My weekends seem longer than my weeks sometimes. Last Friday I drove the 4 1/2 hours to my pulpit, then had dinner with a congregant and led Simchat Torah services. It was quite fun, with lots of dancing to celebrate another cycle of finishing the Torah (you finish Deuteronomy and then start again with Genesis).
Saturday I teach adult education, and this week we took a field trip to the CANDLES Holocaust museum, founded by a woman who survived Auschwitz as a Mengele twin. It was heavy, and very powerful. Lunch before the museum was fun though: someone actually asked me, "Can I have shrimp around the rabbi?" And I realized that the rabbi was me! I quickly assured her that she could order anything she wanted and I wouldn't be offended.
Then there was the drive home, so I got back around 8pm. And taught Sunday school in the morning. And came home to do homework. Then it all began again on Monday. While I love going to Mattoon, I feel so drained of energy afterward. I think it's the driving more so than the services, but I need a weekend from my weekend nonetheless.
In other news, school is going well. The only thing I'm unhappy with is that our Bible, History, and Hebrew Lit classes (not to mention Hebrew Grammar) take a structuralist approach to everything. And I'm a post-modernist. (Not that this matters to many people, but I thought I'd put it out there.)
And last but not least, I hadn't realized how much Midwestern culture is defined by sports. People mention sports here all the time. At Sunday school a little boy seemed extra happy. Why, I asked? Because the Bengals (local football team) won. In my education class the prof talked about not telling a student they've gotten an answer "wrong," because then they'll feel badly and won't raise their hand again - the metaphor she used was that when a sports coach pulls a player out of the game, s/he put the player back in the game and not on the bench. In Mishnah class the prof was saying the common people followed some of the rules of the institution (of the rabbis) but not all... just like the Bengals follow the rules of the football, but badly.
The Cincinnati Bengals have now come up at Hebrew school, in four entirely separate classes (yes, I'm keeping count), and in many, many conversations. I don't care. Really. I don't. And in CA, it never seemed to matter. Yeah, the Dodgers and Angels existed, but most people couldn't tell you offhand who they played against last. I was talking to my cousin from Chicago and he says that this obsession with sports is common in the entire Midwest, because there isn't much else to do, so people fixate on the local competitions. I guess that makes sense.
And it should be noted, my cousin now lives in Boston.
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
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5 comments:
So you think sports are important to Midwesterners? You might be right. My heart beats fast when I hear "The Star Spangled Banner" but it beats faster when I am reminded of my CHICAGO CUBS!! I still get gooseflesh remembering Gabby Hartnett's homer in the darkening that clinched the pennant in 1938!!!! You can take your Savta out of Chicago, but you can't take the Cubs out of
yer Savta
Savta, I'm impressed by your facade. You may masquerade as a Californian, but haHA now I know you're not! :)
I used to sort of keep track of sport scores just so I could talk to people. I didn't care one way or the other either. But we have several big-10 alum in the family and they would always call to talk about Univ. of Ill. (my school) wins or losses, especially against Ohio State (my parents' school), Northwestern (cousin's), and Michigan State (another cousin).
In Cincinnati, I heard much more about the Reds than the Bengals. One teacher canceled class to go to opening day.
Not to mention college basketball ...!
The only thing I'm unhappy with is that our Bible, History, and Hebrew Lit classes (not to mention Hebrew Grammar) take a structuralist approach to everything. And I'm a post-modernist.
What does this mean?
FYI - I was told to incorporate the Boston Red Sox into my Hebrew lesson this past week. We ended up doing baseball vocabulary and I learned all about the different pitchers, but they are in the post-season.
Sorry for the lag, Jamie! Structuralism is an English-y term, meaning that the professors look at the Bible purely as the compilation of the stories and words within it. They see a text and analyze based on what's in front of them, purely. So they dont' take into account historical context, what the author intended, what the reader gets out of it, the psychological motivations of the character, etc. They look for archetypes and ask questions like "what is the catalyst of the plot's turning point," rather than, "did abraham care that he sent hagar out into the wilderness?"
i'm a post-modernist, which means that i think every text has relative "truth." you can analyze a text til doomsday and will know the structure of the story (conflict, resolution, protagonists, etc) but you don't know anything about what the story teaches you. if structuralists are critiqued for being too narrow and leaving out the context of the story, then post-modernists are critiqued for having no meaning. but i think that the meaning of a story changes depending on who's reading it (e.g. from feminist perpective, or marxian, or historical).
anyway. that's it in a nutshell.
and no way!! sports are EVERYWHERE. this is scary.
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