Have A Good Day

I have to wake up early every day but today I beat the alarm by about an hour and a half. One of my students was talking yesterday about how she straightens her hair every morning. She shrugged off the question about having to rise early to do this ironing by saying that she's an early riser anyway. She responded to the question about the negative effects of this constant hair straightening by saying that's why traditional Jewish women cover their hair.

In a class yesterday something came up about names and the students said it was like "that poem" they studied in ninth grade Hebrew class. "That poem" is Zelda's "Lekol Ish Yesh Shem," the one poem by this singular poet ubiquitously taught by day school Hebrew teachers.

One of the students proudly remembered - her way of making her name - that she was the one who noticed how the lines get shorter at the end of the poem. In fact, they count down from four words to three to two, ending at one.

That poem struck me the first time I read it and hasn't let up. The idea of our singularity haunts me. There seem to be so many "me"s and yet we are one, or are we?

If I don't stop writing now I will definitely be late for my ride out, which is next door.