Webpage Woes

I placed this women bloggers link on my blog and also at the bottom some kind of hit-o-meter that tells you how many times the page has been viewed. Unfortunately I know almost nothing about web page design so I couldn't get the stupid code where I wanted it. I am taking a mini-web page design class next month (with oldest offspring) so maybe I'll figure it out then.

Speaking of oldest offspring, I drove him to Seven Springs last night during a horrendous storm. Somehow we timed our departure to exactly coincide with the arrival of the front of the storm, to ensure maximum stressful driving. On the bridge east of Monroeville we actually saw an 18-wheeler almost tip over from the wind gusts. THAT was fun. Then we missed the exit due to missing sign (probably blew away) and heavy construction, so we drove 20 plus miles out of our way to get there. But I deposited him safely at the hotel into the care of the activity advisors, along with a gigantic drum full of cheese puffs and a case of Costco soda in a variety of flavors. He's in teenage heaven.

Speaking of teenagers, I'm glad son #1 is gone for a few days. His school received a bomb threat this week so everyone is being subjected to massive searching as they disembark from the buses, including electronic wands designed supposedly to detect weapons. What the school evidently fails to comprehend is that while 500 plus students are standing around outside the school in a dense mob, the alleged perpetrator could easily carry out his (her?) deranged plan. I'm guessing that if someone was determined to commit the act, the banning of backpacks is not going to prove much of a deterrent. Anyway, the rumor is the threat will come to fruition on Friday when son #1 is away. I did keep him home from school the day after the threat (which was April 19, for you conspiracy buffs, Hitler's birthday and the anniversary of Okla. City & Waco disasters; Columbine was April 20.) What is a mother to do in these circumstances??

Optimism Springs Eternal

I went to the library's annual booksale today and, true to form, my optimism won out and I bought 6 books that I fully intend to read: War & Peace (hardcover. That will be my summer project); The Red Badge of Courage (one of those books I always MEANT to read but....); Women In Love (have I ever read anything by D.H. Lawrence? I know I saw the movie about 20 years ago...) The Prophet (Kahlil Gibran..never read the whole thing but we used the essay "on marriage" when we got married almost 17 years ago: "And stand near together yet not too near together/For the pillars of the temple stand apart/And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow." Words to live by!); Stones for Ibarra (by Harriett Doerr, my inspiration! A smithie who won the Nat'l book award for this book, her FIRST novel, which she wrote in her 70's! I've read this before but I want to own it for motivational purposes); and The Old Man and the Sea (Hemingway...I've also read this one but I want to take another shot at it. Why is it so revered by writers?) All this for $5.50 and my library is so enriched!

Writing class ended today with everyone reading their essays on what it's like to be the age we are now. I got all choked up reading mine (how embarrassing) when I got to the part about Noah's autism so the instructor read it for me. So much positive feedback! Nice people in the class, so interesting. I'll miss their stories. Now I have to motivate myself to write. Can do!!

Spring is Here!

A little late arriving maybe but spring is definitely here! Green things coming up in my garden & early bulbs blooming. I like that. Spent the morning with Ann in Squirrel Hill, where we attended a roundtable in a church on the subject of Abraham & Isaac, conducted by a theologian from Vanderbilt Divinity. She was so great! It was fascinating and dovetailed nicely with my Hebrew Bible class. Why did we learn none of this in Catholic school? Before today I really knew nothing about Ismael...is that even how you spell Ismael? The thing really whetted my appetite to know and understand more about the bible. My Hebrew reading, if I may say, is going incredibly well and people are thoroughly impressed when I tell them I'm learning. Actually it's not that hard but I feel like pieces of a puzzle are falling into place. I'm starting to really "get" services. No I'm not turning into some kind of holy roller. But this stuff has had such a profound effect on human history, it really should be taught in all schools, not from a religious point of view but from a historical one. Anyway the lecturer read from a poem that gave me chills, equating the story of Isaac with the sacrifice of European youth in the trenches of WWI. I'll have to look that one up. But I digress. Spring is beautiful, the sky a brilliant blue, and even though the trees are still bare their branches look gorgeous when set against that backdrop. I even put up the hammock so you know spring has sprung.

Where is My Brain?

