Positive things

  My column came out in the Jewish Independent last Friday:

We are shaped by history

This article didn't run in the Winnipeg Jewish Post & News and is potentially my last column for a while--until, perhaps, government funding helps these small publications or advertising picks up again...I wrote it a while ago, but it ran, and right now, every small bit of work is a good thing.

We celebrated a big birthday, my dad's, by family Zoom chat.  My kids made amazing cards, which we sent by email.  My parents are doing well and the 'party' was fun!  (I was a bit sad not to celebrate in person, but that isn't possible these days, considering the Canada/US border is closed, among other pandemic reasons...) 

I dug around in the freezer and came up with apricot/apple puree from last summer, and I made some jam.  In April...and it makes darn good brisket for Passover, as well as being delicious on homemade bread beforehand.

We've had a couple spring snow storms, and one of them was quite a bit of snow. (8-10" or 20-25 cm or so.)  I was able to catch a photo of my family shoveling team from the window of the second story of the house.

We've been busy learning at home, doing science experiments in buckets, reading Dr. Seuss, and more.  Every day is full...but now, we are taking a break.

While everything else crazy has been happening in the world, we've been getting ready for Passover.  As I write this, kids are busy setting the table, helping their dad make special desserts, and producing lots of matzah balls... we will celebrate, and we will remember.  There were other plagues before this one.

Aside from dog walks, playing in the muddy, snowy front yard and once a week trips to the grocery store, done by one adult...we're staying home.  And it's fine.  Honestly.  We all have to cooperate, and work together, because staying healthy is the most important thing.

Yes, I'm knitting and spinning and sewing whenever I get the chance, as a sort of mental health break if nothing else.  However, we also spend time every day remembering to be grateful.  We have food, shelter, heat, family, and dogs.  We are able to email and zoom and facetime with people.  We can learn, grow, jump, play, sing, and dance... and the goal is staying healthy and staying alive.  We can do this.

If you celebrate it, Chag Sameach, Happy Passover!  Next year, let's get to spend it together, with our families and friends, wherever they are.  Stay well.  Take care.

A quick update

I had two articles come out last week!  Wanted to update the blog with these links but hope to follow up later this week with something more...maybe even a photo or two.

First, this column about integrating learning into religious practice came out in the Jewish Post & News:
Jewish Learning: Just Do It!

Second, I submitted this piece to the CBC on Thursday and it went live this weekend!   In short, "When the system fails us" looks at how regular Manitobans have to rely on the media for advocacy, publicity and redress when the provincial government systems fail them. It seems like a broken system.  

For those reading this outside of our province, it's an interesting way to view how things work here.  In the US, I often found that one could appeal a decision by speaking to a manager or a higher government official...and only rarely did it feel like an individual had to go to the media to fix things or right a wrong.  Here, the population is smaller but it seems like the media ends up being involved in advocacy a lot more often.
When the system fails us

Also--it's snowing today!  Spring does come late here.  We've had a few warm days, seen a couple of tree buds, and gotten out the sandbox, but Mother Nature is not done with winter here yet...

just being there

This past week, my work was mentioned on knittyBlog, which is a blog associated with Knitty, a well-known online knitting magazine.  The post said my Yarn Spinner Story + Pattern series, that is, offering a knitting pattern with a short piece of fiction, was a neat idea!  I just felt honored to mentioned in the same post as Shetland knitters' work and June Hiatt's The Principles of Knitting--both masterpieces, from a knitting perspective.

Also, I had another column come out in the Jewish Post & News:
Foreigners, Egypt and Derech Eretz

--Derech Eretz is Hebrew and means literally 'the way of the land' but really means "How one should behave."  Here's an article on Derech Eretz if you want to learn more.  Usually, I get few direct comments on anything I write.  This time, I've already gotten two emails.  One honored me with a problem she was having.  It was a person who felt like a foreigner/outsider in the Jewish community simply because she didn't drive anymore, and couldn't catch a ride to synagogue.  I felt lucky enough to know who to email to maybe try to solve the problem--I'm hoping that we can fix that.

The second person wrote a kind note about my column, and in the process, I learned from him.  He pointed out that (in transliterated Hebrew)-- "Derech Eretz Kadmo l'Torah" or, in English, "how we behave comes before Torah/learning."  That is, being a decent well-behaved person who cares about others is a prerequisite to being learned/wise.

I had the opportunity this past week to try to be a good person.  Several times I just had to be there, at that moment, when someone needed support.  This sort of thing doesn't make dinner or get our family ready for Passover or earn money--but in essence it is the most important thing.  It means taking extra time to listen or do something when I am really pretty busy.  In thinking about it later, everything else worked itself out.  It's hard to be calm down my inner control freak, the one that manically worries about managing all the daily details that keep our household afloat... but obviously, it helps to be in the moment and present when someone needs you.

