More Than "Just" a Magen David

Please see my new article in The Times of Israel called "More Than 'Just' a Magen David." 

Our response to antiSemitism and hate should be to embrace our Jewish identity all the more. In the words of the singer Benny Friedman:

I'm a Jew and I'm proud
And I'll sing it out loud
'Cuz forever
And ever
That's what I'll be
I'm a Jew and I'm proud
And without a doubt
Hashem is always watching over me

We are truly in the middle of a global attack on the Jewish people, and we cannot give up even one centimeter in our quest for freedom, peace, and security.

(Credit Photo: Virginia Humanities via https://www.flickr.com/photos/vfh/46913689764)

More Than "Just" a Magen David

Looking Beyond the Superficial

Please see my new article in The Times of Israel called "Looking Beyond the Superficial."

We are all much more than our physical manifestations in this world, and looks can definitely be deceiving. The most important thing in dealing with ourselves and others is to look beyond the superficial and see each person for who they really are, and G-d’s holy spirit has an outsized role in realizing the potential of who we can be.

(Credit Photo: Activedia via https://pixabay.com/photos/spiritualism-awakening-meditation-4552237/)

Looking Beyond the Superficial

A Hanukkah Gnome

Judeo-Christian blending of some sort here. 

Nice in terms of peace, tolerance, brotherhood and all that. 

But something about this doesn't look exactly kosher.  ;-)

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

A Hanukkah Gnome

Teaching Our Children To Be Good Jews

 

Please see my new article in The Times of Israel called "Teaching Our Children To Be Good Jews."

What happened to genuine faith in G-d, belief in the holy Torah, our duty to abide by the 613 commandments, and generally doing right in this world by our fellow man and before G-d Almighty? Maybe I’m being too literal here but being a “good Jew” has got to mean something important. We are keeping alive the tradition of our parents, grandparents and great grandparents, spanning back thousands of years to our Forefathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and to G-d delivering us from Egyptian servitude, and His giving to us the Torah on Mount Sinai, and to His bringing us to Israel, the Land of Milk and Honey, and keeping us from being wiped away by one great empire after another. Being a Jew means being part of an important important and yes, “chosen” for a special mission of being a “light unto the nations” and that means action on our part: thinking, saying, and doing what’s right all the time!

We are tested daily to do what’s right, even when it’s not convenient, easy, enjoyable, or popular. What is a Jew? We need to really ask ourselves that question. It’s not trivial and neither should the answer be. Our lives in this world and the next are depending on how we live up to the high bar that is set for us each and every day of our lives that Hashem mercifully grants to us.

(Photo: My dear parents Fred and Gerda Blumenthal at my Bar Mitzvah)

Teaching Our Children To Be Good Jews

The Surprising Secret To Becoming Your Best

Please see my new article in The Times of Israel called "The Surprising Secret To Becoming Your Best."

Even while we are each different and should become our best selves, we still all need to make sure we are driving towards good healthy goals.

There is no one-size-fits-all mold for us. Hashem has a destiny in mind for each of us, and we need to find out what that is and work to become it. As parents, we need to see our children for who they are and not who we may want them to be. Truly, it’s a blessing to be able to be ourselves! As long as we and they are doing good in the world and by our Creator, we are each and everyone on solid Jewish ground.

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

The Surprising Secret To Becoming Your Best

He Ain't Heavy

Reminds me of the song:

"He ain't heavy, he's my brother!"

For some reason, I remember the children back in the day (I grew up at the height of the feminist movement) saying instead: "She's my brother."

I used to think what the heck did that mean?

20/20 hindsight, but I guess a spoof on gender roles already many moons ago. 

Now I hear identity as he, she, ze/zir.

Either way, the person ain't heavy.  ;-)

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

He Ain't Heavy

Trying To Be A Plumber

It's wonderful when we try to help others.

Isn't that one of the reasons we're here? 

But sometimes we are trying to help and it's really something beyond our capabilities. 

My mother-in-law said something funny about this:

Sometimes you're an electrician, but you're trying to be a plumber. 

Isn't that true, we are really one thing, but we are often trying to be something else that we're really not. 

We can't help someone that needs a plumber, if we're an electrician. 

We have to know who we are and what we can do--as well as what we can't. 

No one can do everything, no matter how smart, strong, or able they think they are.  

Each person has strengths and weaknesses.  

We need an electrician and a plumber. 

And you can't be what you're not. ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Trying To Be A Plumber

Beautiful Song On Being A Jew

This was a beautiful song that we learned this week in Ulpan.

I love it--being Jewish and the song!  ;-)

Beautiful Song On Being A Jew

Anyone Have A Question About This Car?

