Christmas Reflections

The Highlights:

Typing this list with just my left hand, due to a mending right arm

Going to food shopping with my dad for the ingredients for a kosher antipasto, kosher wine and a kosher roast and trying not to mention what twelve pounds of kosher beef was being used for to the butcher.

Reminiscing with my Uncle, him telling me he could remember when I was first born and me saying the same things about his thirteen year old twin boys… also on another note we’re getting old.

Roles reversing: my sister insisting that I woke her up at 8:00am to open presents and our parents being more excited to open presents then us.

Wrapping tefillin, saying Shema and then going downstairs to open presents under the tree with my family.

…getting a slow cooker and setting up for cholent for Shabbat

Watching Casablanca with my father and sister in the morning

The following text message received from a good friend:
Happy movie-and Chinese food day to my Hebraic friends… and merry Christmas to my goyem and shiksah friends

Watching football with my dad’s side of the family on Christmas day eve and quietly celebrating Shabbat after they left

Waking up the next morning and noticing that this was the first time I didn’t wake up and feel my shoulder aching, just eight days after going under the knife.

Music of the Spheres

The fanatical atheists are like slaves who are still feeling the weight of their chains which they have thrown off after hard struggle. They are creatures who - in their grudge against traditional religion as the 'opium of the masses' - cannot hear the music of the spheres.

Albert Einstein

Merry Christmas everyone.

Freeing God and Religion

Check out this brilliant article from the Huffington Post written by Alan Lurie.

A great quote

We can clearly see the absurdity of attempting to limit, define, control, and divide God. Religion is what it is - a human institution containing the collection and transmission of spiritual experiences and practices to facilitate such experiences for others. By beginning with, and continually returning to, personal experience, the temptation to fundamentalism and extremism dissolves, and we can have honest, respectful conversations about the nature of God and religion free from dogma, accusations, and hatred.

Posted in honor of this blogs most loyal reader, my grandmother, who is always sending me emails asking me questions about what I've written, or random (often useless) information about everything and anything.

This one is good though.

I'm headed home for a little R&R and family time.

Enjoy.

'Danielle keeps repeating it over and over again. We've been back to this animal shelter at least five times. It has been weeks now since we started all of this,' the mother told the volunteer.

'What is it she keeps asking for?' the volunteer asked.

'Puppy size!' replied the mother.

'Well, we have plenty of puppies, if that's what she's looking for.' 'I know..... We have seen most of them, ' the mom said in frustration...

Just then Danielle came walking into the office.

'Well, did you find one?' asked her mom.

'No, not this time,' Danielle said with sadness in her voice. 'Can we come back on the weekend?'

The two women looked at each other, shook their heads and laughed.

'You never know when we will get more dogs. Unfortunately, there's always a supply,' the volunteer said.

Danielle took her mother by the hand and headed to the door. 'Don't worry, I'll find one this weekend,' she said.

Over the next few days both Mom and Dad had long conversations with her. They both felt she was being too particular. 'It's this weekend or we're not looking any more, Dad finally said in frustration.

'We don't want to hear anything more about puppy size, either,' Mom added.

Sure enough, they were the first ones in the shelter on Saturday morning. By now Danielle knew her way around, so she ran right for the section that housed the smaller dogs.

Tired of the routine, mom sat in the small waiting room at the end of the first row of cages. There was an observation window so you could see the animals during times when Visitors weren't permitted.

Danielle walked slowly from cage to cage, kneeling periodically to take a closer look. One by one the dogs were brought out and she held each one. One by one she said, 'Sorry, but you're not the one.'

It was the last cage on this last day in search of the perfect pup. The volunteer opened the cage door and the child carefully picked up the dog and held it closely. This time she took a little longer.

'Mom, that's it! I found the right puppy! He's the one! I know it!' She screamed with joy. 'It's the puppy size!'

'But it's the same size as all the other puppies you held over the last few weeks,' Mom said.

'No not size... The sighs. When I held him in my arms, he sighed,' she said.

'Don't you remember? When I asked you one day what love is, you told me love depends on the sighs of your heart. The more you love, the bigger the sigh!'

The two women looked at each other for a moment. Mom didn't know whether to laugh or cry. As she stooped down to hug the child, she did a little of both.

'Mom, every time you hold me, I sigh. When you and Daddy come home from work and hug each other, you both sigh. I knew I would find the right puppy if it sighed when I held it in my arms,' she said. Then, holding the puppy up close to her face, she said, 'Mom, he loves me. I heard the sighs of his heart!'

Carl Sagan on Skepticism

If we teach school children the habit of being skeptical perhaps they will not restrict their skepticism to aspirin commercials and 35,000 year old channelers. Maybe they will start asking awkward questions about economic or social or political or religious institutions, and then where will we be?

Skepticism is dangerous. In fact, it is the business of skepticism to be dangerous. That is exactly its function…It seems to me what is called for is an exquisite balance between two conflicting needs: the most skeptical scrutiny of all hypotheses that are served up to us and at the same time a great openness to new ideas.

