Right

If I had the time to write right now I would maybe share a poem I wrote today, maybe this one:

Teacher conference:

"Who is it we answer to?"

the presenter asks.

Number one answer: The Board.

G-d came in number seven.

Or I might write about The Book of Qualities by J Ruth Gendler. This book was lent to me and then surreptitiously given to me by the same friend. The author takes what she calls qualities (eg. wisdom, shock, clarity, intuition, perfection, jealousy, trust) and (I think I'm using the right word here) personifies them. She writes a little paragraph about each of these traits as if it were a person. I think my favorite is Imagination. (By the way I recently gave this book as a gift and we all sat in the sukka enjoying it. I made it into a game: One person read the description and the others had to guess what trait was being described.

Here's an excerpt of Imagination's bio:

"When imagination walks, she writes letters to the earth. When she runs, her feet trace postcards to the sun. And when she dances, when she dances, she sends love letters to the stars.

Some people accuse imagination of being a liar. They don't understand that she has her own ways of uncovering the truth. She studied journalism in junior high school. It gave her an excuse to leave school early and interview interesting people. She was surprisingly good at writing articles. When in doubt she just made things up. More recently, Imagination has been working as a fortune teller in the circus."

Maybe I should keep this a secret, and I don't have time to write about it anyway but if I had time I'd tell you my idea. I think that a book could/should be written with Jewish traits and values; simcha, gevura, anivut, chesed, ga'avah, tzidkus, rishus, rachamim, and more. Some of these are in Gendler's book already. But I think the Jewish words are pregnant with a different kind of ta'am.

I might write something like this:

Gevurah has a doctorate in the art and science of saying no. He made aliyah on his own at the age of 18 and joined the Israeli army. He is a tough parent of 11 children and believes that they appreciate the discipline he provides. He is married to Chesed and although many people thought it wouldn't work, 36 years later they are still balancing each other out. Every year before Gevurah's birthday Chesed does her research and finds him the perfect gift for that particular year. He always says she spent too much time, effort, and money on the present and insists that he didn't want a gift at all. Secretly Gevurah is propelled from one year to the next through the strength he gets from the kindness of Chesed's gifts.

I hope you don't mind that I didn't have time or energy to write tonight. I had some ideas... perhaps another time.