Quote of the day
Women, it's time to get furious. Cintra Wilson
tamarjacobson
Looking back and thinking forward
September 10, 2008
September 9, 2008
A dream realized
It arrived! Finally. This book is a dream realized.
My gratitude knows no bounds.
This is such a happy, happy day …
There is much more to say … but that will have to be for another day.
September 5, 2008
In *his* own words
And at Frank's space, I was able to return to the light
September 4, 2008
News flash
Quote of the day:
Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.
Nelson Mandela (from CCIE)
I am just so busy … back at work … head is spinning …
I'll be back soon … I hope … I hope … I hope …
August 26, 2008
Summer summary
[My friend Mira and her kite – somewhere in the sky out of sight – at Cape May Point]
It really has been a good summer. Starting off on May 22nd when I set out for a two week trip to Israel to reconnect with family and old friends I had not seen for three years. There, I was embraced by a loving family as we celebrated my 59th birthday. I felt comfortable and happy to give and receive familial love, and came back refreshed and refueled to face my new position at work.
Most of the summer was spent part-time working and partly taking care of body and soul with good food, exercise and one or two visits with friends close by.
It concluded with a trip to Cape May Point and Buffalo, reconnecting once again with old friends from my Buffalo era.
A summer of re-connections and rejuvenation. A summer of concluding medical problems that had lingered for almost eight months prior.
No time period in my life is ever free of self-reflection. And this summer had its moments of reflection, revelation, and even a little insight. Just recently I have been wondering why when people ask me about Zimbabwe I am at a loss for words. Of course I care about the horrific human rights issues, just as I would about any nation's dictator abusing his people. However, I do not feel ownership that I think others expect me to feel about the country where I was born, and grew into a young woman of nineteen before emigrating to Israel. Now, ask me about Israel (where I spent the following nineteen years of my life), or America, where I have lived for the past 20 years, and as level headed or objective as I might want to be, I am often emotional and passionate in a way that shows I feel a deep sense of belonging to both of those countries. Indeed, I often refer to either of them as "home."
I started to think back to my childhood and adolescent years, and, quite frankly, have been having a difficult time coming up with pleasurable memories. Mostly I cannot remember much at all. And if I do, the memories are dark in color and nature. In fact, it almost feels as if the days were always gray and dark. Rationally I know and can even remember hot sunny days that built up to heavy summer thunder and lightening storms. But the atmosphere of my early childhood memories are dark. In fact, I cannot remember a time that I ever felt I wanted to return to Rhodesia/Zimbabwe even for a visit. In 1981 I took my seven year old son with me from Israel to Bulawayo – the town where I was born – to spend the last four days of my father's life with him as he lay dying in the general hospital. I felt like a foreigner in a strange land and wandered around my old "home"town as if in a daze.
I guess I was just not a very happy child. I remember being lonely and afraid so much of the time. These days I envy my siblings, relatives, or old friends when they reminisce fondly about the Africa of their childhoods, and wish I could feel as happily attached, as they seem to be, to those bygone formative years or to Zimbabwe in general.
Wondering and self reflection never ends. There is always something new that rises up out of the depth of my consciousness that makes way for yet another realization, revelation, or a deeper understanding of why I feel the way I feel, or how I came to be me.
Summer is winding down. I can feel it in the cool crisp mornings hinting at autumn that waits in the wings. I can see it as acorns from the huge old oak tree fall about our path and flower beds. Squirrels and chipmunks are scurrying about quicker and more energetically than usual. And, of course, I know it because the new semester is starting up for a new academic year.
A year ago at Mining Nuggets: Both sides now
August 25, 2008
Quote of the day
Don't feel entitled to anything you didn't sweat and struggle for.
Marian Wright Edelman (from CCIE)
August 22, 2008
Obama on my mind
Quote of the day:
And it is not just Obama's skin color and parental background that makes him different. He has a fundamentally different world view from anyone who has ever been President. He was raised in the global cultural polyglot of Hawaii; he spent four years as a formative youth in Indonesia; today his Grandmother and dozens of his cousins and kin are scattered through out rural Kenya, many living in dirt floor huts. Phil Noble [Bold letters, mine]
Last week I had the pleasure and honor to facilitate a Staff Development Day for the staff of the old Center where I was Director. Some of the veteran staff were sharing stories about how or why they remembered me. One of the Korean teachers reminisced about the time she had come to me concerned. She and the head teacher were both Korean, and she was worried about what people might think if both teachers in an American preschool classroom were both Korean. She recalled that I had laughed and said, "Well, there are two white teachers or two African American teachers. What's wrong with two Korean teachers?" She expressed being grateful about that. For some reason, that incident and memory made me think about why I am voting for Obama.
Walking along these past two days, proudly wearing my new Obama T-shirt, I have been thinking many Obama thoughts and, mainly, what he represents for me. This morning I heard a somber, gloomy James Carville urging Obama to get angry and forcefully challenge McCain. So many media pundits seem so anxious that Obama is not angry enough. Hm … I wondered, as I walked along, how do we change politics and the status quo fundamentally through anger? How do we reach out to the other side with an open mind and willingness to understand their language through anger? Obama represents for me "a different world view from anyone who has ever been President." More than that, he symbolizes for me the end of White Supremacy, a sincere confrontation of bigotry, and, more importantly, the end of ignorance. In short, I like the way Obama talks to me – the people – and the way he treats me – the people. He does not insult my intelligence. He does not use language like "obliteration" when talking of other nations. I like the way he hesitated with his answer about what constitutes the beginning of life in the abortion debate. For the answer is complex. There is no one Truth, and he was not afraid to show that in his response.
The cynics are rocked, moved, uncomfortable, and that is all right with me. The message of hope and change works well for me, and Obama's style feels strong and knowledgeable. When the storm of cynicism and despair, hate and fear crashes around and about, up and over, I will stand firm with Obama. For he represents for me an end to fear and hatred of "the other."
So, I'm wearing my Obama T-shirt and black Obama hope wristband, hanging out the Obama sign on my fence for everyone to see. I'm donating my allocation monies to his campaign this year for I believe he is the change we need, and he will be good for the world too! A friend of mine shared with me last weekend how she fears that he lacks substance. I thought to myself that perhaps it is the very substance of Obama that scares people so. The different world view – systems changes are indeed the scariest, the most uncomfortable for people to face.
I am not a religious person but I will be praying these next few months. Praying to the people of America to have the courage, even as they fear difference, are rocked by the cynics, and long to hold back in the delusional safety of the shadows of darkness and ignorance – to stand together in full force, and vote with me in November for Barack Obama to be the next President of the United States of America.
A year ago at Mining Nuggets: Quote of the day
August 20, 2008
More hats …
Teatime at the Physick Estate.
tamarjacobson 