Where is my brain? Sometimes I miss it. Like today, when Jon said "are you sure there aren't any meetings about 9th grade you're missing?" "No," I confidently replied, "we haven't received anything." Then in my continuing futile quest to get organized, I started going through the gargantuan pile of paper that threatens to take over the kitchen, and lo and behold, there's a letter saying (a) there's a meeting today (I already missed it) and (b) there was one last week also (missed that one too). I do confess that the one I missed today was being replayed tonight for parents who work but I couldn't drag myself over there, because (a) I've been to this particular meeting before, when son #1 started there, and (b) the parents in attendance usually drive me nuts with all their questions. You've got 300 parents in the auditorium, and some type-A mother inevitably raises her hand to ask some pathetic and/or irrelevant question about her precious child, the answer to which has no significance to any other person in the room. Then there are the parents who take notes. What do they do with those notes? Do they really consult them at a later date? Or am I the only parent out there that has other stuff to do on a Monday night (like blogging????? ouch that hurt). In my defense, tomorrow we have Hebrew school, baseball & guitar lessons, on Weds. we have swimming lessons in the afternoon & religious school in the evening (plus a whole bunch of other stuff during the day), on Thursday we have piano & cello lessons. Also another school meeting tomorrow in the a.m. School meetings drain my psyche. These mothers make me feel like I've deprived my children because I haven't given them voice lessons, acting lessons, music camp, hockey camp, math camp......But back to the letter notifying me of the meetings. There were 2 of them. They were each 5 paragraphs long. If something has more than 2 paragraphs, I put it aside with the optimistic expectation (or delusion, whatever) that I'll have the time (or inclination) to focus on it later. What usually happens is that "later" becomes after the meeting has actually taken place. I take solace in the fact that my kids are nice and seem to be faring rather well under the circumstances (i.e. they have a mother that lets them do their own thing.) I may feel differently when my kids wind up at a junior community college studying welding while all their friends go to Harvard. OK OK I'll go to the meeting tomorrow.

On John Paul II

"The Jewish Community Has Lost a Treasured Friend"
Statement by Rabbi Eric Yoffie, President of the Union for Reform Judaism, On the Death of Pope John Paul II

APRIL 2, 2005--With the death of Pope John Paul II, Catholics worldwide have lost a monumental leader and the Jewish community has lost a treasured friend.

John Paul II made it a special priority of his Papacy to continue the process of reconciliation between the Church and the Jewish people that began a half century ago.

His achievements in this realm were extraordinary and far-reaching. He was the first pope to visit a synagogue. He spoke out eloquently against anti-Semitism, condemning it as a “sin against God.” He referred to the Jewish people as Christianity’s “older brother,” and insisted on the eternal validity of God’s covenant with the Jews. He described the twentieth century as the century of the Shoah, and cited Jewish suffering while kneeling at Auschwitz. In a step of special importance, he established full diplomatic relations with the State of Israel in 1993, and made a remarkable trip to the Holy Land, including a visit to the Western Wall, in 2000.

The extent of the change that John Paul II wrought is expressed in the power and intensity of the language he used, calling on members of the church to do teshuvah (repentance) for sins committed against the Jewish people, and urging them to remember the unique relationship that exists between the church and the Jewish religion. He called upon Christians and Jews to become a blessing to one another and then to the world.

The Jewish community also admired his leadership in advancing democracy in Eastern Europe, his clarion call for caring for the world’s neediest, and his resolute opposition to the death penalty. While we had our disagreements – on gender equality, reproductive rights, and the rights of gays and lesbians – we never doubted for a moment that he was a man of profound principle, courage, and vision. Even when our religious traditions led us to different conclusions, John Paul II always found new opportunities for reengaging in our common purpose of bringing justice with mercy into the human community.

In the Jewish tradition, we say of those who have left us: “May his memory be a blessing.” We say this today of John Paul II, knowing that his memory is and will continue to be a blessing for countless millions throughout the world, and that the Jewish community joins his flock in grieving for this courageous shepherd.

Copyright © 2005 Union for Reform Judaism

Joshua Joshua Joshua....

Josh is excited. He's getting into the gifted program at school and is very anxious to get started. I know 7-year olds ask hard questions but last night I was stumped. He wanted to know how there could be white people and black people when originally there were just 2 people, Adam and Eve. Frankly I don't know how he even knows about Adam & Eve, since he's not in religious school yet & he goes to public school. It's not like it's a frequent topic of discussion around here. So I gave him some complicated answer about how people in Africa had to develop dark skin to protect against the sun. It was totally inadequate, which is probably why he dropped the subject. Also he jumped in bed with us last night and said "Ouch! I hit my g-r-o-i-n!" He spelled it out for some reason. How does he know what a groin is?? He also spelled h-e-c-k because he thought it was a bad word, he said, "like f-u-c-k". How does he know the F word??? Could it possibly be his big brothers? Well duh.....
Ahhh that reminds me of the time when Sam was about 3 and there we were, driving along when some bonehead cut me off in traffic. Having recently decided that it was inappropriate to utter obscenities in the presence of tender ears, I merely gave an exasperated sigh, when a little voice piped up from his car seat behind me, "Mom, is that guy an asshole?" Trying hard to suppress my laughter, I responded "No honey, he's just a bad driver." But I swear I have never in my life used the F word around my babies!!!!