Addio Bruce Kent

Dear Bruce is gone. A good friend of my father's, both gentle of nature but fierce in their desire to heal our world. In this pic he had kindly offered to pose for my first portfolio. The little white dot on the edge of his cardi is a CND badge. We are poorer without him. My condolences to his beloved Valerie.

Guardian obit

 

Tu Bishvat Greetings

an oldie but a goodie!

Nu, yesterday I was interviewed by a class of 7-year-olds in their Religion School who wanted to know what rabbis do. They asked some great questions, the very first of which was 'do you ever make mistakes in your Hebrew?' (Of course, I said, but the more I practice, the fewer there are!)

A girl at the back asked why I'd wanted to become a rabbi. I found that both easy and terribly difficult to answer. The easy part was telling them that my father had been a rabbi and rather a good one IMO so I wanted to follow his example. At some point, I don't remember when, I must have mentioned that he had died some time ago.

What felt more difficult was how to explain why I love what a rabbi does. I looked at the class, and saw the plastic pots on the tables filled with dark earth into which they'd just planted cress and sprout seeds. I said to them that the best part of being a teacher was that you get to plant seeds and help them to grow, but instead of putting them in the earth, we get to plant them in the hearts and minds of our students. I wasn't sure if I'd explained it well enough. A boy in the middle raised his hand with what looked like an urgent question. His teacher called on him. He looked at me and said gently, "I'm sorry about your Dada."

Happy Tu Bishvat!

hokie tragedy

i've been thinking and thinking but i am just not sure what to say today - the massacre at virginia tech is so awful, yet so distant. just thinking about all that pain and fear, but going nowhere near feeling it.

i've been against guns for as long as i can remember. at the same time, when i was about 6 i wanted a cap gun and my parents refused. my mother tells me that i nibbled my toast into the shape of the weapon and went off to play with my bread-gun. nu, of course we should be concentrating on the problems before they get to the gun stage. preventative measures - not exactly a priority generally in the usa, eh? instead they feed us who is the real father of anna-nicole's baby and a radio jock fired for racist language. a student went on a shooting spree in virginia. what about the carnage in baghdad? every day you could be blown up while trying to shop for food. where and how today are we teaching the respect for and value of human life? don't get me started.

*deep sigh*

rest in peace those who have been murdered. as for us - how can we rest until we figure out what we should be doing for tikkun olam right now!