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Author Archives: Geoff Mitelman
What Playing Games Can Teach Us About Prayer
While I certainly use my iPhone to check my e-mail and make calls, far and away, what really drains my battery are apps like Cut the Rope, Dark Nebula, and Words with Friends. Like almost everyone else on the planet, I simply love playing games.
But why? What is it about games that draw people in?
According to psychologist Alison Gopnik, it's because the best games place us right into a sweetspot in the interaction between two poles — structure and creativity.
Sometimes, structure stifles creativity. That's why Tic-Tac-Toe gets so boring so quickly, because there's no space for imagination.
But for the most dynamic games, the rules can actually enhance our ability to be creative.
One of my favorite examples comes in a podcast from WNYC's Radiolab, where co-hosts Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich interview chess expert Fred Friedel. Friedel wrote a computer program listing every chess move that has ever been played in any tournament. It's called "Fritz."
Now, whenever you play a game of chess, your first move has probably been done millions of times. After all, just about everyone starts with one of their pawns moving forward. But as the game progresses, the number of previous times a board position has occurred gets fewer and fewer and fewer. It goes from the millions to the thousands to the hundreds to the tens to the single digits.
Eventually, there comes a moment in the game that has never happened in tournament history. As Friedel describes it, the board is "in a position that has never occurred in the universe." And when the game gets to that moment, as Abumrad and Krulwich tell us, it feels like "you get a peek at something infinite."
What's fascinating is that "a peek at something infinite" is not only something that happens in games. A "peek at something infinite" is truly the goal of prayer. And we get that glimpse when we find improvisation, imagination and creativity within the limits of a clearly defined set of rules. As Krulwich says, "[A game] has a small field of play, but then you step into it, and…whoosh!"
We want that "whoosh!", but in order to get there, we need guidelines. As Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel argues, when it comes to prayer, spontaneity is the goal, but continuity is the way. And so Jewish prayer at its best has much in common with the best games — they both live in that space where structure helps us engender wonder and imagination.
In Judaism, prayer involves those two components — keva, the fixed words and set times we should pray, and kavannah, the intentionality and inspiration prayer is supposed to create. Often, keva is disparaged or ignored, because it feels boring, or repetitive, or that it's simply rote recitation.
But when prayer is at its best, keva actually helps us get to kavannah. Rabbi Shawn Zevit says it well:
What is the structure that allows you to express your longing, your thanks, your wow, your reflection? I find that prayer, the structure of it and our own particular Jewish nuances of it, is an optimal part of the living diet for well-being In the Jewish modalities of prayer, those very longings, those very human dimensions are addressed… (in Comins, Making Prayer Real, 146-7)
We want to be inspired. We want to find strength. We want to feel connected to something larger than ourselves. But those moments rarely happen by accident.
By giving us a framework, rules and structures can help us get there. They remind us to practice. They tell us what to look for. And they allow us to regularly experience the ordinary, so that we can be ready to experience the extraordinary.
Indeed, that's the deep connection between both games and religion. In a review of Robert Bellah's book Religion in Human Evolution, Charles Mathewes reminds us that
…[p]lay involves a dialectic of freedom and constraint, or better, freedom within constraint. This is obviously so in games, but equally so in any form of play. The boundaries of play, the delimiting and the defining of the conditions of play, themselves can stand in a kind of dream-like state of critical assessment…
In short, play nourishes us, makes us fully human, equips us for reflective agency and enables us to understand that behind (or above) the routines of the everyday there can be a carnival of an altogether different sort.
In other words, "playing" and "praying" have much more in common than we may think.
(Cross-posted with Sinai and Synapses)
Note: The opinions expressed here are the personal views of the author. All comments on MyJewishLearning are moderated. Any comment that is offensive or inappropriate will be removed. Privacy Policy
Pick a Destiny, Any Destiny
David Blaine's street magic specials are always fun to watch. If you haven't seen what he does, this is a great example.
Now, if you're anything like me, your immediate reaction was, "Oh my God – how did he do that?!" It almost felt like he was reading that woman's mind, since it looked like she had the choice to have "picked a card, any card." But in fact, where magicians like David Blaine are truly masters of illusion is in creating the best illusion of all – the illusion that we have free choice.
One of the reasons magicians are able to "know" what card we've picked is because they have already determined what card they wanted us to pick – it was never really actually "our" choice in the first place. Their trickery lies in their ability to lead us to feel invested in "our" decision.
Stephen Macknik and Susanna Martinez-Conde are the authors of the book Sleights of Mind: What the Neuroscience of Magic Reveals About our Everyday Deceptions, and they argue that the reason we feel like we were the ones who actually picked the card was because "[o]ur minds will go to surprising lengths to preserve [our] sense of agency and choice." (pp. 171-172) In other words, our brains sometimes lie to us, leading us to believe that we have much more control over our situations than we actually do.
And yet that's actually not all that surprising. We know in our own lives that we do not have unlimited choice – there are very real limits to what we have the freedom to do. We can not simply "choose" to get a million dollars – we have to work hard at a high-paying job, and even then, luck will play a big role in whether or not we succeed. We cannot just "decide" to lose weight – we have to diet and exercise, and even then, our metabolism or our willpower may make it challenging to meet that goal. Our genetics, our environment and our past decisions all restrict our choices to an extent. While we may want to believe we have total and complete free will, when we reflect on it, we recognize that we are not nearly as free as we think.
Rabbi Akiva's Magic Show
This question of how much free will we truly have is actually a very old one, and it's one the Rabbis grappled with, as well. And perhaps the most classic statement comes from Rabbi Akiva in Pirkei Avot, when he said, "All is foreseen, but freedom of choice is given." (Avot 3:15)
But how does that work? How can there be free choice if God has foreseen everything?
Well, think about a magic trick, but think about it from two different perspectives — from the point of view of the magician who is orchestrating the trick, and from our point of view, experiencing it. For the magician, "all is foreseen" — he knows what is going to happen, and has planned everything out meticulously. But for us, it feels like "freedom of choice is given," because we feel we could have picked any card at all. And that's the point. For the trick to work, we have to believe that we are the ones in charge — even if that's not really the case.
So that realization can also help us understand Akiva's statement — except this time, let's think of our lives from two different perspectives — from God's and from our own. Now, we may believe that God has foreseen everything, or we may not. I think it actually doesn't matter which one is true, because as imperfect human beings, we will simply never be able to know objectively one way or the other. The crucial belief for us to hold onto is that "freedom of choice is given" — and it's crucial for us to hold onto that belief, even if that, too, is not always the case.
And that's because if we simply feel invested in our choices — even if sometimes they aren't always "ours" — we can then own them and take responsibility for them. If our only belief is that God has foreseen everything, that could easily lead us to abdicate our own sense of responsibility. But if we believe we are the ones in charge of our lives, then we can take pride in our ideas, celebrate our accomplishments, and become accountable for our decisions — regardless of how much they really are "ours."
So whether or not "all is foreseen," it's much more important for us to act as though "freedom of choice is given," because that's how we feel a sense of ownership of our actions, over ourselves and our own lives. Because whether or not "all is foreseen," and whether or not "freedom of choice is given," we know from experience that there is great value in feeling like we can pick our destiny — any destiny we choose.
(originally published on Sinai and Synapses)
Note: The opinions expressed here are the personal views of the author. All comments on MyJewishLearning are moderated. Any comment that is offensive or inappropriate will be removed. Privacy Policy
Why Bernie Madoff Didn't Lurk in Dark Alleys
We all know that one of the Ten Commandments is "Don't steal." But it's also hard for us to imagine Bernie Madoff or Jeffrey Skilling in a hooded sweatshirt in a darkened alley mugging a little old lady. And yet clearly, Madoff and Skilling violated that two-word, easy-to-understand commandment. So we have to ask: how in the world were they able to justify it?
A large part of that justification is because different forms of stealing have different "feels" to them. Physically taking money from another person feels more violent, more immediate, and less justifiable of an action. "Cooking the books," however, can easily feel explainable by the perpetrator. It's pretty easy to follow the commandment "Don't steal" if it simply means, "Don't go around robbing people in the middle of the night." But Skilling and Madoff did steal – and stole significantly more money than all the armed robbers in America combined.
In fact, when people don't deal in cash directly, they actually are able to rationalize their actions, and thus end up stealing significantly more money from people.
Cash Keeps Us (More) Honest
Behavioral economist Dan Ariely ran a fascinating study in the MIT dorm rooms to examine what might allow people to steal without feeling all that guilty about it. At first, he put six Coke cans in a communal refrigerator. Within three days, all six cans were gone. No doubt, people thought, "No one will notice, and hey – free Coke!"
He then put six one-dollar bills on a plate in the refrigerator. They were left totally untouched.
Why? As Ariely explains:
When we look at the world around us, much of the dishonesty we see involves cheating that is one step removed from cash. Companies cheat with their accounting practices; executives cheat by using backdated stock options; lobbyists cheat by underwriting parties for politicians; drug companies cheat by sending doctors and their wives off on posh vacations. To be sure, these people don't cheat with cold, hard cash (except occasionally). And that's my point: cheating is a lot easier when it's a step removed from money. (Ariely, Predictably Irrational, 218-219)
There seems to be a psychological block that prevents most of us from simply forcibly taking cash from people, but allows us to rationalize small falsifications that ultimately end up being the same thing as stealing. And that is why, in fact, the Torah has more to say about honesty in business beyond just, "Don't steal." In Leviticus, the Torah even regulates what might happen one step away from money that might lead people to cheat.