It's worth it.

thoughts for organizational continuity

I'm a bit behind on linking to my articles!  Here's a link to my newest Jewish Post & News article:

Everyone has a responsibility: Re-visioning the Synagogue

I had a really great chance to hear Rabbi Sid Schwarz speak this past weekend.  Although he was lecturing or teaching 8 different times over the weekend (8!  This man has stamina!) I was only able to catch one Shabbat service and a late night lecture.  I found it amazing that I could even stay up to hear something that started at 9pm, but I guess caffeine and interest really work. :)

The most interesting thing he spoke about was something that I felt went way beyond the Jewish community.  He talked about 4 big trends in "younger generation" Jews--but I think this speaks to Gen X, Y and Millennial folk in general.   He said we were interested in creating covenantal communities...in a religious context, but I think it applies more broadly to organizations who are aging and not engaging with our age groups. 
I'm cutting out the Hebrew vocabulary here just so it makes this more accessible, but here's the gist of his points:

1) Wisdom--we want actual texts, content, and real learning from our institutions.  No 'learning lite" programming.  (Yup)

2) Social Justice--we want to help make change.  We think about where our food comes from, how to reach out to the less fortunate, and how to make a difference.  Not talking, but doing.

3) Community--we want to build connections between people.  That is, we want to have warm, in person relationships where we can help and support our friends, relatives, and strangers.  This speaks to some of the articles I've written on creating "helping hand" committees, helping new moms, newcomers to the community, etc.

4) Holiness--we need to feel a deeper sense of spirituality or meaning.  While this is speaking from the religious context, I think it is true in a broader sense.  We need to sense an authenticity and honesty that speaks to us on a deep gut level.  The world is full of ads and frauds and phoneys, as Holden Caulfield would say.  It's great when things feel real and meaningful.

My understanding is that he has more to say in his book, which I have already ordered:
Jewish Megatrends: Charting the Course of the American Jewish Future

but I guess upon reflection, I found his points right on and valid in a bigger context.  If clubs, organizations, religious congregations, etc. want people who are 45 and under to belong and take ownership, these are very useful guiding principles for planning and involving us.

It's so rare these days that I get to attend a lecture or other learning event that I figured reprising it here might be useful.  In any case, I am just as inspired by these ideas now as I was by this Rabbi's congregation, back in 1995, when I taught religious school there.

learning with my dad

In the midst of packing, (148 boxes, as of yesterday--including several boxes of framed photos/art wrapped in paper and cushioned by the ever versatile wool roving) I found I'd forgotten about Father's Day...but I never really forget my dad! (I'm a daddy's girl!) Lately I've been speaking to him often on the phone to update my parents on the moving details and to check in on my grandmother, who isn't well.

Yesterday, I had a chance to make my father proud. The new carding cloth arrived in the mail from Howard Brush Company. It's very hot out, so the professor and I took time out from packing and decided to have a fix-it project together. We took the old carding cloth off two sets of antique handcards and put on new cloth. First, we had to pry out the upholstery tacks that held the old cloth on. (look at the last post to see the rusted tines of the old hand cards.) Then, we fit the new cloth to the wooden card "backs" and tacked on the new carding cloth.

This sounds easy, but as I pried out ancient tacks and rotten carding cloth with two kinds of screw drivers, plyers, and sheer force of will, I spent a lot of time thinking about my dad. (Imagine lots of dust, rusted sharp metal, and a good chance of tetanus if we weren't careful!) My dad had me out in the garage, building and fixing things, when I was in preschool. Both my parents believe in "making things"--many of my school clothes were sewn by my mom, and my toys were made or fixed by my parents. This wasn't because we couldn't afford new--it was because we could both make whatever it was "better" and enjoy the process more at home. It also gave us lots of time to experiment and learn new (or old?) skills.

I reflected on that this week while I set yarn twist by washing a lot of handspun. I tend to let center pull balls of single yarns pile up and then do my plying all at once. A few days ago, I washed 600-700 yards of chocolate brown Shetland two ply. (approximately 14 wpi, a lofty sportweight or heavy fingering weight yarn, I think) I also washed one skein of heavy worsted two ply Fleece Artist hand-dyed yarn, and some Polwarth and silk yarn. My dad enabled much of this fiber art stuff. He helped me learn to spin when I was twelve by driving me 45 minutes each way to a 3 hour class, once a week, for 12 weeks. My dad also took sewing and weaving lessons with me. My mom taught me to knit (Dad learned at the beach as a kid with his mom, although he doesn't knit now) and both parents taught me to think that if I wanted to learn to do anything with my hands, I just had to apply myself. Experiment, take a class, and practice--and then I'd know enough to decide if I wanted to keep doing whatever it was!

You'll note from the hand card photo that the professor and I aren't experts in restoring cards yet. (that is, we may not want to keep doing it!) One of the cards wasn't overly sturdy. The wooden back was held together by glue and the rotten carding cloth. When we took that cloth off, we had to reglue the back. The thickness of the wood wasn't consistent--some of the new staples came through the card back. This is now fixed with glue and..as the professor puts it... "one of the five forces of the universe." That is: gravity, electromagnetism, the weak force, the strong force...and, our hero: DUCK TAPE. The cards work fine again, and I can't wait to show them off to my dad! We fixed it! They work again!

