Ten Things Tuesday: Rosh Hashanah and more

When I was 12, I was given a cassette of Mozart’s Oboe and Clarinet Concerto, to which I studied, wrote, dreamed and tortured teddy bears that stood in for whatever boy I was mooning over. I stopped listening to it somewhere around 16, when u2 took over my soul. That same battered cassette has somehow survived my multiple moves and although I am certain it might still contain playable sound, I have replaced it with a CD version, and ripped it to my media player. I’m whistling along as I type this…

I know every single moment, every nuance and I find it entirely comforting. Beloved, even.

1. As the Jewish New Year 5768 begins tomorrow evening at sunset, Bob and I have a few irons in the fire that are heating up beautifully, potentially huge projects whose start up conversations/initial steps were frustratingly protracted by serial emails, post office bollixing and telephone tag. Now energetically, it seems as though movement is renewed, which coincides beautifully with the beginning of the days of awe, of reflection that this period of the Jewish year represents. We’ll eat apples and honey together as a family, discuss the year to come and hope and plan for it to be as sweet and fruitful as possible. L’Shana Tovah!

2. Tomorrow, my conversation about diversity, racism and prejudice continues in my Critical Thinking class and I will be showing a power point about my mother and her family’s experience in the Holocaust. My grandfather, my Opa for whom I am named, spent 16 months in a concentration camp for “helping Jews”. I have the sharp metal bracelet my grandfather wore during his time at Vught, which I will pass around the class as a prop.

My grandfather wasn’t Jewish and the Germans had not yet got around to ALL the mixed marriages yet.  His wife and my mother and aunt were spared (from deportation to Bergen Belsen) because he bribed the arresting Nazis with the contents of his attic, which held the belongings of previously deported Jews. My grandmother, a 5″9 red-haired woman, removed her star (a death sentence if discovered) so she could obtain non Jewish rations (twice that of Jewish rations) to feed her children things other than black market tulip bulbs and horse meat.

3. As a Bat Mitzvah present to Boo and a Bar Mitzvah gift to my nephew, my parents would like to take both kids (and my twin and me) to Amsterdam to see where my mother grew up and get a small taste of Europe for a week in April. Logistically, our kids’ school breaks don’t coincide, so each child would have to miss a few days of school, but this may well be a phenomenal experience for all. We’ll go see the Anne Frank house, the Rijksmuseum, and I have to stop planning right now because it may not happen!

4. As my semester winds down and final projects are being presented and turned in, I’m getting the kinds of feedback from some students that is central to continual professional evolution. I’m talking about the “defend that statement” conversations every class seems to have, the grammar and punctuation and spelling correction that I do, with patient explanations (and silent condemnation of some of their previous teachers’ dubious instruction) and the essay-style MLA instruction paper I make them read in class. I am reaching SOME of them, which is what keeps me coming back.

5. Yesterday, one of my Critical Thinking students asserted that being gay was “only a choice,” a statement that was widely condemned by students around her. When she was asked if she chose to be straight, or blue-eyed, or 5′6, she said those things were, “Normal. Being gay is a choice.” I looked at her, told her she was wrong and that she needed to look into the issue a LOT more. Fact is, she’s woefully close minded, which I despair. I’ll be giving her a copy of Mrs. Chili’s latest TTT; she has written a wonderful reminder for the need for people to be advocates for gay rights, for human rights. I don’ t know that I will get through, but I refuse to not try.

6. Almost done grading papers! I am quite certain my Comp kids missed my warning to avoid Wiki and stick to reputable sources for their research, but I have to give props to my “Oh, I don’t know” boy for attempting to pass off a quote in a movie as a fact; he wrote a research paper on Marie Antoinette and I’m so not kidding, quoted a character in the recent fairly anachronistic film as a reputable source.

7. Blessed are the cheese makers! This past weekend, Bob made cheese – feta, to be precise from a cheese-making kit and followed the instructions until we had about a pound and a half of firm cheesy lumps what will remain in brine for a prescribed 4-6 weeks. The kit includes enough culture to make about 20 pound of a variety of cheeses, with a variety of increasingly complicated processes; we chose feta because it was the least complicated but we like feta, so that works out as well. I’ll let you know how it tastes!

8. Every evening, we have been reading the girls all the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, is all its irreverent humor, witty wordiness and absolute silliness. Tonally, it will be difficult to find a good follow up to these books, but as we have reached its final pages, we are seeking one – if any of you can suggest something, it would be appreciated!

9. Boo has started avoiding a boy in her seventh grade class because he found out (by her sharing a “don’t tell anyone” secret with her lockermate) that my lovely daughter likes him. Boo has learned the perils of yapping secrets she doesn’t want anyone to know, but is so hyper aware of this boy and the fact that he knows that she’s been, er testy to be around. Twelve and a half? Yup – DRAMA!

10. My latest diversion has been to watch Dr. Who, played by the brilliant and adorable David Tennant, on my computer; unfortunately downloading bits of episodes is all too easy, but watching the eps is so much fun. I think the best part of his portrayal is his range – from intensely, believably despairing (hello! Immortal time-lord), to his manic, loquacious wackiness. Oh, and so zarking cute.