Honest Weights and Measures
Leviticus 19 contains some of the most important and most famous laws in the Torah. The Ten Commandments appear here, as do the verses, "You shall not stand by idly while your neighbor bleeds" and "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." The whole chapter is known as the "holiness code," implying that beyond just being ethical, treating people fairly is truly a sacred obligation that God demands of us.
The very last laws in chapter 19 say, "You shall not falsify measures of length, weight or capacity. You shall have an honest balance, honest weights, an honest ephah (a unit of dry measure) and an honest hin (a unit of liquid measure)…" (Leviticus 19:35-36)
Why did this law have to be written in the first place? The simple answer is: you don't forbid something from happening unless it has already been occurring. So clearly, there were people who would falsify their weights and measures. Cheating and stealing are nothing new in today's society!
And that's what makes this commandment so important and valuable. If the Torah had simply said, "Don't steal," our natural ability to rationalize would have given people the opportunity to say, "Well, if I weigh down my grain a little bit, no one will really notice. And after all, everyone else is doing it, so it's not really stealing." Instead, the Torah teaches us, "Don't cheat even – perhaps especially – when you're one step removed from money." It's a lot easier to steal when you're one step removed – and that's why that commandment is needed.
The First Thing We Will Be Asked When We Die
The Rabbis even elevated honesty in business to become one of the highest values we need to live up to. In fact, in the Rabbinic mind, the first thing God will ask us when we die is not, "Did you believe in Me?" or "Did you pray?" No – according to the Talmud (Shabbat 31a), the first question we will be asked when we die is, "Were you honest in your business dealings?"
We sometimes say that we know we are acting honestly if we can look at ourselves in the mirror in the morning. But perhaps that is not enough of a judge. After all, our ability to rationalize could make it very easy for us to say, "Well, it's just a small thing I'm taking." Moment by moment, we can easily find ways to steal that feel OK and won't cause us to lose sleep.
So to truly bring ourselves up to our highest standards, the question should not be, "How do we feel about ourselves right now?" It should really be, "How do we want to feel about ourselves at the end of our lives?"
Only by having our day-to-day actions live up to the values we espouse can we truly be proud of the actions we take.
Note: The opinions expressed here are the personal views of the author. All comments on MyJewishLearning are moderated. Any comment that is offensive or inappropriate will be removed. Privacy Policy
Torah as Food
If you've ever walked down the condiment aisle of a grocery store, you've probably been overwhelmed by the ever-expanding number of varieties of mustard or salad dressing. But for some reason, ketchup has stayed essentially the same since it was created. How come?
According to Malcolm Gladwell, what makes ketchup so amazing is that it hits all five of the basic tastes at once — we get sweet, sour, bitter, salty and umami (that proteiny, full-bodied taste in chicken soup and soy sauce). There really aren't many other foods that hit all five. So the reason ketchup has stayed the same is that it encompasses all five of our major taste-senses.
And in fact, that's the reason kids like ketchup so much. When they're faced with a new and potentially scary food, they can use the fact that ketchup gives us everything we need in order to make this new food palatable.
So the "essence" of ketchup seems to be two-fold. First, it encompasses all the major taste-senses. And second, its universality allows it to be an outstanding complement to a whole range of foods, providing stability and comfort when we are faced with a new taste.
How is Torah Like Food?
The rabbis often made comparisons between Torah and food. It's not hard to see the connection — in the Rabbis' mindset, both Torah and food provide sustenance, both are seen as gifts from God, and both help give us strength.
But it's not just the idea of "food in general" the Rabbis focused on. They often looked at very specific foods (and usually ones that everyone ate, and knew some facts about), and asked, "How is Torah like this particular food?"
For example, when children start to learn Hebrew, the teacher is supposed to put a dab of honey on each letter. Why? Because "Torah is as sweet as honey." Notice that the focus is on the main aspect of honey –when we're comparing Torah to honey, it doesn't really matter that honey is made by bees, or that it takes a long time to make, or there's always a little extra drip that you have to find a way to get off the spoon. No, the Rabbis want children to focus on the sweetness of honey, and hope that Torah feels just as sweet in their mouths.
Torah as a Fig-Tree
Let's look at another example — this time using a food we don't know as much about. Rabbi Hiyya bar Abba compares Torah to a fig tree and asks, "How is Torah like it?"
"Why are the words of Torah like a fig tree? As a fig tree yields its fruit whenever it is shaken, so does Torah always give us new teachings whenever it is repeated." (Eruvin 54a)
What is the "essence" of a fig tree that allows it to be compared to Torah? Because the more you shake a fig tree, the more figs come down. So just like a fig tree, the more we grapple with Torah ("shake it," if you will), the more insights will come out of it. In fact, we can find something specific about almost any food — its "essence" — and we can try to ask, "How is Torah like it?"
So even though this may border on the heretical, let's ask: how is Torah like ketchup?
How is Torah like Ketchup?
We certainly know a lot more about ketchup than we do about fig trees, and as we've seen, the Rabbis had no problem comparing Torah to a wide range of foodstuffs. And the eternal and universal nature of ketchup certainly has echoes of what Torah could be. So how is Torah like ketchup?
My own suggestion is this: ketchup does not stand on its own — it is always used in conjunction with another food. And no one has succeeded in changing ketchup because it gives us everything we need taste-wise. We need its stability in order for us to branch out and explore a wider variety of foods.
Similarly, Torah does not stand on its own. It is to be used in conjunction with what is happening in our own lives. And the eternal nature of Torah (we've been studying it for 3000 years!) can help us evaluate the new information that comes out every day.
So how is Torah like ketchup? Because just as ketchup encompasses all we need, but needs to be used as a companion to another food in order to be fully utilized, so too does Torah encompass all we know, but needs be used as companion to our life experiences in order to be brought into this world.
Note: The opinions expressed here are the personal views of the author. All comments on MyJewishLearning are moderated. Any comment that is offensive or inappropriate will be removed. Privacy Policy
How Should We Talk About Science and Religion?
As someone who loves both religion and science, I often struggle with how they interact.
Are they in opposition to each other? Do they need to be reconciled? What happens when new scientific knowledge challenges the tenets of my faith?
Part of the difficulty in talking about science and religion is that there are several different ways we can discuss their interaction. Dr. Jennifer Wiseman, the Director of the Dialogue for Science, Ethics and Religion at the American Association for the Advancement of Science, outlined several different models in an outstanding talk. Therefore, inspired by her, I want to share four different ways we can frame the discussion about how we talk about science and religion.
The Contrast model is probably the most common way people speak about the interaction of science and religion. Often, this view is boiled down to the idea that "science deals with 'how' and religion deals with 'why.'"
Stephen Jay Gould popularized it with the phrase "Non-Overlapping Masteria" (NOMA), which he describes as follows: "The magisterium of science covers the empirical realm: what the Universe is made of (fact) and why does it work in this way (theory). The magisterium of religion extends over questions of ultimate meaning and moral value. These two magisteria do not overlap."
But there are two problems with this paradigm. First, religion has theories about what the universe is made of — for example, Jewish tradition has statements about the way the world came into being and why the world is the way it is. And science is now talking about morality and even meaning, with books like Sam Harris' The Moral Landscape about the science of morality and The Brain and the Meaning of Life by Paul Thagard about neuroscience and meaning. Thus the magesteria, in fact, do overlap.
Second, and perhaps even more importantly, it's simply not true that science talks only (or even primarily) about "how" — there's a lot of "why" in there, asking questions like, "Why is there something instead of nothing? Why do our brains work in the way that they do?" Similarly, religion doesn't talk only (or even primarily) about "why" — there's a lot of "how" in there, asking questions like, "How do did humans come to be? How should we act in this world?"
So for people who view themselves as both scientific and religious, the Contrast model often makes them comfortable. But as science enters into the realm that has historically been the purview of religion, and especially if we look more deeply at religion and at science, this model stops working very well.
The Concert model is the opposite of the Contrast model, as people try to directly reconcile science and religion. It is another attractive outlook to those who are both dedicated to their faith and committed to reason, since it means they would not have to reject either. This model makes claims such as the concept of a "day" in Genesis may actually be billions of years, or that the crossing of the Red Sea was actually finding a swamp that could be crossed at low tide.
But here, too, there are problems with this view. After all, science is always changing, discovering new data and revising theories. If science and religion are in concert, what happens to religious faith when new scientific evidence arises? Indeed, not only physics and biology but also human sciences such as archaeology, political science and history are helping us understand who we are, why we do what we do, and our place in the universe. So if religious faith is based on science, what happens when science presents new evidence?
Indeed, this model makes it hard to do a critical analysis of Biblical texts, and that type of study frequently leads to a crisis of faith. In order for it to work, this model requires significant mental gymnastics, and forces people to maintain only a surface understanding of both science and religion.
So while this view may be appealing at first, it is actually quite fragile. All that needs to happen is for science to discover something that contradicts a deeply-held belief, and people will easily elect either atheism or fundamentalism.
The Conflict model is the paradigm that gets the most press, and it claims that religion and science are inherently incompatible. It's the idea that if you buy into one, you must reject the other. This worldview is exemplified by Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens on one side, and people who deny evolution because it contradicts the Bible on the other.
