Shows that I've Been Cataloging For Too Long

I just started wondering what the Burned Over District and Israel/the Middle East had in common that made them both the origin points for so many religions.

And then it turned into a futuristic daydream (or maybe a distopian one?) about a bunch of future major world religions all claiming upstate New York as their holy land, etc... And then I laughed- it just seems so improbable. But then, I've never been to Israel, so I oughtn't talk.

Shows that I've Been Cataloging For Too Long

I just started wondering what the Burned Over District and Israel/the Middle East had in common that made them both the origin points for so many religions.

And then it turned into a futuristic daydream (or maybe a distopian one?) about a bunch of future major world religions all claiming upstate New York as their holy land, etc... And then I laughed- it just seems so improbable. But then, I've never been to Israel, so I oughtn't talk.

On Not Telling the Whole Story

I was just paging through one of the books I was cataloging- a book on Jewish spirituality for children by Lawrence Kushner, and stopped to skim the story about Honi the circle-drawer seeing an old man planting a carob tree that will take 70 years to bear fruit. (The rest of the story is that he goes to sleep nearby, and wakes to see an older man picking fruit from the tree, and wonders at the miracle that the tree had grown and started to bear fruit so quickly, until he asks the man about the tree and the man says that his grandfather planted the tree, and he realizes that he'd been asleep for 70 years.) And as a kid I know someone read me the same story- and that was it. However recently someone told me that the story in the original doesn't stop there- it leaves Honi to beg for death because he's so lonely, completely outside of his own time- everyone thinks he's been dead for years, and noone he knew is still alive. He begs G-d for companionship or death. (Which it strikes me is a marvelous lesson from Judaism: the contemporary world begs for "liberty or death", and this is a very worthy goal, but it isn't the one that rabbinic Judaism traditionally preaches. Rather a remarkable statement to make, I think, and quite accurate to human needs, at least as far as I can tell. But that's outside the point I was originally thinking about.)

But no one tells the whole story to kids. That part of the story would wipe out the first point of the story if you didn't get time with the first part alone at first. And then knowing the values of the first part that well make the second part more poignant. But when is the right time to reveal what? It's like bible stories- no one (ok, no one but my 4th grade bible teacher. We did David and Bathsheba, without much abridgement. Not the world's best choice of curriculum, but that's what we got. Again, a story for another time.) teaches the unexpunged versions to kids, it isn't always so beneficial- mostly it gets a lot of giggles. But it's a matter where timing is everything- if kids think that the versions that they're getting is all there is, then what's the point in continuing their education- after a point, that version Feels fake and superficial.

I started writing this to kvetch about how telling part of a story is like quoting half a verse out of context. But maybe it's more like reading one chapter from a book and waiting a few nights to read the next chapter. It's just a matter of figuring out how fast/how often to read the book. And for that, I have no answer.

On Not Telling the Whole Story

I was just paging through one of the books I was cataloging- a book on Jewish spirituality for children by Lawrence Kushner, and stopped to skim the story about Honi the circle-drawer seeing an old man planting a carob tree that will take 70 years to bear fruit. (The rest of the story is that he goes to sleep nearby, and wakes to see an older man picking fruit from the tree, and wonders at the miracle that the tree had grown and started to bear fruit so quickly, until he asks the man about the tree and the man says that his grandfather planted the tree, and he realizes that he'd been asleep for 70 years.) And as a kid I know someone read me the same story- and that was it. However recently someone told me that the story in the original doesn't stop there- it leaves Honi to beg for death because he's so lonely, completely outside of his own time- everyone thinks he's been dead for years, and noone he knew is still alive. He begs G-d for companionship or death. (Which it strikes me is a marvelous lesson from Judaism: the contemporary world begs for "liberty or death", and this is a very worthy goal, but it isn't the one that rabbinic Judaism traditionally preaches. Rather a remarkable statement to make, I think, and quite accurate to human needs, at least as far as I can tell. But that's outside the point I was originally thinking about.)

But no one tells the whole story to kids. That part of the story would wipe out the first point of the story if you didn't get time with the first part alone at first. And then knowing the values of the first part that well make the second part more poignant. But when is the right time to reveal what? It's like bible stories- no one (ok, no one but my 4th grade bible teacher. We did David and Bathsheba, without much abridgement. Not the world's best choice of curriculum, but that's what we got. Again, a story for another time.) teaches the unexpunged versions to kids, it isn't always so beneficial- mostly it gets a lot of giggles. But it's a matter where timing is everything- if kids think that the versions that they're getting is all there is, then what's the point in continuing their education- after a point, that version Feels fake and superficial.

I started writing this to kvetch about how telling part of a story is like quoting half a verse out of context. But maybe it's more like reading one chapter from a book and waiting a few nights to read the next chapter. It's just a matter of figuring out how fast/how often to read the book. And for that, I have no answer.