September 17, 2004

Highlights from Yesterday

Yesterday, we celebrated Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. I should be doing the same thing today but I'm kind of backed up at work and, to top it off, I just got an email informing me that a friend has died and his funeral will be held this morning. I'm glad I happened to be wearing a tie today because I'm going to try to sneak out for the funeral mass.

I took the Girl Child with me to temple yesterday for the whole morning, armed with a bag containing snacks, a drink, and a small selection of books to look at for when she got bored. When I tell you that she looked exceptionally cute, you don't have to take my word for it. Two different policemen patted her on the head as we passed and she thanked them for stopping the cars for us.

After we made it in, we went to the tots service. It was very sweet and the Girl Child got to play the honey (literally, the honey jar) in the little skit about dipping apples in honey for a sweet new year. I think she had a good time and she picked up a couple of new songs. What was the best part? Easily the best part was sitting next to her and watching her face change from fierce concentration to curiosity to delight and back again. She had a good time for sure.

We then went upstairs to the main sanctuary and joined my father and my grandparents, so four generations in one row. That was sweet, too, and I enjoyed having her with me. As we left, we spoke to the rabbis to wish them a happy new year. We sit, with my grandfather, up at the front (the second row) of the synagogue. My grandfather was one of the founders of the synagogue and helped build it. The younger rabbi told me he was impressed by how well behaved the Girl Child was. He clearly did not hear us reading Little Red Riding Hood in Norwegian for a part of the service. I was very quiet.

As we left, the Girl Child turned to me and said: "Did you hear that, Pappa? Mr. Rabbi said I was very well behaved!"

I then returned home with the Girl Child to pick up the Boy Child and take them over to my parents for lunch. The Girl Child amused me by turning to the Boy Child in the car and saying: "BC, sitter du der og driter, vennen min?" She's speaking much more Norwegian now to the lad, which makes my wife and me very happy. A loose translation, is, "BC, my friend, are you sitting there and shitting?" She didn't seem to mind that she was wrong because she then said to him: "are you my little bean, studman?"

The day ended with a profound thought from my wife and I want to pass it along. We were talking about a job interview she has coming up in a couple of days and she was clearly not excited about the job or the interview and so I asked her why she was doing it. She replied that she wanted to meet the people she'd be doing the job with and for. She said that as she's gotten more experienced, she's come to realize that the people are at least and sometime more important than the job itself and if she really liked the people, she'd take a job that didn't interest her. She's a smart one, she is, my wife. I learn a lot from her when I pay attention.

Posted by Random Penseur at September 17, 2004 08:39 AM
Comments

Your wife's philosophy sounds brilliant! Much too often we find the ideal job is connected to working with people we dislike or have little respect for, thus making the job less than ideal.

Your daughter sounds delightful as usual!

Posted by: Mick at September 17, 2004 09:06 AM

Happy New Year!

Posted by: Mark C N Sullivan at September 17, 2004 09:50 AM

your wife is a very wise women

and

it sounds like you had a very nice day yesterday

i am sorry to hear about your friend.

Posted by: standing naked at September 17, 2004 10:09 AM

My condolence in the passing of your friend. Telling someone my thoughts and feelings is something I don't hesitate in doing since 9/11. I'm grateful for the awareness of how precious life is as it helps me not leave things unsaid or undone.

Thank you for sharing your celebration with us, it was tender and funny. You have a precocious daughter, that provides you with much material.

May you have a blessed New Year!

Posted by: michele at September 17, 2004 03:58 PM

Nice post, good imagery, sorry to hear about your friend, we lost our best man for our wedding 2 days before the event.

Your daughter sounds very smart and cute, I like the bit about her Norwegian mistakes, I smiled.

Posted by: Oorgo at September 17, 2004 04:05 PM

RP,

Condolences on your friend's passing. Your daughter sounds adorable - reminds me of my daughter, 5, who now goes to "big church" (and actually sits more quietly and attentively than her older brothers, 7 and 10).

L'Shana Tova.

Posted by: JohnL at September 17, 2004 05:28 PM

Thank you, everyone, for your kind wishes.

John, I bet our two daughters would get along pretty well.

Posted by: RP at September 18, 2004 04:57 AM

I'm sorry for the loss of your friend RP; he sounds as if he were beloved by many.

I hope you had a great Rosh Hashanah. I know I did. It really was wonderful leaving the world behind; three days without the news left me more peaceful.

And I agree with your wife; the people can make or break anything; a community, or a job. I hope she finds the people are compatible with her and the job ends up being something she enjoys.

Posted by: Rachel Ann at September 18, 2004 04:43 PM

So if you could just get your smart wife to send me this week's lottery numbers, I'll agree with you 100%

Posted by: Simon at September 20, 2004 10:07 AM
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