But while this outlook generates the most passion from people on the extremes, there are a vast number of people who do not buy into it.
An article in the Huffington Post describes recent work by sociologist Elaine Ecklund, who
…interviewed 275 tenured and tenure-track faculty members from 21 research universities in the United States. Only 15 percent of respondents said religion and science were always in conflict, while 15 percent said the two were never in conflict. The majority, 70 percent, said religion and science are only sometimes in conflict.
Similarly, a study from Pew Research Forum showed that "a solid majority of Americans (61%) say that science does not conflict with their own religious beliefs. Even among those who attend worship services at least once a week, a slim majority (52%) sees no conflict between science and their faith."
Thus while zealous advocates on each side often dominate the discussion, there is a large silent majority who do not see science and religion as inherently in conflict.
The bigger problem is that while the Conflict model produces a lot of heat, it rarely creates light. It regularly devolves into unproductive arguments and ad hominem attacks, and causes both scientists and religious people to become either overly aggressive or feel themselves to be "victims" of the other side.
So even though for some people, this is an outlook they hold strongly to, it is much more likely to shut down conversations than to open them.
This is the outlook that I find most resonant. In this model, science and religion can remain in their own spheres, but when it is appropriate, they can also mutually inform each other, and provide us with a variety of ways to help us know what it means to be human. Indeed, its great value is that it reminds us that both religion and science have to be understood in the context of human experiences, because both religion and science are human endeavors.
The Contact model reminds us that science is not independent of the scientists who pursue their field of inquiry. After all, while the universe may be 13.7 billion years old, and humans may have evolved on the African savannah, it has only been since modern times that human beings have sought to undertake a rigorous understanding of fields like cosmology, paleontology, psychology, neuroscience and biochemistry. We have to remember that not only does scientific knowledge provide information, it is deeply influenced by the passions, the curiosity and the personal experiences of the scientists who pursue it.
Similarly, our own personal experiences influence our religious outlook. People's feelings about religion are naturally affected by how they were raised and what has happened in their own lives. In the words of Rabbi Laura Geller, "All theology is autobiography." And while religion is older than science, it is still a human creation, helping us structure our human experiences, and asks deeply human questions like, "How should I act? What should I value? Who should I choose to associate with?"
When we place science and religion in the context of human experiences, we recognize that both science and religion are driven by human needs and are victim to human foibles. The Contact model thus encourages humility in both science and religion, reminding both sides that there are things we do not know, and things we will never know.
So the other crucial piece to bear in mind for the Contact model is that "religion" and "God" are two separate things. "God" is bigger than any one human being or group of people; "religion" is our particular attempt to understand God, and is necessarily limited. As Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel taught: "[R]eligion for religion's sake is idolatry…The human side of religion, its creeds, its rituals and instructions is a way rather than the goal. The goal is 'to do justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.' (Micah 6:8)" (I Asked for Wonder, 40-41)
So for those of us who feel connected to God, when we forget that religion is not Divine, but human, we can easily fall into the trap of arrogance and narrow-mindedness. Micah thus reminds us that justice, mercy and humbleness are truly the most important values.
Indeed, our ultimate purpose in life is to strengthen ourselves, both as individuals and as a society. Science does that by giving us a fuller understanding of the world, by advancing knowledge, and by examining the relationship between theory and evidence. Religion does that by giving us a sense of purpose, by strengthening communities, and by giving us a potential glimpse of the Divine.
When we remember that both science and religion are human enterprises, we can remember that the most important question isn't whether they need to be viewed separately, or if they can be reconciled, or if they are inherently in conflict.
The most important question is: how are they being used?
(This post also appeared on Sinai and Synapses)
Note: The opinions expressed here are the personal views of the author. All comments on MyJewishLearning are moderated. Any comment that is offensive or inappropriate will be removed. Privacy Policy
Give Your Brain a Rest
Generally, our minds have no problem with coming up with lots of ideas — it's fairly easy for us to think about creating something new. And with perseverance, we can often turn our ideas into reality.
But too frequently, we don't recognize which ideas should have just stayed in our minds until we've already expended our time, our energy and our resources — just think about New Coke, Qwikster or M. Night Shyamalan.
So is there way for us to better determine which ideas are worth pursuing in the first place, and which are not?
It turns out that there is. While hard work is the way ideas get actualized, rest is an effective way for us to evaluate our ideas.
In a recent article for Wired, Jonah Lehrer describes an experiment which shows the value of a mental break. In this study, 112 students were given two minutes to create as many solutions as possible to the problem of how to improve the experience of waiting on line for the cash register. Half the group was then told to go straight to work with no break, while the other half played a unrelated video game for two minutes, giving their brains a short respite.
While both groups came up with the same number of ideas, there was a huge difference in terms of how well they recognized good ideas. As Lehrer explains:
[G]iving the unconscious a few minutes…proved to be a big advantage, as those who had been distracted were much better at identifying their best ideas. (An independent panel of experts scored all of the ideas.) While those in the conscious condition only picked their most innovative concepts about 20 percent of the time — they confused their genius with their mediocrity — those who had been distracted located their best ideas about 55 percent of the time. In other words, they were twice as good at figuring out which concepts deserved more attention.
And yet it's not simply taking a break that helps us evaluate our ideas — it's also about using that rest to engender positive feelings. As Lehrer tells us, "Taking a break is important. But make sure you do something that makes you happy, as positive moods make us even better at diagnosing the value of our creative work."
So rest and joy are two things that can help us assess our ideas before we try to transform them into reality. And those two aspects are what define one of Judaism's signature contributions to the world — Shabbat.
Judaism recognizes that unbridled creativity isn't all that constructive. And so Jewish tradition has even set up guidelines to help us deliberately stop creating. According to the Mishnah, there are thirty-nine specific activities that are prohibited on Shabbat, which include lighting fires, writing, and cooking. The common theme among those thirty-nine items (called melakhot) is that they were the specific actions that the Israelites undertook when the were building the mishkan, the dwelling-place for God.
So even though building the mishkan was sacred work, the Torah reminds us that even sacred work needs to stop for one day a week. And to the Rabbis, that meant that no matter how important our work may be, on Shabbat, anything we want to make, anything we want to do, anything we want to design — it has to wait.
And yet taking a break is only part of Shabbat. While we are supposed to be intentionally non-creative on that day, the Rabbis also outline certain things we should do to help make Shabbat a day of joy and peace. Not only are we supposed to shamor, "guard" Shabbat by avoiding certain tasks, we are also supposed to zachor, "remember" Shabbat by elevating our sense of holiness and delight.
So on Shabbat, we're supposed to have a festive meal, with special food and a celebratory atmosphere. We're supposed to be with friends and family — and to truly be with them. We're supposed to read, to reflect, and to rediscover the blessings in our lives.
Ultimately, Shabbat is there to remind us that it's far too easy for us to fall into the trap of constant business and constant busyness. And as Lehrer argues, constant creativity prevents us from distinguishing mediocrity from excellence.
So if we want to invest our precious resources in developing only our best ideas, then we need to structure our time so that we have an opportunity to stop creating, and give our brains a rest.
(This post also appeared on Sinai and Synapses.)
Note: The opinions expressed here are the personal views of the author. All comments on MyJewishLearning are moderated. Any comment that is offensive or inappropriate will be removed. Privacy Policy
Getting Our B'nei Mitzvah to Understand (and Love) Torah Study
Helping 13-year-olds understand a 3,000-year-old text is challenging, to say the least.
After all, trying to glean lessons from the Torah for 21st-century America is hard enough, even if you have some background in text study. So when you have only 13 years of life experience, go to religious school for only two hours twice per week, and are still learning the skills you need to write and speak effectively, it's even harder.
Yet as our kids become b'nei mitzvah and create their d'var torah – the teaching they deliver about the weekly Torah portion on that Shabbat morning — we often miss a great opportunity. Not only can we help them understand the content of that particular Torah portion, we can also help them appreciate the process by which we can engage with serious Torah study.
In other words, we have a golden opportunity to use the "what" as a vehicle to develop excitement around the "how."
Formulating Good Questions
At Temple Beth El, we wanted to help our students truly embrace the process of Torah study. So to prepare our b'nei mitzvah, we decided to experiment with the "Question Formulation Technique" (QFT), designed by Dan Rothstein and Luz Santana and outlined in their outstanding book Make Just One Change.
The purpose of the QFT is to shift how learning occurs: rather than having students respond to questions proposed by the teacher, the students themselves develop the questions that most effectively direct their own learning. After all, if the students are the ones posing the questions, then they will naturally develop a deeper level of ownership over their own learning.
The rules are simple — the teacher begins with a prompt that can lead to multiple lines of inquiry. For example, the teacher might write on the board something like, "Religion does more good than harm," or "A synagogue should be a sacred and spiritual community."
Then, in small groups, learners need to come up with as many questions about that prompt as they can. Their instructions are:
• Ask as many questions as you can.
• Do not stop to discuss, judge, or answer the questions.
• Write down every question exactly as it is stated.
• Change any statement into a question.
After creating their long list of questions, the learners then focus on the handful that speak to them the most — and so that's the direction where the research, the discussion or the conversation goes. And so since the learners create their questions, and the learners then choose the ones that excite them the most, the paradigm shifts radically: instead of the teacher imparting information from the top down, the students are creating their learning from the bottom up.
