

December 16th

My birthday is in 5 days. I probably will not remember to post this then, so I'll do it now.
Check out what Wikipedia has to say about it.
Some of my favorites:

Events:

• 1653 - English Interregnum: The Protectorate - Oliver Cromwell becomes Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland.
• 1707 - Last recorded eruption of Mount Fuji in Japan.
• 1773 - American Revolution: Boston Tea Party - Members of the Sons of Liberty disguised as Mohawks dump crates of tea into Boston harbor as a protest against the Tea Act.

Births:

• 1485 - Catherine of Aragon, Queen of England (d. 1536)
• 1770 - Ludwig van Beethoven, German composer (d. 1827)
• 1775 - Jane Austen, English writer (d. 181
• 1901 - Margaret Mead, American anthropologist (d. 1978)

And a very happy birthday to my friends and family who also have birthdays this month. December is a great time for a birthday!

Feel free to add your own. What's special about your birthday (other than you of course)?

Some new ideas

I've been following the story told at Orthonomics about the teachers in the Lakewood school who are on strike because they weren't getting paid, and have read most of the comments. (I don't have the time to read through over too many comments on a single blog topic, even if I do think its interesting.)

Having some intimate knowledge of these things on the side of the not getting paid, or not getting paid on time, this is a topic that speaks home, and in my mind, demands change.

Even in Israel, yeshiva prices are not cheap. Here, schooling is funded by the state, but that only accounts for the very basics - maybe 4-5 hours of school a day? For a kid to be in a dual curriculum school for a full long day (until 3-4 PM), parents need to chip in extra. And from what I hear from my friends with bigger kids, high schools with good quality religious and secular education are hard to come by, and usually are more private than public, even many times requiring their students to board during the week. And the teachers still strike when the rest of the country does.

Anyway, one of the commenters back at Orthonomics mentioned the possibility of kids going to public school, with an after school Talmud Torah. This is the way Orthodox kids used to get their religious education in the US (sorry no sources here, I've got enough time to write, not to do research). Again, as mentioned, it didn't really work - many of those kids grew up to give up kashrut and kippot, Shabbat and Simchat torah, keeping only the basics of Pesach and Yom Kippur. But does that mean that its a failed experiment? What if we tried it again? This time around, you wouldn't be chased down the streets with stones for wearing your kippa to school - I've known kids who do, who are the only kids in their class who do. And these kids would not be. Most likely, some classes might even have a majority of Orthodox kids. It would not be uncool, and might even let in a spirit of openness, understanding, and tolerance that is sorely missing in Orthodox communities.

Possibly this is something that could just save the next generation of US Orthodoxy. I say lets give it a try.

We should try it in Israel too. Like all good American ideas, it will probably get here about 10 years later.