Yeah, all I can say...

Anyone have a question about this car?

I am pretty sure this car is owned by Matthew Lesko, "The Question Mark Guy."

Lesko was in a number of commercials and infomercials about asking him how to get free information and grant money from the government. 

He dresses and drives in question marks, and I've seen him a number of times around town. Frankly, it's sort of hard to miss this guy!

His self promotion sort of makes you wonder, if you had to choose just one symbol to wear everywhere to represent you to the world--it could be a punctuation mark or anything else--what would that look like?  ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Anyone Have A Question About This Car?

Why Can't The English Be More English

The people of the United Kingdom voted in referendum yesterday for Brexit (British exit) or independence from the European Union (EU). 

Unity is a wonderful thing when values and vision is widely shared and the burden and benefits are more or less evenly distributed. 

But in the case of the UK in the EU, the vote for independence was anchored in the unsettling issues of mass immigration from the Arab Spring, the debt crisis of many of the poorer Southern EU states (e.g. Greece, Spain, Portugal, etc.), the decision of the UK to maintain their own currency (not accepting the Euro), and culturally (and language-wise), even though they all interact with each other, the UK has more in common with the US and Australia, then they ever had with Germany, France, and the rest of Europe. 

It is really very understandable that the UK doesn't want to lose their identity and sovereignty and just be another EU state--rather than be a unique, independent, and dominant entity of it's own, charting their own course and driving their own fate. 

While it's great to a part of something bigger, sometimes being yourself is more important, and you can still interact with the rest. 

No people should be forced to become a shadow of themselves, and if the call is for independence, then that is noble call even if it is inconvenient for those who would rather call themselves the EU. 

Unity may best be by alliance rather than strict integration...one for all and all for each and every one. ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Why Can't The English Be More English

Who Do You Want To Be?

Walking through the halls of one of the local schools, there was this awesome display of cutout hands. 

Each hand, done by a student, was supposed to represent who they wanted to be as people. 

In the center of each was a core saying/belief of the student written on the palm.

And then on each of the five fingers was their personal aspirations:

Emotionally
Physically
Socially
Intellectually
Spiritually

I thought this was a really cool assignment to think and focus on where we're going with our lives and what our personal goals are. 

Like a mini-personal architecture, these hands are the hands of our young people who have their lives ahead of them and the energy and opportunity to shape their futures. 

No, none of us has control over the future, but we can do our part to shape who we are as human beings, as this student says: 

"I am who I want to be."

Of course, we have to choose wisely, work hard, and go for it! 

We never know if there are any true second chances.  ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Who Do You Want To Be?

Many For The Price Of One

We were at the movie theater over the weekend and something funny happened when we went up to the counter to get our tickets.

I ask my wife if she also wants anything to eat like popcorn etc.

She says yes, and I ask the lady behind the counter where the tickets and snacks are sold for some popcorn to ring up.

She points to the next register and says "You need to get the snacks over there" (pointing about one feet over to the left). 

I look at my wife like, okay and we pay for the tickets.

Then, we waddles over to the empty counter a foot over and wait for someone to help with the popcorn. 

Well the lady who just sold us the movie tickets waddles over as well and says, "Can I help you?"

We almost cracked up laughing. 

I said, "Yes, we would like some popcorn, please."

She says, "Sure," and proceeds to get the popcorn and we pay again.

What was hilarious was the lady selling the tickets redirected us to the counter over for the popcorn, where she in turn did the proverbial, changing of the hats, and then after selling us the tickets served us up the popcorn as well. 

It reminded me of a TV episode I saw a kid where some people visit a small town and stop at the Sheriff to ask where the local inn is. The Sheriff points them down the street. Then the people go into the inn and there is the Sheriff again, but this time wearing the innkeeper's visor. After checking in, the people ask where the town pub is and then stroll over across the way. They walk up to the bar, and the bartender turns around, and sure enough it's the Sheriff/innkeeper now with a servers smock on and asks what they would like to drink.

I may not be remembering the episode completely accurately, but you get the point. 

In a small town or an organization where people have to multitask, one person can play many different roles. 

That's why very often management in interested in good employees who can "walk and chew gum at the same time"--employees need to be able to perform under pressure to get many projects and tasks done, simultaneously, and they very often need to assume multiple roles and responsibilities to get that done. 

Pointing the finger at someone else saying not my job or the ball is in their court is no longer an excuse not to get things done. We have to shepherd the project all the way through the many leaps and hurdles that may stand in the way of progress. 

When people have to perform multiple roles and jobs--due to time constraints, cost cutting, or shortage of trained and talented people--then they may have to change hats many times over the course of their day and week. 