Sacred Questions about Sacred Texts
In Judaism, questioning has always been a sacred activity. Throughout Jewish history, when we study Torah, we are asking questions like, "What might this verse mean? How can we read it in a new way? What other allusions does it have?" So applying the QFT was a natural way to help our b'nei mitzvah develop their d'var torah.
As part of our family education program, eight families came together about four months before their children become b'nei mitzvah. And we began by having them write a collective d'var torah, in order to help them understand the process. We focused on a passage from Deuteronomy 8: "You may say to yourself, 'My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.' But remember Adonai your God, for it is God who gives you the ability to produce wealth…" (v. 17-18).
First, we unpacked what this meant — that we are not the sole producers of our success, but that we need to have a level of humility and gratitude if we have been blessed with wealth. The text doesn't say, "wealth is bad," but rather, "if you are wealthy, make sure you remember the true source of that wealth."
I then wrote up four words on the board: "Gratitude for material things." And then I told them to write down as many questions as they could about that idea, that they weren't allowed to answer or discuss the questions, to write down every question exactly as it was stated, and to change any statement into a question. And then I simply walked around eavesdropping on the conversations.
Almost instantly, the families created a flood of questions. In less than five minutes, they had come up with over twenty different questions: "What's the difference between what we want and what we need?" "How do we show gratitude?" "If we show gratitude, does it have to be towards God?" "What's the difference between material and non-material things?" "What happens if you don't show gratitude?" "If you lost all your material things, would you still show gratitude?"
The energy was palpable, as everyone was considering what it really meant to "show gratitude for material things." After a short discussion, we decided to go in depth about how gratitude acts as a check on entitlement — an issue that is as relevant today as it was 3,000 years ago. We studied commentary, explored interpretations and shared our own opinions. And most crucially, the students now had a process to apply to the study of Torah, discovering ways to find meaning from the text.
So now, it was time to have them use this process on their own Torah portion.
They began by focusing on their specific verses that they would be reading, and came up with an eight-word description of the verses' gist — "the special clothes Aaron wore," "the detailed instructions for building the tabernacle," "the laws of keeping kosher." As two to three families joined together as a small group, each student's summary acted as a prompt for creating a list of questions. After hearing and creating many, many possible questions, the bar or bat mitzvah student then chose the one question they would be most excited to research.
We then placed copies of Torah commentaries (The Torah: A Modern Commentary and The Torah: A Women's Commentary) for all the families and said, "Take a look — see if you can find responses to your questions. What have other scholars had to say about what you're wondering about?" For the next thirty minutes, families were poring over texts, excitedly yelling, "Oh! I found something!", and began crafting their own thoughts. They proudly shared with me their ideas, and were so excited about what they themselves had created.
It was simply remarkable. Afterwards, the parents and the students shared how much they loved learning as a family, how much they enjoyed researching commentary on the Torah portion, and how smart and successful they felt as they drew lessons from the Torah. Not only did the quality of the divrei torah improve dramatically, but the students had clearly gained a new set of skills they could apply to study a whole range of texts, and perhaps most importantly, truly owned their learning process.
Building Skills for Life-Long Learning
Too often, preparing students to become bar or bat mitzvah feels like "studying for the test." And as anyone who has ever "studied for the test" knows, the day after the test, all the information goes in one ear and out the other.
Instead, becoming bar or bat mitzvah should truly be about making a transition — namely, from being a child in the Jewish community to becoming an adult. And so as our 13-year-olds grow and develop, and as we celebrate their entrance into the Jewish community, we have an opportunity and a responsibility to teach them skills for life-long learning.
What are those skills? To be able to connect the present to the past and to the future. To be able to add their voice to a Jewish conversation that is 3,000 years old. And most of all, to be able to formulate good questions, since after all, what we learn is simply defined by the questions we ask.
So let's help our students learn how to ask good ones.
(This post also appeared on Sinai and Synapses.)
Note: The opinions expressed here are the personal views of the author. All comments on MyJewishLearning are moderated. Any comment that is offensive or inappropriate will be removed. Privacy Policy
How Transparent Should We Be?
Why Do Infomericals Work?
If you ever watch infomercials, you know that what they really sell isn't just an amazing product — it's the fact that you get to see how the product works. And in his article "The Pitchman," Malcolm Gladwell introduces us to Ron Popeil, the maker of some of the most effective infomercials ever. What Popeil discovered was that infomercials really sell transparency — a sense of confidence and knowledge in our ability that leads us to say, "I can do this!"
Think about a VCR. Is there anything more frustrating than seeing that blinking "12:00″? What frustrates us isn't the VCR itself — it's that it feels totally and utterly impossible to penetrate. And as Gladwell says, if Popeil had been the person who had invented the VCR, and presented it like his other products, the tape wouldn't be inserted behind a hidden door — it would be out in plain sight, so that if it was recording, you could see the spools turn. The controls wouldn't be discreet buttons; they would make a reassuring click as they were pushed up and down, and each step of the taping process would be identified with a big, obvious numeral so that you could set it and forget it. (Gladwell, What the Dog Saw, 24)
What Popeil realized was that we want to know more than just the "what"– we're also very focused on the "how". We like feeling that we've learned some arcane knowledge ("oh, so THAT'S how that works!"), and since knowledge is often power, if we get to see how something works, we feel more equal to those who already had the knowledge — everyone now knows how this product works; not just the creators.
Are There Times We Shouldn't Be Transparent?
But are there times when it's better not to know how something works? Are there times when we should protect our knowledge and not share it with others?
There's a Jewish source that explores these questions — Numbers, Chapter 18. When the Israelites were wandering through the desert, they always carried with them the "Tent of Meeting," the place where God dwelt. For most of their wanderings, any Israelite could go into the Tent at any time. But in Numbers 18, God creates a "hierarchy of holiness," preventing everyone except the priests and Levites from entering the Tent, and putting the vast majority of the Israelites out of the loop if they wanted to see what the priests and Levites were doing:
Let no unauthorized person [enter the Tent]…Any unauthorized person who enters the Tent shall die…[and] the [other] Israelites shall no longer come forward to the Tent of Meeting. (Numbers 18:4,7,22)
Clearly, God wanted to keep most of the Israelites out. God doesn't seem to think that transparency is a value in and of itself. So the question becomes: when is it important to be fully transparent, and when is it important to keep our knowledge protected?
This is a huge question for us today. We love sharing what we're doing through Twitter and Facebook, but if we share too much, we become vulnerable to problems like identity theft. We are constantly in a struggle between sharing knowledge and protecting it.
When Do We Open Up Our Knowledge Base?
Ron Popeil realized that selling transparency was more profitable than selling products. At some point, we have to decide when our secret knowledge needs to become open to all.
During the time the First Temple stood, only the priests themselves — a very small group — had access to the knowledge about how they should perform their duties. They kept their knowledge private. But a few centuries later, the specific details of the priestly duties were written down and later became the book of Leviticus — a text any of us can study today, allowing anyone at all to study in detail how the priests did their job. So what began as protected knowledge has become totally open to anyone who picks up a Bible today.
So here's the question: what are the implications when protected knowledge — whether it's how a particular product works or the specifics of what the priests were doing — becomes open to all? And how do we determine if certain kinds of knowledge should be easily accessible or hard to come by?
Note: The opinions expressed here are the personal views of the author. All comments on MyJewishLearning are moderated. Any comment that is offensive or inappropriate will be removed. Privacy Policy
Is "Justice" a Process or a Result?
The Problem of Homelessness
When we think of societal problems, we often think in the abstract. Take the question of "homelessness." Hopefully, there is some part of us that wants to fight homelessness, create affordable homes, and get people off the streets. And yet if you live in a city (I live in Manhattan), "homelessness" isn't an abstract problem – it's the guy lying in Central Park, or sleeping on the sidewalk, or holding a sign in the subway saying, "Please help."
I certainly experience a variety of feelings when I see homeless people. Part of me wants to help everyone I see. Part of me doesn't want to give because that money may be helping feed an addiction. Part of me wants to support organizations that address homelessness more effectively than a direct donation would. Part of me doesn't want to give too much because I have limited resources, and want to support many different causes. Part of me wants to at least make eye contact with a homeless person to acknowledge that he or she is a human being. Part of me is nervous about making eye contact because I just don't know about that person's emotional stability.
What makes homelessness even more complicated is that no one really understands the root causes. How and why do people end up on the street? That leads to an even bigger question – do we want to understand homelessness, or do we want to solve it?
How Much Does Homelessness Cost?
In Malcolm Gladwell's essay "Million-Dollar Murray," we meet Murray Barr, an ex-marine who often ended up homeless in Reno, Nevada. In 2003, the Reno police department started cracking down on panhandling, because panhandling was used to get liquor, and liquor led to problems – most especially hospital visits due to intoxication. The police officers found that most of the hospital visits were from three people, who in three months, cost the state over $200,000 in hospital bills. Murray himself cost $100,000. Gladwell notes:
"If you toted up all his hospital bills for the ten years that he had been on the streets – as well as substance-abuse-treatment costs, doctors' fees, and other expenses – Murray Barr probably ran up a medical bill as large as anyone in the state of Nevada. "It cost us one million dollars not to do something about Murray," [Reno police office Patrick] O'Bryan said." (Gladwell, What the Dog Saw, 180-181)
If Murray cost the state one million dollars – and the revolving door of the shelters wasn't helping him – a natural question arises: is there a more effective way to address homelessness?
