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University of Wisconsin, Parkside (UWP)
California State University, Dominguez Hills(CSUDH)
Created: July 13, 2011
Latest update: July 13, 2011
E-Mail to Jeanne in L.A.
E-Mail to Susan at UWP.
You see, wealth cannot buy Tzedekheit. Tzedekheit in Hebrew means Worthiness or Goodness. Rashi says that Noah had Tzedekheit and that that's why the Lord chose him to build the Ark. Susan and I want Tzedekheit. That doesn't mean that we think that what Scott Warner is doing about fair wages is right. We don't. But we know also that Tedekheit is what makes us feel good about ourselves. And mostly, we want you to feel good about yourselves. That's what teaching is all about. And it must be done with love.
For evidence of how we came to our conclusions, I'll cite a website I just encountered when thinking about Zen and Koan.
- The Zen Mountain Monastery in Hawaii, Art Gallery
- Lay PracticeThe Mainhouse of the Mountains and Rivers Order.
- View a sampling of Fall 2006 Ango visual art presentations. (The topic was—seeing water as different kinds of beings see it, as described in Master Dogen's Mountains and Rivers Sutra.)
Susan's Sometime Scarf or why this all comes up
- The Antecedents of Encounter Dialogue in Chinese Ch'an Buddhism Have to look this up. Didn't know about it. jeanne
- Biographical Data, on his own site. Notice my checking for peer review kinds of references. Interesting use of art related to spirituality. Will have to look into. esp. doodles and string dolls. jeanne
Now, this is embarrassing. I'm supposed to know better. It was just a tiny summer scarflike necklace with a bright summer flower to close it. It was so pretty in this lovely soft white organic cotton I had from Knitpicks. They introduced it just last summer, so I didn't even think to worry that they might not have that yarn anymore. So I had to start all over. This time with a perky red and white. Susan looks so neat in red. Well, sometime . . .
Susan's Sometime Scarf is one of our patterns. That's why we called it Sometime - I was working on it - and she'd get it sometime, but we never for sure when - just sometime. It took me a while to figure out how to do it. But now I can show you. And you can go to Michael's or JoAnne's or any other craft store and pick up some inexpensive yarn to play with. And before long we'll have a knitting group, or you can start one of your own with our help, or with your own creativity.
If you'll do things that others can help you with, and share with you, then you can try lots of things until you find what you like. These days, for the whole middle class, that's a good thing. Try. Learn. Find what you like. What you enjoy enough to learn to do it very well. Sharing what you can with your neighbors and friends will strengthen your community and all the relationships in it. That's better for all of us.
I'm tempted to add, "Now, there's a good human." Of course, Alfie Kohn would be horrified - he thinks even gold stars are harmful rewards for behavior. Me, too. And "Now, there's a good human," even sounds a tad condescending. It's just that humans in government and politics and a few of them in education have so disappointed me lately. Looking around at the lack of "good human" behavior today, Susan and I decided it wasn't such a bad idea to add lots more compliments into our discourse than most of us give today. Sure, as one faculty member at CSUDH said, "never mind the compliments, just give me money." Yeah, but is that all there is to human life? Alfie Kohn would insist that M&Ms and gold stars are not good ways to motivate people for the very same reasons. Money and more and more and more of it? No, thanks. Not for me. Money is a limited resource that has to be distributed wisely if we want a functional and contented society. But it's not all there is. I'll take all the "good dogs" anyone offers me. I like to know that I've made you happy, and for you to know that you've made me happy. But do improve on my wording. Not the best way to say it; that's for sure.
Two of my colleagues, Allan Ryave and Noelie Rodriguez, and somebody from another school, actually wrote and presented a professional paper on the reasons we offer for why we tend not to give compliments to one another, even when we could. Good that they confirmed we've forgotten how to do that, give compliments, that is. Maybe we only use compliments (Good dog!s) for dog training these days. But Susan and I like them, for us and for you. Try it. The National Public Broadcasting Service (NPS) once called them "sneaky strokes" on All Things Considered. Not a bad name for them. Be a little sneaky. Compliment someone today. We'll all be happier for it. Then pay them fairly. That's a whole different concept. Of course, in the interest of presenting all perspectives, I should remind you that Congress just considered refusing to fund NPS, that same National Public Broadcasting System.
References:
- The Moors of Spain and the Writing They Brought to Europe with Them
- Jumping Jehosaphat I thought this was a pretty good explanation. jeanne
- Holy Toledo I always thought it was Toledo, Ohio. Glad I looked it up. Not so happy about the "liberation" by kicking the Moors out of Spain. For one thing, they had taught others how to write. Rashi was able to write much of Jewish learning down before pogroms killed the most learned. Because he had lived in France, and could only travel to Germany when crops were in and he could get away, the Moors of Spain had taught him to write and take notes while he was in Germany studying Torah in the 12th Century. And that is why we have Rashi's preservation of the learning in the Torah today.
