Flies Like an Arrow?

The goal of this blog is to make the Friday night dinner seem to slow down / speed up (circle one).... Please share.
Mazal tov to Marc & Zeke on their father-son bar mitzvah this week.

Or like a banana?

For your table talk tonight, a story followed by a simple question.

The story:

On Wednesday, I showed our six-year-old a video of the amazing Emily Bear.

My daughter's reaction: "I want to be able to play like that!"

And for the next two days (and counting?) she has been super motivated to practice.

The potential glitch occurred on the second day when she found a new phrase difficult to master. In a brief moment of frustration, she said, "I just want to be able to play like Emily!"

She doesn't think Emily ever had to practice? What's with the haste?

So here's the simple question for your table talk:

Have you ever been anticipating something - a trip, or a party, or some great event, or an Amazon package arriving, or mastering a song on the piano, and it seemed to take forever?

Happens all the time, right?

The question is: is the opposite possible? Is it possible to anticipate a great event that is in the distant future - let's say seven years - and yet the time seems to pass very quickly?

For example:

He had to wait seven years to marry her, but it only seemed like a few days because he loved her so much.

Is this plausible? He loved her so much, so the time seemed to speed up? Shouldn't it have seemed to take forever?

Could it ever happen? How is it possible to anticipate something great - marrying your soul mate - and seven years could seem like a few days?

To answer this question, consider:

1. When does time seem to slow down?
2. When does time seem to speed up?

It seems to me that time seems to slow down when we're anticipating achieving or getting something, whereas time seems to speed up when we are preparing for some kind of test or trial.

If it seems strange that his love for her could make seven years pass quickly, that comes from an attitude of marriage = achieving or getting.

But if love and marriage (and kids?) is a great test and you're shooting for an A+, then the seven years might pass quickly indeed.


Shabbat Shalom


PS - I'm sure you already know how many days to Channuka.... but have you seen what's new in Goldy's list?
PPS - Yes, once again this week's post has an easter egg - can you find it?

When you forgive, you in no way change the past - but you sure do change the future.
Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/topics/topic_forgiveness.html

When you forgive, you in no way change the past - but you sure do change the future.
Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/topics/topic_forgivene

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The Rite Stuff

Sorry this is late… I have a good excuse! Really!

This morning I passed one of my comprehensive exams for the Ph.D. It was the most challenging because it was in a field that I had least prior knowledge.

I'd been preparing for this exam for about a year, most actively the past three months. It was an oral exam, no notes, in front of two professors.

You would guess that I'm relieved.

You would be right.

But I'm not as relieved as my patient wife, who has had to put up with my relative inattention. So if anyone deserves a mazal-tov at this juncture, it is surely she! (tikva at jsli dot org)

(Wait til I get in dissertation mode - she doesn't know what she's got coming...)

Sometimes it feels like "life is a test."

If you ever feel like you're being tested and you're not a registered student, you might enjoy this gem of a book:

Life is a Test book

She's a great story teller and teaches how to re-frame each and every challenge as a test.

But all these little tests don't feel complete until graduation. Until you graduate, you haven't reached the finish line.

In the old days, graduation meant finishing 12th grade, then college, etc.

Nowadays, schools are building graduation ceremonies into every grade.

Our 6-year-old Yoseph, for instance, had his graduation ceremony this week - from Kindergarten. You should have seen it - cap-n-gown, procession, the whole works. And the boys sang 2 medleys, the first to show off what they'd learned in the Jewish part of the curriculum, the second to show off their achievements in "general studies".

Here are a couple photos: http://seinfelds.shutterfly.com/43

Rites and rituals are so important to a feeling of accomplishment. Have you passed any tests or challenges recently that you were never recognized for? Please let me know so that I can help you fill this void, with all due pomp and circumstance.

Now here's the big question try asking this at your dinner table: What about the life tests that you did NOT pass? What to do?

(The crib-sheet answer: Every challenge is a "test", and if you failed it, that means you'll get it again, sooner or later. But the next time you get it, the challenge is slightly different: It will be, did you learn anything from the previous time? No? Back to school for you!)

Shabbat Shalom

“The empires of the future are the empires of the mind.” - Churchill