Being Fair by Being Unfair
Homelessness, like many other problems, obeys what's known as a "power law," where most of the activity is not in the middle, but at one extreme. It's similar to the "80/20" law. Think of fund-raising, where about 80% of the money comes from about 20% of the donors. What's the most effective way to raise money? Not by spending all your time going after everyone, but rather, by picking the few target people who are most able and most likely to make big donations, and going after them.
What would the equivalent be for homelessness? Well, from a practical point of view, it wouldn't be "helping every homeless person." Most homeless people are not homeless for long – "in Philadelphia, the most common length of time that someone is homeless is one day. And the second most common length is two days." (Gladwell, 183) Instead, the most effective way to solve homelessness would be to identify the people who cost the state the most money, and help get them off the streets.
In fact, that was tried in Denver. The Colorado Coalition for the Homeless tried to identify the homeless people who were most costly to the state and gave them a free apartment. And it's been working – the cost of homelessness has gone down dramatically. It hasn't gotten everyone off the streets, but it's been a significantly smaller part of the annual budget.
Yet there's something a bit unsettling about that. We help the worst offenders, and ignore the people who are really trying their hardest? As Gladwell says:
"Social benefits are supposed to have some kind of moral justification. We give them to widows and disabled veterans and poor mothers with small children. Giving the homeless guy passed out on the sidewalk has a different rationale. It's simply about efficiency…
[We think that] "being fair"…means providing shelters and soup kitchens, [but] shelters and soup kitchens don't solve the problem of homelessness…[We are faced] with an unpleasant choice. We can be true to our principles or we can fix the problem. We cannot do both." (Gladwell, 191-192, italics mine)
Jewish Views on Justice
What would Judaism say about addressing homelessness in this way? I certainly don't feel qualified enough to make policy recommendations, so instead, let me present a few texts, and ask – how do these texts frame the question of "Million-Dollar Murray"?
1. "The world stands on three things: on truth, on justice and on peace." (Simon the Righteous, Avot 1:18)
Justice, truth and peace are intertwined, but problems arise when feel like we have to concede one in order to fulfill another. The world stands on peace, but sometimes justice commands that we go to war. The world stands on truth, but sometimes brutal honesty can destroy peace.
If the truth ends up being that free housing for certain challenging homeless people helps address the monetary concern, does it subvert justice to ignore the homeless people who have been trying for months to find homes? If giving free housing for certain challenging homeless people helps create a more peaceful and safer neighborhood, is that subverting justice? What do we do when our values collide?
2. "Justice, justice shall you pursue." (Deuteronomy 16:20) Why is the word "justice" repeated here? A common interpretation is that "justice" isn't just what we do, justice is also how we do it. "Justice" is not just about the ends, it's also about the means.
Sometimes, even the different ways we view one value, like justice, may conflict. Even if it works, is giving free housing only to certain homeless people (and often the most challenging cases) a fair procedure? It may be a good result, but is it a just process?
3. "In light of God's image embedded in each of us, we must determine the recipients of aid, the donors, the methods of collection and distribution, the programs of prevention, and all other related factors in this area by asking: What is the most practical and efficient way of caring for the poor while preserving the dignity and economic viability of all concerned?" (Rabbi Elliot Dorff, To Do the Right and the Good, 155)
That question seems to be the crux of it for me. The question in Jewish tradition isn't whether we should help the homeless – it's how. And that's where the challenge lies. It's very easy to say, "Judaism demands that we help others." It's a lot harder to make the tough decisions.
And since a decision comes as a result of a process, we have to examine both. Most often, we start with a process and see how it ends up. But sometimes we find a surprising result, and have to work backward to examine the process. We know that homeless shelters and soup kitchens create a fair process, but they aren't creating the results that the program in Denver had. Sometimes, we may have to start with a result and work backwards – "this is a fair result – let's now make sure it's a fair process."
But the most crucial thing we have to be sure of it that we are not sacrificing one at the expense of the other. To truly create a just society, we need to look at both the society we want to create, and the way we are creating it.
Note: The opinions expressed here are the personal views of the author. All comments on MyJewishLearning are moderated. Any comment that is offensive or inappropriate will be removed. Privacy Policy
Who Owns Our Words?
For artists and writers, their creativity is their livelihood. The ideas that sprout from their heads are what put bread on the table and rent checks and mortgage payments in the mail. But even more crucially, artists and writers bring themselves into their creation, so when someone is plagiarized, it's not just stealing money – it's almost like stealing a very part of who they are.
And yet once someone's words are now out in the world, how much do those words become public domain for anyone to use? In a world where we are not only consumers, but producers, where does borrowing end and plagiarism begin?
That's a question that Malcolm Gladwell raises in an essay called "Something Borrowed." The 2004 Broadway play "Frozen" is, in large part, about a psychiatrist who studies serial killers. And nearly 675 words were taken almost directly from a 1997 New Yorker article entitled "Damaged" that Gladwell himself had written. And he asks – is plagiarism the same thing as stealing?
As he says:
"Words belong to the person who wrote them. There are few simpler ethical notions than this one…[and] plagiarism has gone from being bad literary manners to something much closer to a crime. When, two years ago, Doris Kearns Goodwin was found to have lifted passages from other historians, she was asked to resign from the board of the Pulitzer Prize Committee. And why not? If she had robbed a bank, she would have been fired the next day." (Gladwell, What the Dog Saw, 225-226)
But that idea–that plagiarism is simply stealing–assumes that we own the words we speak. Yet once we have written something down, or created a piece of music, or painted a picture, it now becomes open for anyone to enjoy, to learn from, and to be inspired by. Ideas are not like physical objects–they naturally get expanded upon, interpreted, and used in other forms. So how much do we "own" the words we speak?
The Importance of Proper Attribution
If we do "own" the words we speak, then we need to make sure that the right people get the credit they deserve. And the Rabbis of the Talmud were close to obsessed with giving proper attribution to ideas and quotes. That's why so many Jewish texts start by saying, "Rabbi So-and-So said in the name of Rabbi Such-and-Such…" But why are the Rabbis so concerned with giving proper attribution?
There are a few reasons. Pirkei Avot (6:6) tells us that "if you say something in the name of the person who originally said it, you are bringing redemption to the world." The Mishnah and the Talmud were originally transmitted orally (that's why it's sometimes called the "Oral Torah"), and so there was no physical written record of who had said what. By ensuring a level of respect to those who came before, the Rabbis were also making sure that quotes, ideas and laws were handed down faithfully, and that some renegade Rabbi wasn't making things up as he went along.
But I think there is another reasons, as well. The way God created the world was through speech – "'Let there be light', and there was light." Our words are physical objects, because words create worlds. So if it was important not to steal people's property, it was equally important not to steal their ideas, either.
Into the Public Domain
And yet the Rabbis also realized that there is a public domain, where our ideas might take on a life of their own. There is a classic story in the Talmud (Baba Metzia 59b), where the Rabbis were arguing over whether a certain type of oven was kosher.One of them, Rabbi Eliezer, tried to prove that he was right by having God perform miracles: "If I'm right, let this carob tree prove it!", he said, and the carob tree uprooted its branches and moved. "If I'm right, let this river prove it!", and the river started to flow backwards. But none of the other Rabbis were convinced by the miracles.Eventually, Rabbi Eliezer said, "If I'm right, let God Himself prove it!" At that moment, a heavenly voice cried out, "Why are you arguing with Rabbi Eliezer? He is always right!"
You would think this would have ended the matter. You would think that within the Rabbinic mindset, they would have said, "God gave the Torah, so God must know who has the right interpretation of it. And clearly, Rabbi Eliezer does. End of story."
Instead, Rabbi Joshua stood up and said, "'The Torah is not in heaven' (Deuteronomy 30:12). We pay no attention to a divine voice."
"We don't listen to God any more, since the Torah is now ours," Rabbi Joshua is saying. Notice that here the Rabbis weren't arguing over whether Rabbi Eliezer was right or not. What they seem to be saying was that once God gave the Torah, it was now in the Rabbis' hands to interpret it. Once the Torah was given to the people of Israel, it became theirs to own, and no longer simply God's.
Who Owns Our Words?
So we face a tension about how ideas live in the world. On the one hand, people deserve credit if they come up with new thoughts. On the other hand, once the ideas are out there, no one truly "owns" them any more – anyone can access or use them.
As Gladwell reminds us, words do not "have a virgin birth and an eternal life" – there is a "chain of influence." (243) So we have two-fold responsibility when it comes to attribution. First, as much as we can, we need to give credit where credit is due. Since there is nothing physical in the words we speak, it is that much more important to honor those who have created their works. On the other hand, we also have to remember that our own words quickly become public and owned by all.
The Rabbis are a perfect example of how to live out both sides of this obligation. Rabbi Joshua's statement that "The Torah is not in heaven" implies that the greatest honor we can give the Torah is to help it become a living document. We build on what has come before, and we hope that others will build on afterwards.
So for our own ideas, we need first to remember that we build on the past. But if we think about our ideas as alive, then what greater honor can there be than having our words inspire someone else to expand on what we have created?
