Jewish Musings Wednesday, December 13 7 candles tonight

[hollygail]

What’s on your mind — how to make kugel? This week’s Torah reading? Life goals? Prayer? We are all engaged in weight loss/weight maintenance journeys and we are all Jewish or at least interested in Judaism. We like to eat, we like to discuss. It is our goal here to provide each other support on our journeys, to share experiences, to call on our rich cultural heritage and texts, and to help each other grow spiritually.

Some of us take weekly turns starting the thread:

Frieda (hopefully)?
Holly
Lee
Louise
Lynne
Peachy

And for those of you that stop by to read this thread without posting — you are welcome to, but you are also welcome to chime in. Don’t be shy!

[hollygail]

I saw a cute cartoon yesterday. The picture shows a plate with one sufganiyah on it (with one bite taken out) and the caption reads, "Today a reverse Chanukah miracle happened for me. I had eight sufganiyot and they lasted one day."

About this week's Torah portion: Actions always have consequences. Joseph reorganizes the Egyptian economy. But, in doing so, he turns the Egyptian people into slaves to Pharaoh. Years later, this will happen to the Israelites in Egypt as well. As we all have heard: what goes around, comes around.

In your experience, what sorts of actions have resulted in what kinds of consequences for you or for people you've known?

I've made lots of decisions that had consequences I never saw coming. Once, when I was living in Tucson, AZ, I met a man who knocked me off my feet within maybe an hour after meeting him. We wound up staying up all night until the next day talking about everything there is to talk about. We took a walk the next day, and I drove him to the airport to catch his flight home (in the L.A. area). I didn't drive straight home; instead I drove to the home of the couple at whose house was the party the previous evening at which I met this man. When my friend opened the door and let me in, he and his wife were finishing cleaning up from the night before. When I asked the husband (a co-worker of mine, which is how we became friends to begin with) what had happened to me, he just gave me a giant smile. (He and the man I mentioned had gone to high school together where they became very close friends.)

The man in L.A. and I spoke on the phone almost every night that week, and I flew to LAX the following weekend. We spent the weekend together, then I caught my plane home. The following weekend, I knew I was going to marry him. Long story short, we divorced after about five years. During the early few years I was walking on clouds; the last couple felt like hell.

Yuck.

[gazelle18]

I love the cartoon! If there were doughnuts in my house, they would have a very limited lifespan. I actually have a friend who keeps a dish of wrapped Hershey’s kisses on a side table, which are enjoyed by her kids and grandkids. I asked her once how she personally resists them. She said something like, “I have been doing this for so long that I don’t even notice them anymore.” (To me, this is unimaginable.)

Re today’s subject, I have often thought that EVERY action (or inaction) has a consequence, and many of said consequences are unintended. One small example: I was once leading a meeting and we were running behind. One lady was chatting loudly with the person next to her, keeping us from continuing. I admonished her sharply. This lady immediately appeared hurt. I felt like a schmuck. I couldn’t get this out of my head, so finally, I wrote her a note of apology and mailed it to her house. She never mentioned the note, but from there on out we have had a warm and wonderful relationship. I didn’t intend to make a friend by being a jerk, but that’s how it ended up!

And now, I will go about my day, avoiding sufganyiot! Thanks for the chuckle, Holly.

[peachymom1]

When DS33 (the scientist) first applied to the PhD program in molecular biology, he didn't get accepted at any of the schools he'd applied to. He had top grades, test scores and recommendations, and he'd done an unpaid summer internship too. But these programs are very competitive, because the university supports the PhD candidates for five years and then keeps all their research in exchange. DH33 was undaunted - he went online to the closest of his university choices (which was also his alma mater for his undergrad work) and found out what all the science labs were working on. Then he contacted all the doctors who headed up those labs and offered himself as a volunteer for a year, while he was waiting to try again to get into a PhD program.

The head of the cardiology lab snapped DS33 right up, and for a full year, DS33 worked for him full-time, completely unpaid. When he applied again to the PhD programs and again wasn't accepted, DS33 went straight to his boss and asked if there was anything he could do. The boss told him that not every candidate who is accepted to the program actually accepts the spot, since they may have other offers to consider, and that the best he could do was get DS33 an interview with the head of the program, in case there was an opening. That was the chance DS33 needed, and he did interview and he did get in. His grades, test scores and recommendations were exactly the same as they'd been a year before - it was that year of volunteering in the cardiology lab that got him in. I'm proud of DS33 for his tenacity and courage just as much as for his hard work and achievement.

[louise]

When I was a teenager my parents broke up my boyfriend and I - he was Cuban not Jewish. As an adult I would go on to marry a non-Jewish Puerto Rican. Will never know if I was getting back at my parents!

Was turned down for travel insurance 3 times today but finaly got coverage.