The Atlantic (5 July 2013) in an article about performing head transplants--yeah, an Italian surgeon believes this is now possible--retells an Indian folk tale called The Transposed Heads.

Two men behead themselves, and their heads are magically reattached, but to the other person's body. The clincher is that the wife of one of the men doesn't know which man to take as her husband--"the head or the heart."

It's a fascinating dilemma--what makes a person who they are--their thoughts (i.e. brain) or their feelings (i.e. heart).   

Similarly, when a person performs multiple roles at home, work, and in the community--who are they really? Which role is them--at the core?

We tend to like doing one or some things better than others, but does what we like doing mean that is who we are?  Maybe doing the things we don't like that challenge us to grow is what we need to be doing? 

Like the lady in the movie theater--one moment she was the ticket master and the next the concessions attendant--both were her jobs.

We too are made up of multiple and complex roles and identities--we are head and heart--and all the things they drive us to do in between. ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Many For The Price Of One

Are You Thing 1 or 2?

The old Dr Seuss story of The Cat In The Hat had the crazy part when "Thing 1" and "Thing 2" jump out from under The Cat's hat and proceed to make a messy house disaster even worse.

Recently, I saw some people wearing the matching type shirts--you know the ones that that generate attention--bright red, with one shirt saying "Thing 1" and the other person's shirt saying "Thing 2."

It was cute the way the family members were connected through the shirts, and I smiled to myself thinking, like in the children's story, which one is the bigger "trouble-maker" in this family--Thing 1 or 2?

Today, I saw this picture online of these twins, again with these matching type t-shirts, but this time, one said "Ctrl + C" and the other one had written on it "Ctrl + V" -- these are the well-known Microsoft commands for copy and paste.

I guess with twins, the copy-paste imagery makes a lot of sense--copy kid 1, paste, and there you have it, kid 2.

Generally, t-shirts have messages about peace, rock and roll bands, corporate branding, or satire of some sort--I wouldn't say it's exactly a fashion statement, but more of an identity thing--how we choose to brand ourselves in a world of 7 billion people. It's not necessarily about who we are, but more like how we choose to identify ourselves--a meaningful one for example, is for breast cancer awareness.

I remember as a kid, my sister, who was a budding biomedical scientist, bought me t-shirts from a scientific catalogue--so that I was wearing the Periodic Table and Einstein on my chest from very early on in life. While I always did like science too, it was not what I ended up pursuing, but I would still wear these shirts today, because in some ways, I still identify with science and psychology and learning and so on.

These days, if I had to choose some t-shirt themes, I am pretty sure technology and futurism would be in the mix. Then again, my current t-shirts include a hefty mix of Rocky and Everlast--you see identity is a complex subject. Also, a whole bunch came 4 for 10--who can say no to a sale? ;-)

A simple t-shirt, and the messaging can take you from Dr. Seuss to Microsoft, the Periodic Table and to the future (or even to the bargain bin).

What are you wearing--who are you?

(Source Photo: here)

Are You Thing 1 or 2?

Focus Future

I was on vacation in Miami last week and had the opportunity to spend some time (when not on the beach and in the pool) in one of my favorite off the beaten path bookstores, where I spend some time perusing “The Power of Now” by Eckhart Tolle.

Some fascinating points that stuck with me:

- Focus on the now—to achieve peace and happiness—and not on the past or the future, because the past carries with it all sorts of baggage and the future weighs on us with anxieties.

- The focus on now can be viewed as more important than the past or the future, even though the past provides us our identity and the future with the hope of salvation.

The emphasis on now is an intriguing viewpoint for me, because by nature and profession, I am a strategist, architect and planner—I look always to the future to make things better than they are today. I routinely ask how can we use technology or reengineer our business processes to surpass the now.

I also do this based on my religious upbringing that taught me that our actions—good and bad—affect our merit for the future—in this world and “the next.”

In both cases, “the now” is but a steppingstone to the future. So while, I think living in the now can certainly help us wall off the mistakes of the past and worries about the future, I do not really see it as fulfilling our mission of learning from the past and growing into our futures.

While it may be simpler, more enjoyable or just more comfortable to focus on the present, it seems a little naïve to me to ignore where you come from and where you are going.

Maybe Eckhart Tolle doesn’t care what is in the future and he is blissfully happy in his ignorance, but I for one am more comfortable focusing on the future (except when I’m on vacation in Miami Beach).

I guess what I’m saying is, I love the now in that it refreshes and rejuvenates me. But I also think of it as ultimately leading toward a desired future state, and I think it’s more productive to focus on what can and must be done to make the world a better place tomorrow.

Focus Future