Note: The opinions expressed here are the personal views of the author. All comments on MyJewishLearning are moderated. Any comment that is offensive or inappropriate will be removed. Privacy Policy


text:
At the Topshop Show Space, the hottest new venue of London Fashion Week, three well established rising stars, Maarten van der Horst, Marques'Almeida and James Long presented their A/W 12 collections, courtesy of fashion's fairy godmother, Lulu Kennedy of Fashion East.
First up was Maarten van der Horst, with a colour palette of sky blue, white, a touch of black and bright pink this was a beautiful collection. Blue and white striped men's shirts were seen with pretty rose printed satin bustiers on top, notions of pyjama parties conjured by such combinations of pattern. This floral design extended to cigarette pants, long blazers and shirts, all in satin, an extension of his S/S 12 collection. Designs were influenced by men's classic tailoring, a tuxedo playsuit, dress and tuxedo-style blazer given femininity by choice of soft fabric and pretty colouring. High-waist knickers were worn in the variety of prints, be it stripe, rose or indeed plain baby pink or blue, twinned with over-sized shirts or a blazer again provided a dainty girlishness to otherwise masculine elements.
Man meets woman at Maarten Van Der Horst AW 12
Pretty layering evokes a look of nightwear
As was proven last season, Marques'Almeida has a way of rejuvenating the use of denim, and this was again shown for A/W 12. Designs had a definite grunge vibe to them, pieces being ripped and frayed in an electric combination of black and toxic green, ultra-light bleached pieces to also feature. Chunky blocked clogs in white, green and black encased socked feet as girls complete with dark circles and wet hair stomped down the runway, as if they had pulled an all-nighter. Designs were over-sized and rigid, but sheer chiffon and fluffy knitted sweaters provided a much-needed softness, these sloppy-Joe creations, complete with floppy beanies and rucksacks evoking the look of the 90s' Kurt Cobain-esque student. This collection held an edgy rawness that has fast become the trademark of the design duo.
Edgy grunge at Marques'Almeida AW 12
Softness is created with knitwear and lighter shades
Third to show was James long, the menswear star who has now well established himself as a women's designer. With inspiration drawn from Russian architecture, this collection was nothing less than decadent, yet still remained very wearable. Designs boasted zigzag and chevron shaped bands, tassels flowing freely to form skirts and embellishment on sleeves of jackets. Craftily knitted dresses, skirts and jumpers were presented, alongside fabulous quilted black leather, a colour palette of golden greens and luxurious reddy pinks forming the collection. Slim trousers and a fitted skirt were formed from velvet, in rich and warm shades, bestowed with the geometric patterns, they added even more extravagance. This was heightened further still by the use of a pinkish lame which came in the shape of a long smart coat, t-shirt and both pencil and full skirts. Vast and rich fabrics make way for a lavish autumn ahead.
Russian inspired designs in golden green at James Long AW 12
A decadent and eclectic mix of fabrics
By RG

subset: commoncrawl


text:
By Mike Walker
glitter in the air, by the flight, by the night . . . .
this airplane travels in the dark, blinking its red and whites.
like Chicago in the summertime, like Water Tower Place,
it's all little reflections of those pulsating lamps.
with haste, with urgency, with everything else because of
a desire: I want to be there now, I want an experience complete.
I look out into the black air and imagine which islands might
be under our metal wings at this moment in passage.
even when I fly over solid land I must imagine an ocean;
without real water I'll make up my own fanciful seas.
I want for salty water and research its mysteries, I am
considering its romance within the laboratory of my mind.
you see, anything catches my eye if it's one of a kind:
anything that seems complex I want to be mine.
like the seas, open and endless, home to billions of
fishes, crustaceans, kelp, and man-made relics.
then when the plane must touch the ground I
rise from my almost-sleep and reform my dreaming wish:
I want for the kind of body found standing on a beach
near the water at two in the morning; this one,
he gazes over the waves and appreciates their sound,
he will scan the sky and find my plane on approach to MIA.
transforming those glittering little lamps into the swish of
a shiny garment in a crowded, dark, extravagant place.
let them lead his youthful face to search for another
person so tainted and captivated, so full of forever for me.
will to him right now all those powers that can
toss radiance and shimmer into a night designed for desire.
let him trace the flow of the waves and want them to
be contained and represented in a more human way.
let him come through the sand and seaside brush to
stand where I can find him and begin this climb,
fixing our mental images in a perfectly non-sensible way;
we could be working on it, trying to achieve greatness
through the easy movement just like that of the sea.
I would be content to lay there between him and the water,
allowing him to visualize in me anything he wants out of
an awesome and whole worldly geography.
I plunge in as I always have,
without words enough to do.
like Brian on his skateboard,
I hope to be replete and unguarded, never noticeable
for my knowledge but instead for my lack thereof.
I want to be experienced in a way that will leave
etched into my listener deep marks of everything I am.
the stuff we are made of, it is a shock-wave, it can be truncated
like sounds can be spliced and looped in endless electronic
wonderment through miraculous computerized orchestration
shifting octaves and leaving little artifacts that wail, that
that always run in clamoring, that land on their own two feet.
I am more artillery brigade than mender as I say that I reform
yet when you look at it carefully, I blast, burst, and carve.
my words, behold them to yourself; listen, please, listen.
like Brian, I said, like Brian; as I loved him as my friend
and stood in awe of his defiant, piercing, personality.
like Brian, I said, as I loved him as more than a friend,
I allowed him to become part of me forever, like these
words that will --as Cynthia told me-- simply never do.
nor will photographs, or molecular models, or maps,
or nautical charts, or seismic readings, or anything else.
while we stand with plenty left to explore in the natural world,
and here I am --but still a kid-- saying "look at me, love me!"
what do I have, what more than anyone else?
what might I have today, like sugar? what might you covet?
maybe I proffer more than I can sell or maybe, like Brian,
it's a done deal and the ring has left the jeweler's case
but try, please do, though I am too proud to ask, I have to:
try to take me in and live in my life learning my language
so then enthralled you will grow in yourself and I will become
what I say I am already.


text:
Who qualifies to be a real estate professional?
In order to be considered a real estate professional, you must meet both of the following criteria:
- More than half of your personal services you performed in any businesses or trades were performed in real property businesses in which you materially participated.
A real property trade or business is any real property development, redevelopment, construction, reconstruction, acquisition, conversion, rental, operation, management, leasing, brokerage trade, or business. Services you performed as an employee are not treated as performed in a real property trade or business unless you owned more than 5% of the stock (or more than 5% of the capital or profits interest) in the employer. - You performed more than 750 hours of services during the year in real property trades or businesses in which you materially participated.


text:
3208 search results for Oscars
Oscars 2015: Winners speak from backstage
Type: Gallery | Date: Monday, Feb 23, 2015
'Birdman' filmmakers, Patricia Arquette, Julianne Moore, Eddie Redmayne, more -
The 10 Most Awkward Oscar Moments Ever
Type: Article | Date: Sunday, Feb 15, 2015
The Oscars: glamorous, legendary, awkward. -
Best and Worst of the 2015 Oscars
Type: Gallery | Date: Monday, Feb 23, 2015
Harris had some good moments and some bad. His opening number was flat and to...
Some young women at the Oscars dressed like old ladies
Type: Article | Date: Sunday, Feb 22, 2015
And that's OK -
The toughest choices the Academy ever had to make
Type: Gallery | Date: Monday, Feb 16, 2015
Just last year, it was obviously painstaking to choose between a technical ju...
Before they were Oscar nominees
Type: Gallery | Date: Thursday, Feb 12, 2015
Arquette has pretty much grown up in the industry, and no surprise given that...
Ultimate 2015 Oscars Red Carpet Gallery
Type: Gallery | Date: Sunday, Feb 22, 2015
Here's Patricia Arquette in her "I'm definitely going to win an ...
Horror at the Oscars: A Definitive Guide
Type: Gallery | Date: Friday, Feb 20, 2015
Nominated for: Best Actor (Fredric March), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cine...
If the average moviegoer picked the Oscars...
Type: Post | Date: Tuesday, Feb 17, 2015
How different would the Oscars be in average moviegoers selected the major awards? -
James Bond at the Oscars
Type: Post | Date: Thursday, Dec 4, 2014
Where will 'Spectre' figure into this legacy?


text:
Pronunciation: reunidas
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reunidas = gathered
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True Grit: Young Readers Edition (Mass Market Paperback)
The Young Readers edition of the beloved American classic. Also available in a trade paperback edition (ISBN: 978-1-59020-459-7)with an afterword by Donna Tartt, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of ""The Goldfinch" "
"True Grit" is a great American novel that tells the story of a teenager's overpowering effort to avenge the murder of her father. Set in a period in history when the law was much less well-established than it is now, True Grit takes its place alongside books like "To Kill a Mockingbird" and the novels of Mark Twain. It is a beloved American classic through and through. Leonard S. Marcus, renowned children's book historian, has written a wonderful afterword meant especially for a young readership, available only in this edition.
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Patrick Bransfield
Staff Writer
Tri-State Era was originally a band comprised of a group of friends from Danbury, Connecticut. At first, it wasn't a really serious project until their untitled 2012 demo received a decent amount of attention in the New England music scene. Their 2012 demo (which I'm nearly positive I wrote about in my first review for The Q), consisted of two songs: "Are You Listening Now?" and "Breeze Home." With a total run time of five minutes and 51 seconds, their self-released demo filled with emotional lyrics, fantastic drum fills, and twinkle-esque guitars left me with a hunger that only could be satisfied by more Tri-State Era. This need was satisfied in March of this year when Heads Up Records released a compilation with a single new Tri-State Era song titled "There's Nothing You Can Tell Me," which also happens to be the opening song on their recently released EP titled "Blaze Home."
