Mother Teresa was right;

“Kind words are short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless” Mother Teresa was quoted saying in 1979 when she won the Nobel Peace Prize. How appropriate for today which is Yom Kippur (it began at Sunset last night). The Day of Atonement which could be measured not only in acts of regret and wrong doings but to also reflect why it is important to do acts of kindness and try to send out positive energy rather than negativity. As it is, the world is already quite negative these days.

Interestingly enough the most recent winner of the Nobel Peace Prize went to 2 Americans,Andrew Fire and Craig Mello for their contributions in science. Basically as reported on CNN; "for discovering a powerful way to turn off the effect of specific genes, opening a new avenue for disease treatment." My grandmother is a genetic junkie, she reads everything she can get her hands on when it comes to gene research and Mitochondrial DNA which is basically the life force if you will. From Wikipedia "mitochondria have their own DNA and are assumed to have evolved separately."

I am sure today both Baba and Uncle David are at the Synagogue back in PA, observing Yom Kippur which is the holiest day of the year. "...In the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall afflict your souls, and you shall not do any work ... For on that day he shall provide atonement for you to cleanse you from all your sins before the L-RD." -Leviticus 16:29-30 I'll admit being a reform Jew, I don't always follow the High Holidays rules and regulations. For example this holiday you are to make amends against other people you have wronged during the year prior to this day (Yom Kippur) and then you make ammends for wrong doings against G-d today. I personally use this day to reflect on the past year on my mistakes or inappropriate behavior I may have acted against others and I then make the effort to rectify my mistakes. Whether its in a form of apology or just making a note not to repeat the same mistake twice, everyone has something to owe up in one form or another. I believe in G-d in a sense of it representing life's ability to exist but not in a way where I contribute human qualities to G-d such as judgements or G-d being a paternalistic being. I think the way to disrespect G-d would be to not take care of the planet, to destroy things (organic in nature) etc etc.. Almost like Native American view's in how we treat nature shows our respect of lack of to G-d.

Also I do not fast during the high holidays. The only time I am willing to fast is in political protest or fund raising $$ for countries that have extremely low food productions or where starving is the norm. I did that once in college at Gallaudet where we had people sponsor us by donating $$ to us for this organization and we agreed to fast for 36 hours to get a sense of what it is like to go hungry. I remember there was approximately 20 of us, we had sleeping bags and stayed at the Gally Field House. It was so hard to sleep on those wooden floors (the same one used for basketball games) and I also recall being cranky and having headaches by the 15th, 20th hour. Then at the end we all got to eat together but it was a bittersweet experience for me. Knowing what real hunger feels like isnt fun. Sadly tho its not limited to our poor international neighbors. It exist in our own backyard because so many Americans face hunger everyday.

Saturday was a miserable rainy day. I went to orientation for one of my jobs that afternoon. Later on Joe Joy stopped by so we could catch up and make plans for PA trip next month. The Tin Man and I basically just hung out that day, the energy level in general was very low and most people I talked with that day, had either napped or plan to.

Yesterday the Tin Man and I went to the UWS to eat brunch and walk around. There's a small flea market off of Columbus Ave and approx 75th st. The weather was gorgeous and I picked up some fresh peaches.

We also watched Cinderella Man, based on a true story of Jim Braddock as a boxer during the depression here in NYC. I enjoyed the movie immensely. He was one of the few men to beat the famed Max Baer who critics disagree with his portrayal in the movie Cinderella Man. Some argue he was this horrible, snobbish Jew who literally killed his opponnets in the ring by beating them to death. Others say he wasn't even a Jew because his mother was Catholic and his father a non-practicing Jew and Max was raised in the Catholic faith. But by the time he became a boxer, he had announced he was a Jew and even during one fight in 1933, he wore boxer shorts with the star of David symbol on it as he fought his opponent who was of German background. I have to be somewhat skeptical and wonder if he didn't use the "Jew Card" to promote his own status during his career?

Knowing how the Americans felt about the Nazis, it wasn't a bad time to be a "Jew." I don't think we will ever know truly whether or not Max Baer was a Jew or whether he was as malicious as portrayed in Ron Howards' movie.


Today at work in between tasks, I gotta do lesson plans for tonights and wednesday's class. Plus for tmw's tutoring session. I realize I enjoy teaching quite a lot. There's such a sense of accomplishment seeing your students progress from point A to point B and then onto point C, D....