Last, my dad helped me learn--especially to teach myself via experimentation and self discipline. I'm usually not a trendy or "competitive" spinner, although I've won ribbons at a couple of state fairs for my handiwork. Lately, 3 ply sock yarn has become the rage of the spinning world. The challenge: Is a spinner skilled enough to produce so fine a yarn that, when made into a 3 ply, it is good for socks?

I mostly make 2 ply, or Navajo 3 ply yarns. I don't knit with laceweight yarns all that often. I don't enjoy spinning extremely thin, fine wools all that much. I sometimes find plying very fine yarns unenjoyable. I wear the heck out of my socks, so most of my handknit socks are coarser wool fibers, blended with nylon or mohair, and machine washable. That said, I couldn't sleep the other night. (heat/moving stress/concern over my grandmother...)

At midnight, I spun very fine Finn wool yarn on my Little Gem spinning wheel. I think it was roughly 36 wpi, but I find wraps per inch can be somewhat inexact as a measurement when things are this fine. I then used my favorite Icelandic drop spindle (got it on our honeymoon) and spun it into a navajo 3 ply right off the spinning wheel bobbin. I knit the resulting chained 3 ply on #0(2.25mm) double pointed needles. It made a finger sized sock at 8 stitches to the inch. The resulting "finger sock" has a halo to it, and I can feel the twist of the yarn and firmness of the stitches on my finger tip. It hasn't sold me, for all time, on the necessity of this 3 ply yarn, but it was a learning meditation that calmed down...at 1:30 AM, I fell asleep.

It also helps me celebrate the learning through experimentation that my dad taught me. It's what keeps me up at night, thinking and trying new things until I learn what I need to know. My dad also gives me a stubborn trial and error determination, a learning through intuition, (gut instinct!) and the willingness to make mistakes until I get it right.

Thanks, Dad, for doing all that driving, warping the loom, lugging the sewing machine and helping put together my first Ashford kit spinning wheel.
Happy Father's Day.

you never can tell

We're expecting a "wintery mix" today and tomorrow. This is a term that means it could rain, freezing rain, sleet, snow or not. There could be a real mess outside, ice everywhere...or just a cold rainy day. We've learned that in, say, Buffalo, NY, this would mean an inch of ice. In the South, it might mean no ice at all. It depends on the meterologist and the neighborhood! The professor and I planned to make use of the morning to take care of things before the temperatures dropped. It's his first day of official university winter vacation (although he works all the time anyway!) so he volunteered to walk the dogs while I do errands before the ice hits.

Out the door they go... but Harry gets away from the professor, and takes off down the street after a loose dog. I run into the street after them. Harry is caught in short order and the loose dog? Poor girl... An older, white and black spotted short haired, 50 lb mutt with clear signs of neglect/mistreatment. She looked as though she was nursing puppies, she'd lost hair on her tail, she was cold and wet. Worse still, her only collar was an overly tight pinch collar. This is ok for walks or training--but horrible for a dog to wear all the time.

First I tried to help this dog find her puppies, but she was truly lost. When she came up to one door, I knocked and a sleepy looking young man told me she was a stray and maybe her puppies were "around the corner." After a bit, I brought her home and called animal control for help. We set up a crate on the front porch with a blanket and tarp over it, tried to feed her (she wasn't hungry), and took off the pronged collar and went for a regular collar and leash. The professor took our dogs on their regular walk.

The animal control lady is named Roxy. She's very nice and knows me by now. I catch a lot of dogs! Roxy was able to tell that this sweet older dog probably wasn't too ill and probably didn't have young puppies, but had probably had many litters...that accounted for the distended teats and tumor like growths. Our gentle but neglected "older lady" went off to the animal shelter. They will help her if they can. We have a good and humane local shelter.

Anyhow, this post was meant to be about some yummy apple walnut bread pudding I made. (Leftover homemade challah, cream, eggs, vanilla, cinnamon, brown sugar, apples, walnuts, butter...) I also meant to mention this: My nephew Nate turned 3. Aunt Joanne and the professor gave him a Curious George raincoat and rainboots...and our little guy wears them constantly! All day long, inside at nursery school, and even had trouble taking them off for naps. It's too bad that they don't make Curious George raingear in all sizes, I'm telling you! The professor could use some size 14 EEEE wellies to match his nephew's!

The point of this ended up being different, I think...you never can tell what will come up. It's good to keep learning, (my, you showed me how intellectually active you are in those comments!) just so you can hop to it when dogs in need drop by, or when it starts being icy, or when, say, you've got a yearning for some bread pudding. I'm off to settle in. We're baking bread here. We've got some wood on the backporch in case the power goes out. No telling when you might need warm whole wheat bread or a fire on a damp cold day!