If you are only skeptical, then no new ideas make it through to you. You never learn anything new. You become a crotchety old person convinced that nonsense is ruling the world. (There is, of course, much data to support you.)

On the other hand, if you are open to the point of gullibility and have not an ounce of skeptical sense in you, then you cannot distinguish the useful ideas from the worthless ones.

If all ideas have equal validity then you are lost, because then, it seems to me, no ideas have any validity at all.

More Protests in Tehran

Almost a year has gone by since the current president came into power promising change and I sit here today and I ask, what change?? Please, please won't someone show me what has changed? Today I am disgusted as Iranian youths protest and are beaten and dragged away to places from which they will never return (and if they do return they will never be the same)

President Obama says nothing, NOTHING!! It will soon be to late to help these people as the Basij hardliners tighten their grip on the country and as the reach and scope of the horrors that have already begun accelerate and once again the world does nothing.

A few quotes from this NY Times article

More than 200 people were arrested in Tehran on Monday during protests by tens of thousands at universities nationwide, and Iran's top prosecutor warned further unrest would not be tolerated. He hinted authorities could even pursue the top opposition leader, Mir Hossein Mousavi, an escalation the government has so far balked at in Iran's postelection turmoil.

A fierce crackdown since the summer crushed the mass protests that erupted after June's disputed presidential election. But Monday's unrest showed how students have revitalized the movement. They showed an increased boldness, openly breaking the biggest taboo in Iran, burning pictures of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and chanting slogans against him.

Iran's top prosecutor, Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejehi, warned that the judiciary will no longer tolerate protests.''So far, we have shown restraint. From today, no leniency will be applied.''

Since the summer, the opposition has held major protests less than once a month -- timed to coincide with the many political anniversaries and religious occasions that traditionally bring street demonstrations. The strategy aims to drum up as many people as possible and draw more attention.

The coming months could heat up with several key occasions for possible protests.

From Sinai

I say that all the wisdom of the world was not found at Sinai. Sinai is my point of departure, but I don’t remain there. From Sinai I learn from the world and I absorb the world into Sinai.

David Hartman Shalom Hartman Institute, from "From Beirut to Jerusalem" p.319

Capital T

What I always said was that if you are religious it meant by definition there was such a thing as Truth, capital T. So to make it work in a world full of differences, you had to recognize that there was a big distinction between the existence of Truth, capital T, and the ability of any one human being to understand it completely and to translate it into political actions that were 100 percent consistent with it. That's what you had to do; all you had to do was accept human frailty. You can't tell people of faith to be relative about their faith. They believe there is a truth. But the question of whether they can know it and turn it into a political program is a very, very different thing. That is an act of arrogance. - Bill Clinton

Check out more of his thoughts on world events in this interview from Foreign Policy

A Moment of Zen: 12/3/09

It’s beautiful out today. It should be miserable and cold by now in Boston. But today is the most picture perfect spring day in Massachusetts that you could ever ask for. So I decided to go for a walk outside. On my way back to my desk a woman whom I’ve never seen or spoken to before turns to me in the elevator and says “Gosh today is just dragging by, I can’t believe its only noon” which made me laugh and agree because I’ve been feeling that way all day today. It was a wonderful moment of serendipity and it made me smile.

The Answer

The Answer, AI, Allen Iverson these are the names of one of my favorite childhood athletes. I’ve written about football and baseball before but today I want to talk about the littlest big guy I’ve ever seen play. I’ve grown up watching Iverson play. The first time he came to my attention was in 1996 when he was drafted first overall by the 76’ers. I was twelve years old and all I knew is that this guy; a midget compared to everyone else around him played like he was the biggest guy on the court, he was fearless and always wanted the ball in his hands when it mattered.

I was always playing sports as a child and I was always one of the smallest guys out there. I had to fight hard for respect from everyone on the field. If I was playing football and I missed a catch I might not see the ball again for all of recess. I hated that, I hate that I was (or at least felt) disrespected by the bigger kids. As a result I fought hard when I played and in Allen I found a kindred spirit.

So it’s hard for me even now as an adult to see one of the players whose game I grew up admiring being so disrespected by the sports world. I’m now at the age where the new players who come into the sports universe are younger then me. Which quite frankly is more then a little weird; as with all things you love as a child as you grow up your relationship with those things changes and with sports most acutely. At thirty four Iverson is being treated as if he has nothing left in the tank and I just don’t understand it.

But it’s nice to feel this sort of indignation. I appreciate that he is one of the last athletes that I’ll truly feel connected to the way I do. I no longer play hoops with my friends at recess pretending that I’m the Answer ready to take out my opponents with that devastating crossover that I used to love watching him employ. So I’m enjoying the feeling of being so fired up about a sports figure like I am today with Iverson. I hope he lights it up in Philly for the rest of the year and has a chance to go out on his own terms. He hasn’t had it easy and despite his sometimes standoffish attitude with the media he’s earned the right to walk away when he’s ready.

Thanks Allen for making me feel like a kid again, all the best.