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Florida Gulf Coast Eagles (2-6)
@24 Ohio St. Buckeyes (9-0)
Wednesday, December 15
Value City Arena
Attendance: 12,613
Florida Gulf Coast
24 Ohio St.
Columbus, OH (Sports Network) - Jon Diebler scored 29 points, including 27 from beyond the arc, as No. 2 Ohio State disposed of Florida Golf Coast, 83-55, at Value City Arena.
Diebler was surprisingly left open in Florida Gulf Coast's zone defense, burying his first seven treys and finishing 9-of-14 from long distance. William Buford chipped in with 17 points and six rebounds, while freshman Jared Sullinger chipped in with 11 points for Ohio State (9-0).
Chase Fieler led the Eagles (2-6) with 12 points and five rebounds and Anthony Banks chipped in with 10 points in defeat.
"I understand that was one of the best three-point performances this building has even seen, and I'm sure it's one of the best we've ever seen," said Florida Gulf Coast head coach Dave Balza.
Diebler matched the Buckeyes record for three-pointers in a game, making shots from all over the floor. He has now made a school-record 291 three-pointers in his collegiate career.
"Jon had hot hands tonight and they were leaving him open so we were getting him the shots," said Buford.
Florida Gulf Coast played zone in an attempt to focus on the interior game of Sullinger, who took just nine shots in the contest. However, the gamble didn't pay off, as Diebler drained five treys in the first half. Ohio State made more made three-pointers (7) than the Eagles had field goals (6).
The Buckeyes tallied the first seven points, and Diebler buried his first three treys as part of 11 successive points that opened a comfortable 18-3 advantage in the early going. Another long-distance jumper from Diebler pushed the margin to 32-12 with just over five minutes remaining in the first half, and Ohio State took a 42-16 lead into the locker room.
Florida Gulf Coast got the deficit under 20 points at 54-35 on Christophe Varidel's three-pointer with a little more 11 minutes on the clock, but a 12-1 spurt capped by Buford's layup escalated the advantage to 66-36. The Buckeyes substituted freely the rest of the way.
Ed Corbett, Mike Eades, Dan Chrisman


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Morphosis I Alpha wraps comfortingly around bathers, encircling them in mood-enhancing Illumatherapy.
With its gentle slopes at both ends, the Cerine tub invites repose. Heavy-gauge stainless steel in a satin finish retains the water's warmth, prolonging a sumptuous soak.
Allegro modular saunas blend contemporary styling with Old World luxury.
Choose between a traditional Finnish sauna heater or nine infrared wall panel heaters in the Synergy combo sauna.
Hidden behind a 7-foot-tall, free-floating headboard is a small passage to a simply sybaritic master bath. Its spare design belies the decadent offerings contained within the 270-square-foot space.
Diamond Spas' Japanese soaking tub.
Renovating a bathroom is somewhat like surgery. First, you must do no harm. Working around existing plumbing, wiring, and venting, architect Alex Harrow skillfully inserted a new, more vigorous heart into this master bath: a custom solid granite tub weighing 2,500 pounds—empty.


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Angelina is putting her wedding to Brad on hold indefinitely, according to a new report! Read on for all the details.
After their engagement was revealed in early April, fans have been eagerly anticipating a wedding for Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. It looks like they'll be waiting quite some time, according to a new report in Life & Style magazine!
The magazine claims that Angie has slammed on the brakes, putting the wedding on hold. "Angie's working a ton," a business associate tells Life & Style. "So I'm not sure how they would do it this year." Though, as another insider explains it, Angelina might not be too excited to think about the wedding — ever.
An insider on the set of her new film Maleficent says that Angie's usual good mood soured when asked about her wedding plans. "She rolled her eyes and gave them the brush-off. Judging from her attitude, I doubt she'll ever marry him."
"Angelina just wants to focus on work and is always talking about it," the insider says. "It's her No. 1 priority. She would happily work constantly." The article says that, while Brad loves Angie's passion for her work, he'd love to come first for a change. But the insider says that he shouldn't hold his breath.
"When the mention of a wedding was brought up recently, Angelina laughed. It's clear she has no intention of marrying Brad anytime soon," the insider says.
Are you surprised that Angelina is delaying her wedding to Brad, HollywoodLifers?
– Billy Nilles
More Brangelina news:
- Brad Pitt & Angelina Jolie: Wedding This Weekend? — New Details
- Vivienne Jolie-Pitt Will Star In 'Maleficent' With Mom Angelina Jolie
- Find Out What Amazing Birthday Gift Brad Pitt Gave Angelina Jolie
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mike taylor
Posted at 3:55 PM on November 16, 2012
Posted at 5:30 PM on October 11, 2012
Posted at 6:35 PM on October 12, 2012
Posted at 8:00 PM on October 14, 2012
Can we see a pic of you? Brad was so bored with Jennifer that he told her when they arrived home from a holiday in which he looked as if he was still in love with Jennifer then smuggly told her about the other witch and she threw him out. Angelina is stupid and shows it as well. I dont know how Brad was stupid enough to want to marry that trapper. The only reason Brad wanted her was because Jen miscarried 2 children with him and this witch trapped him like she did with all ther the others the Witch had. Remember The Pitts still love Jennifer as a daughter and sister and dont like this one.
Reality Bites
Posted at 1:16 PM on October 11, 2012
This story is such BS Bonnie and you know it. Brad is the one who is busy right now since Jolie just wrapped Maleficent. And they will marry at the Chateau which is under construction. They were not racing to get to the alter before Jen and they are also not calling anything off and you are completely fabricating Jolie postponing the wedding. It is to the point where I would be absolutely floored if any story on this site was ever true. Pure unadulterated fiction 24/7. You must be so proud!
Fiona Kildare
Posted at 10:51 PM on November 21, 2012
Who cares if they get married or not?!! It's their problem! At the end of the day, when the silly tabloid cameramen turn the cameras away, these two are stuck with each other. If this is not the real thing, too bad for them. What's even more pathetic, however, is the parade of senseless speculation that has gone on for so many years. Dear Lord!! They're just actors!!
Posted at 1:41 AM on October 11, 2012
Posted at 1:08 AM on October 11, 2012
Angelina has come out and said that she and Brad had an affair during the filming of MR & MRS SMITH. She knew Brad was married to Jennifer. Maybe the reason she is putting off the wedding is because she now knows that Jennifer will be marrying Justin Theroux soon and that means that Brad will be safe. She has always been jealous of Jennifer. Maybe Ange is afraid of commitment and now that Jen is going to marry Justin she can keep Brad dangling forever.
Posted at 10:22 AM on October 11, 2012
No she has not said there was an affair! Show us some proof. That quote where she says watch their parents fall in love was cut off at the point where she says "and try to kill each other" talking about their characters.
There is nothing about Jen to be jealous of. Jen has very little talent, a humungous nose, huge chin, very bad sun damaged skin, and super thin lips! She is also dull with nothing to talk about besides her hair and body, She also can't act without her waving her hands around like an idiot.
Angelina has a family, a beautiful face, can fly planes, rides motorcycles, has won an Oscar, meets world leaders.
You one crazy beotch – What's to be jeolous of Jen Aniston if Justin is the best she could do. She bought her own engagement ring as he can't afford it. Now that's what you call desperate as all the others before him dumped her arse and a few went on to marry someone else. She's clinging onto the homely guy for dear life – so just stop your Angie hating Jenifer!
Posted at 8:30 PM on October 10, 2012
Actually it's been almost 2 years. Blood and Honey filmed fall of 2010. It's funny how tabloids keep saying that Angelina is a workaholic who doesn't care about her family when she probably works the least of all A-listers. She's only done about 6 or 7 movies since giving birth to Shiloh. Also considering her first 2 weddings were basically elopements, a multi-million dollar event that the tabloids insist upon is lol.
Posted at 7:48 PM on October 10, 2012
How come these "sources" can't even tell us where in the world Brad and Angelina are right now?? They have hardly been photographed this year, especially this summer.
These sources know nothing, they can't even tell us anything that is true.
I also can't imagine her rolling her eyes on set, she seems professional when filming. And for someone who supposedly " would happily work constantly" she sure manages to not work for a whole year just fine.
And when at work filming, I expect her to talk about work!
Posted at 10:55 PM on October 10, 2012
Posted at 11:34 PM on October 10, 2012
Posted at 1:14 AM on October 11, 2012
Why should people care so much about Angie and Brad whereabouts-leave them alone! When they show up it is for the photo/PR stunt. When will people realize that Brad and Angie are only and truly loved couple all over the world not only because of what who they are as the most beautiful couple but their work – humanitarian work talks about them more! God bless Brad and Angie!
Posted at 7:43 PM on October 10, 2012


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It was like old times on Sunday, as Ferrari power and a German driver won the Italian Grand Prix - yet there was no red to be seen on the Monza podium. The Tifosi seemed delighted nonetheless, as did everyone who witnessed the magnificent drive that gave Sebastian Vettel his historic maiden win.
