Tag: learned

What I wish I’d known before I had to learn it.

Reb Cat’s Torah

FOR LOVE OF A CAT, one can become accustomed to gifts of mole and rat or parts thereof (and the subsequent carryings-out of their limp little forms). Live baby birds are harder. Especially when they peep from inside the plastic…

Why I’m Not A Rabbi

IF YOU DIDN’T KNOW THAT I was once studying to become a rabbi, then you probably haven’t talked to me much during the last 10 years. As detailed elsewhere, I returned to Judaism in 1997 after a whirlwind tour of…

Another Roadside Definition

FUNNY THING ABOUT DEFINING GOD: Despite the impossibility of the task, it does draw one’s imagination and eloquence (or directness, if you’re lucky). I made a stab at it in http://metaphorager.net/working-definition/, tried to understand my understanding in /four-points-of-contact/ and reflected…

Letter To A Dead Friend

Dear Sputnik, The attached photo of you arrived from a mutual friend two days ago, on what should have been your 48th birthday. I say “should” because it’s a primate conceit that the world be arranged according to our convenience.…

Three Hard Things

Kicking a whale up a beach Braiding grape jelly Comforting the chronically afflicted. (1/22/09 P.S. to RW: who asked “Why would you kick a whale?” The only reason I can think of is that 1) he’s down, and 2) you’re…

Thump, Flutter, Gak

I looked up from the computer, wondering about the “thump.” Then I saw the robin on the patio — fluttering wings outspread, struggling to get up. Outside, through the gate, into the side-yard. “Are you okay?” I asked reflexively. She…

Feel The Fear

When Ann and I joined the small synagogue in our Northern California town back in 1998, it was with the understanding that we would get involved. Neither of us had been, when we were younger. But especially since 2000, when…