In Reply to: Re: Holy Toledo posted by Barney on July 20, 2000: : Does anyone know where the phrase "Holy Toledo" came from?
: Don't know if it's relevant but Toledo steel was used in medieval swords - renowned for it's quality - which may have been used in wars against the Infidels.
"holy Toledo! - This exclamation of surprise refers to Toledo, Spain, which became one of the great centers of Christian culture after its liberation from the Moors in 1085. Its thirteenth-century Gothic cathedral, one of the largest in Europe, is the seat of the Cardinal Archbishop of Spain." "Morris Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins" by William and Mary Morris (HarperCollins, New York, 1977, 1988).
Do notice this last piece is being shared with you by people on a discussion list of some kind in the United Kingdom. And they wrote it back in July of 2000. The Internet really is wonderful, as long as you remember that it's unsupervised, and you have to be careful to look for collaborating evidence.
What I found, when I went to look up evidence in support of what I told you about Rashi, was that no one seemed to be nearly as focussed as I was on the importance of the writing the Moors had brought to Spain and taught to others, like Rashi. My source: I studied Rashi in 12th Century Hebrew at the University of Judaism in Los Angeles, many years ago. For the grandchild of seven Irish Priests and the niece of one Carmelite Nun, that was quite a feat. Everyone else in the class was a conservative Rabbinical student. Now, I'll go back and hunt for my story, and you'll nag me if you care to know that, too. But not today. At least now you'll know how to search for evidence. And that you should always search for evidence. And that's all that really matters.
love and peace, jeanne
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- Newspapers: Labeling here is based on an article by Ashley K. Vroman on the impossiibility of labeling newspapers by ideology. I personally go along with the conclusion of the conservative Media Research Center's L. Brent Bozell III: if the paper never met a conservative cause it didn't like, it's conservative, and if it never met a liberal cause it didn't like, it's liberal.
But then, what about the Wall Street Journal whose news staff is considered liberal and its editorial staff considered conservative? Does that make them a tad schizophrenic? Not unless we all are. None of us humans are completely inflexible. Sometimes we think like liberals, and sometimes we think like conservatives, and sometimes we just plain forget to think before we speak.
Luckily, journalism has worked hard at maintaining a thoughtful and rational standard that we be honest and fair in what we report. Today we need to think on this a little more, because some popular media are more concerned with reporting "opposing" than "fair" perspectives, and are terribly careless with the meaning of "facts." jeanne 06.25.2011
- Liberal Newspapers:
New York Times - Los Angeles Times - The Washington Post
The Boston Globe - The Chicago Tribune- Conservative Newspapers:
The Wall Street Journal - The Washington Times - The New York Post
Manchester (N.H.) UnionLeader - The Oklahoman- Los Angeles County Library. Online service.
- World Cat Online search for finding books available in your local librairies. This may have become far more essential as funding for librairies is being cut. Check it out.
- PolitiFact.com
PolitiFact.com will give you extensive information on what's truth and what's rumor and what's not in news reporting and viral vidoes and e-mails. This is offered as a Public Service by the St. Petersburg Times, for which we thank them profusely. These are times for checking your facts.
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- Newspapers: Labeling here is based on an article by Ashley K. Vroman on the impossiibility of labeling newspapers by ideology. I personally go along with the conclusion of the conservative Media Research Center's L. Brent Bozell III: if the paper never met a conservative cause it didn't like, it's conservative, and if it never met a liberal cause it didn't like, it's liberal.
But then, what about the Wall Street Journal whose news staff is considered liberal and its editorial staff considered conservative? Does that make them a tad schizophrenic? Not unless we all are. None of us humans are completely inflexible. Sometimes we think like liberals, and sometimes we think like conservatives, and sometimes we just plain forget to think before we speak.
Luckily, journalism has worked hard at maintaining a thoughtful and rational standard that we be honest and fair in what we report. Today we need to think on this a little more, because some popular media are more concerned with reporting "opposing" than "fair" perspectives, and are terribly careless with the meaning of "facts." jeanne 06.25.2011
- Liberal Newspapers:
New York Times - Los Angeles Times - The Washington Post
The Boston Globe - The Chicago Tribune- Conservative Newspapers:
The Wall Street Journal - The Washington Times - The New York Post
Manchester (N.H.) UnionLeader - The Oklahoman- Los Angeles County Library. Online service.
- World Cat Online search for finding books available in your local librairies. This may have become far more essential as funding for librairies is being cut. Check it out.
- PolitiFact.com
PolitiFact.com will give you extensive information on what's truth and what's rumor and what's not in news reporting and viral vidoes and e-mails. This is offered as a Public Service by the St. Petersburg Times, for which we thank them profusely. These are times for checking your facts.
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Farlex Free Online Dictionary:
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