As Toro Rosso and their 21 year-old protege celebrated, the title contenders were left to reflect on mixed fortunes. Lewis Hamilton saw Felipe Massa cut his championship lead to a single point, while Kimi Raikkonens hopes of retaining his crown all but evaporated, leaving Robert Kubica as the best outside bet. And in the constructors standings McLaren continued to close on Ferrari and now trail the Scuderia by just five points, with only four races to run
Toro Rosso
Sebastian Vettel, 1m 30.510s, P1
Sebastien Bourdais, 1m 29.258s, P18
Vettel did a brilliant job all afternoon, from pulling out a huge gap on Kovalainen early on when he was the one with the best visibility, to making sure both pit stops went smoothly, and he controlled the slippery closing stages perfectly too. The team backed him superbly, and while their pole position might have owed a little to the conditions, their first win was totally deserved. Bourdais was desperately unlucky when his Toro Rosso refused to select first gear as the safety car pulled away at the start, and then to have it stall. He eventually recovered, but his sole consolation on his teams greatest day was to show what might have been by setting the second-fastest lap of the race.
Heikki Kovalainen, 1m 30.300s, P2
Lewis Hamilton, 1m 29.721s, P7
Kovalainen admitted quite freely that Vettel just had too much pace for him, and said that he also struggled initially on his extreme-wet Bridgestone tyres, and to keep temperature in the brakes. Hamilton was the star of the really wet going as he moved from 15th to second prior to his sole planned pit stop. He believed he could have won, had it not become necessary to make a second stop to switch to standard wets as the conditions improved.
BMW Sauber
Robert Kubica, 1m 30.298s, P3
Nick Heidfeld, 1m 29.807s, P5
Conditions were so bad in the early going that Kubica did not even know he had overtaken Heidfeld on the straight! The Poles strategy played out perfectly when his single pit stop on lap 34 coincided with the point at which drivers could change from Bridgestones extreme wets to standard wets. That was a key factor in his podium finish. Heidfeld was happy enough with fifth.
Fernando Alonso, 1m 29.961s, P4
Nelson Piquet, 1m 30.918s, P10
Another fourth place for Alonso did Renaults quest for fourth place overall no harm at all as they now share 41 points with Toyota. The Spaniard was happy with a strong personal performance in the race he admitted the team least looked forward to. Piquet ran a long first stint, but a moment in the first chicane helped Raikkonen to catch up and pass, and he finished 10th.
Felipe Massa, 1m 29.696s, P6
Kimi Raikkonen, 1m 28.047s, P9
Massa reported a tough race, in which he had to fight all the way in a car that did not have fantastic wet-road grip. He was on a two-stop strategy, so having to change to intermediates late in the race was not ideal. Nevertheless, he was satisfied to draw within a point of Hamilton. Raikkonen had a really tough afternoon fighting a car that had very little grip until the road dried and he was able to set a string of fastest laps on the standard wets. That came far too late to make him a points contender, however.
Red Bull
Mark Webber, 1m 29.681s, P8
David Coulthard, 1m 32.459s, P16
Webber ran strongly early on behind Vettel and Kovalainen, but lost pace on his new tyres after his first stop and later had a brush with Hamilton in Turn One which compromised him further. He had to be satisfied with another point for eighth place. Coulthard had a problem with his brake balance jamming initially, then serious rear tyre wear which left him a target for Fisichella and Nakajima, both of whom collided with him.
Timo Glock, 1m 29.948s, P11
Jarno Trulli, 1m 30.853s, P13
For a while Toyota seemed destined to grab another good haul of points, with Trulli sixth and Glock eighth as they battled Alonso initially. But then Glock spun in Turn One, and later had a brush with Hamilton as they went through the Curva Grande on the 16th lap. The German refuelled on lap 25, when he had worked back up to fifth, Trulli a lap later from fourth place, but they slumped to11th and 13th respectively, and each had to stop again to switch to standard wets, so that was that for them.
Nico Rosberg, 1m 30.019s, P14
Kazuki Nakajima, 1m 30.215s, P12
Rosberg was bitterly disappointed that what should have been a great strategy could not keep him in the strong position he was in originally to take fourth or fifth place. Tyre degradation played a part in that as he steadily lost performance early on, then there was a delay when the refuelling hose would not detach cleanly during his pit stop. Nakajima had another undistinguished race, which was compromised when he collided with Coulthard in the Parabolica after cutting in too tight after passing the Red Bull.
Jenson Button, 1m 29.827s, P15
Rubens Barrichello, 1m 33.918s, P17
Honda had high hopes in the rain, but Button could only bring his RA108 home 15th. Starting from the pit lane left him with cold tyres and brakes after two laps behind the Safety Car, and then he got stuck behind Coulthard. He was fast on very worn extreme wets later on, but by then he had lost too much time. Barrichello was the first to switch from the mandatory extremes, after 16 laps, but the gamble to switch to dry tyres on the 43rd lap did not pay off.
Force India
Adrian Sutil, 1m 33.458s, P19
Giancarlo Fisichella, 1m 37.304s, Retired lap 12, accident
Sutil complained of poor grip throughout and, like Barrichello, lost out on the gamble to switch to dry tyres late in the race. Fisichella ran 11th early on but could not keep Raikkonen, Hamilton or Coulthard at bay, and crashed into retirement after running into the back of the latters Red Bull.


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I couldn't tell you the first thing about soccer, well, besides the fact that they kick a ball around.
When I attended Ole Miss, I worked in the Athletics Media Relations office and opted to work more with the sports I didn't know as much about, soccer being the main one.
Granted, my job was sitting on the sideline and blowing an air horn to indicate substitutions (which I chose to do solely because I was able to use an air horn), but a bulk of my knowledge of the sport comes from working this job for the better part of two years.
I also played soccer with friends in my spare time. And by play, I mean, we kicked a ball around, while my friends and former players, Ryan and Virginia, tried to teach us some techniques (I was a lost cause, as you could imagine). I guess the main thing that kept me from playing in an actual game were Virginia's numerous stories of how she "accidently" dislocated other girls kneecaps while in high school (this happened on multiple occasions, apparently).
I was excited to learn that one school in Union County has a soccer program, as it is a sport I've come to appreciate more over the last few years, so much, that I somehow managed to get my family to watch the World Cup last summer.
As I mentioned last week, this is still a sport, like hockey, that I have to watch in person. While I've come to enjoy soccer, I still can't spend hours in front of a TV watching MLS or Premier League games, like my friends can.
Now, of course, I gripe like many others about the time of year Mississippi chooses to play soccer (a native Tennesseean, Virginia is still blown away by this), but I do have to commend the fans who brave the cold weather, especially for the night games, and even more so, the kids, who run around in shorts in temperatures I won't even wear them in (and y'all know how backwards I am when it comes to the weather and my wardrobe).
While we're about a month into the new season, I'm looking forward to watching a few games, and more so, the opportunity to shove kids out of the way to hog space by the heaters for the night games.
Okay, maybe not shove, just playfully push, but you get the idea.
Regardless, this is sure to be another exciting season, as the Bulldogs look to defend last year's Division 1-4A championship and the Lady Bulldogs hope to make a return trip to the playoffs.
The games are pretty exciting and fun to watch, so if you have the time and are looking for a short break from basketball, you can watch their remaining home games at Kitchens' Field.
Enjoying soccer season
About Chris Elkins
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There are several options to consider when deciding on a future in the military as an officer; would you like to join the Warrant Officer Corps or the Officer Corps and from there more options are available to attain those ranks.
You may find that taking the OCS route is more in alignment with your lifestyle or perhaps ROTC. Or perhaps become an Officer in a specialized field such as Chaplain, Medical or JAG is best for you. Maybe joining the WOCS program is a better approach.
For details on all of these Commissioning Programs, click one of the links below….or contact the AMEDD/OCS Recruiter at 720-250-1064 or the Warrant Officer Recruiter at 720-250-1448.
Click here to read a course overview of the OCS and WOCS program. The briefing will also provide the minimum entrance requirements and benefits of OCS and WOCS.the Commanders Briefing on Commissioning Programs in more detail.


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- Swag
- 01First Song
- 02Track Number Two
- 03Third Song
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- 055th
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I don't rap for myself, I'm not sure I know how to rap. I can't find my tone and voice to flow constantly. My inspiration to this is Brandon "Lil B The BasedGod" Mccartney . I'm positive I'm a Basedboy and I am thebasedchild of the basedgod I was created on the 21st of February 2010... As I embark upon this I can't give a care what anybody feels about my music just do it. If I get fame from this I don't want to be commended in any other way than be with Lil B I'm a supporter but I'm as close as I can get for now I don't know if this is going to help me get closer but I just need to express, If I sound like him with my topics and songs excuse me... I don't know any better his rap is where I find my point #shoutsout to the #based community aka my family - CompellemB thebasedchild


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Elkins High School: Competed for coach Ben Still ... Earned team MVP award ... Also ran for Wings Track Club.
Personal: Born Nia Chardai Davis on May 2, 1995 in Houston, Texas ... Daughter of Carrie Dixon and Marcus Davis.
Cardinals plan to take advantage of the weekend
Duo picks up pair of runner-up finishes
Cards have an impressive final day in Conway
Cards looking to cap outdoor season in Conway
Three athletes put up Southland-best performances