School Closings Due to Mayan Apocalypse Rumors? Seriously?

This is shameful and inane hysteria gone wild. Adults need to lead, not follow. Referring to the administrators who made this decision as "leaders" is oxymoronic. How about deciding to suspend the regular curricular priorities and empowering teachers and students to spend time discussing both the tragedy in CT last Friday and the rumors? Materials for talking with kids about violence are readily available. So are materials about how gossip and sensationalism can be dangerous if not kept in thoughtful perspective. If there is such a level of excitement about all this, the students obviously need to talk about it and process their feelings and thoughts with guidance. Giving them days off from school is just abdicating responsibility for educating them for life.  This is a classic "teachable moment!"  What a waste!

I Blinked

I blinked. 
That's how it happened. 
Tonight, as I blessed my son before blessing the wine and challah at our Shabbat table, we were both standing up. I noticed that I was looking up at his beautiful face. It took him until the last sentence of the blessing to figure out why I looked so puzzled and surprised. He is suddenly taller than I am. Only a few short weeks ago, we had checked and I still had about a half-inch on him. Now, if my hand felt correctly when we stood back-to-back in our stocking feet, he has an inch on me. So we said Shehecheyanu together (the Hebrew blessing for arriving at an auspicious moment). I remain in shock. Quite pleased with himself, "You're next!" he tosses at his Mama with a gleeful grin. We sit down to bless G-d for the meal and enjoy it.

Unreasonableness Rewarded

Awake at this hour, beyond reason, I am rewarded with the sound of an Eastern screech owl on a warm October night.

Obstruction Equals Thievery

"Barack Obama began his Presidency devoted to the idea of post-partisanship. His rhetoric, starting with his “Red State, Blue State” Convention speech, in 2004, and his 2006 book, “The Audacity of Hope,” was imbued with that idea. Just as in his memoir, “Dreams from My Father,” he had tried to reconcile the disparate pasts of his parents, Obama was determined to bring together warring tribes in Washington and beyond. He extended his hand to everyone from the increasingly radical leadership of the congressional Republicans to the ruling mullahs of the Iranian theocracy. The Republicans, however, showed no greater interest in working with Obama than did the ayatollahs. The Iranian regime went on enriching uranium and crushing its opposition, and the Republicans, led by Dickensian scolds, including the Senate Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell, committed themselves to a single goal: to engineer the President’s political destruction by defeating his major initiatives. Obama, for his part, did not always prove particularly adept at, or engaged by, the arts of retail persuasion, and his dream of bipartisanship collided with the reality of obstructionism."

This quote comes from a "New Yorker Magazine" article. To me, it is one of the most important pieces of the picture and one that has not been voiced often or loudly enough. The obstructionists in congress referred to by "the editors" not only slowed Obama's progress and damaged his ability to achieve anything close to what he had hoped (while providing fodder for Romney to complain about Obama not keeping promises), they neglected to do their jobs: representing and advocating for the citizens who elected them. Instead, they attempted to usurp our  jobs--to vote for or against a candidate for office, to use our voices to show approval or disapproval. They preempted the citizens of the United States, trying to steal the decision from us. It was the first of many methods the GOP is using to manipulate our right to vote for those who lead and serve our country in public office.

Now, let's just think logically for a moment. Do you think that if they had a viable, fair, and valuable alternative to Obama they would have to go to such lengths to swindle the American people? I don't. If you are undecided, please consider giving Barack Obama four more years to accomplish OUR goals. Romney will take us back, not forward, and he said last night at Lynn University that his plans would need eight to ten years to see results.

I am not willing to wait that long. Are you?

Six-Word Story 8

Yearning feels different this time around.

Six-Word Story 7

Sunshine. Breeze. Puppy. I'm in heaven.

Helpless Hopeful

I think of you
I miss you
I ache on your behalf
Lacking actions or words that can heal you
I am at a loss
Far away with helpless, taskless hands waving uselessly in the air at the end of shrugging shoulders
Wishing we could sing or dance or walk together to take your mind
Away from the pain
Away from the past
Toward the the new chapter in your life
Where I, too, need a new place
Or maybe an old one
Where I need to find my way
My role
In a landscape of your creation
Your control
Your choices
   and mine.