Haftorah Beam - Noach

The second parsha in the Torah recounts the famous story of Noah's Ark, as well as the slightly less famous story of the Tower of Babel.

The Haftorah reading echoes the Flood theme:

⁷ For a little while I forsook you,
But with vast love I will bring you back.
⁸ In slight anger, for a moment,
I hid My face from you;
But with kindness everlasting
I will take you back in love
— said the Lord your Redeemer.
⁹ For this to Me is like the waters of Noah:
As I swore that the waters of Noah
Nevermore would flood the earth,
So I swear that I will not
Be angry with you or rebuke you.
¹⁰ For the mountains may move
And the hills be shaken,
But my loyalty shall never move from you,
Nor My covenant of friendship be shaken
— said the Lord, who takes you back in love.

This reading uses the Flood and the Ark as a metaphor for G*d's forgiveness and redemption after a time of crisis and despondency. Some congregations end at this point, while others continue on with elaborate descriptions of the rather material delights offered to those who follow Torah:

¹² I will make your battlements of rubies,
Your gates of precious stones,
The whole encircling wall of gems.
¹³ And all your children shall be disciples of the Lord,
And great shall be the happiness of your children;
¹⁴ You shall be established through righteousness.
You shall be safe from oppression,
And shall have no fear;
From ruin, and it shall not come near you.

This echoes the motivations of the Tower builders, who said, "Come, let us build us a city, and a tower with its top in the sky, to make a name for ourselves; else we shall be scattered all over the world."  It is through Torah and righteousness that we can reach the Heavens, make a name for ourselves, and live unafraid.  The Tower builders sought closeness to G*d, honor, and security.  But they went about it the wrong way.  The Haftorah answers them (and us) with the correct way to achieve all of these aims.

31 4 21 A Sonnet

What deserves protection, love, and care?

And what do we reject and cast aside?

In building a society that’s fair

Do differences unite us or divide?

The prejudice that poisons our minds

Builds prisons, metaphorical and real

Where lives are lost or squandered to our blinds

Are we, or they, more difficult to heal?

For gender, race or disability

Our preconceptions must be ripped apart

We’ll build a world of Possibility

And give our children’s world a better heart

It isn’t easy now, nor ever was

To herald Love and Justice in one’s Cause

31 4 21 Heaven on Earth

On the way to the park, my 5-year-old said, "We can touch the sky!"

I asked, "How can we do that? Isn't the sky too high?"

And he answered, "No, because we are on the Earth."

I thought about this, and understood that he is realizing that the atmosphere comes all the way down to the ground.  So of course, the "sky" begins right here where we are.

So if you think about it like that, there is no distinction between saying, "G*d is in Heaven" or "G*d is all around us".  It's the same thing!  Heaven begins right here on Earth.

About a month ago, we read in Deuteronomy,

יא  כִּי הַמִּצְוָה הַזֹּאת, אֲשֶׁר אָנֹכִי מְצַוְּךָ הַיּוֹם--לֹא-נִפְלֵאת הִוא מִמְּךָ, וְלֹא רְחֹקָה הִוא.	11 For this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not too hard for thee, neither is it far off.
יב  לֹא בַשָּׁמַיִם, הִוא:  לֵאמֹר, מִי יַעֲלֶה-לָּנוּ הַשָּׁמַיְמָה וְיִקָּחֶהָ לָּנוּ, וְיַשְׁמִעֵנוּ אֹתָהּ, וְנַעֲשֶׂנָּה.	12 It is not in heaven, that thou shouldest say: 'Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, and make us to hear it, that we may do it?'
יג  וְלֹא-מֵעֵבֶר לַיָּם, הִוא:  לֵאמֹר, מִי יַעֲבָר-לָנוּ אֶל-עֵבֶר הַיָּם וְיִקָּחֶהָ לָּנוּ, וְיַשְׁמִעֵנוּ אֹתָהּ, וְנַעֲשֶׂנָּה.	13 Neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say: 'Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, and make us to hear it, that we may do it?'
יד  כִּי-קָרוֹב אֵלֶיךָ הַדָּבָר, מְאֹד:  בְּפִיךָ וּבִלְבָבְךָ, לַעֲשֹׂתוֹ.	14 But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it.

Spirituality is not distant, esoteric, or distinct from our earthly existence.  It is a contiguous part of it, just as the air we breathe -- in our mouths and in our hearts.

31 4 21 Expectations and happiness

These two stories intersect in my mind:

Spoiled Generation Y kids are unhappy.   This unhappiness may be traced to unrealistic expectations, inflated notions of their own talents, and exaggerated images of their peers' success on social media.

Many adoptions fail, and with inadequate resources, some adoptive parents resort to unethical channels to "re-home" (a.k.a. disrupt) their adopted children.  While this is clearly wrong, the real question to ask is what are the factors which lead to the failed adoptions in the first place.  To some extent, corrupt adoption agencies may be culpable, offering inadequate pre-adoption training and post-adoption support to families which may be overwhelmed by the needs of their new child(ren).  Many Christian organizations also encourage ill-advised practices such as adopting out of birth order and adopting multiple unrelated children, seeing adoption as an absolute good regardless of context.  Such adoptions can certainly work, but they require even greater preparation, resources, and support.

At the same time, it seems that part of this trend is traceable to similar factors as the unhappiness of Generation Y. A quick search of the internet yields countless adoption blogs.  Families present this as a wonderful process, often glossing over the difficulties.  Disrupting families rarely express themselves openly around these sensitive issues.  The result is that adopters have unrealistically high expectations of their child(ren)'s transition, and a muted awareness of the potential pitfalls.  When they run into any kind of difficulties, they may give up, feeling inadequate.  They are likely to think that they are to blame for the problems, or that these problems are far worse than average, since their image of what the adoption "ought" to look like is far rosier, and other adopters appear more competent.

The advice most often offered by successful, experienced adopters is compatible with this analysis.  They consistently urge potential adopters to keep expectations extremely low.   They also encourage parents to seek support, both within the adoption community and in other arenas (family, friends, faith communities, professional counseling, etc.).

Reformtalk.net is a watchdog website that highlights potentially problematic practices in adoption.  It is highly critical of the adoption industry, which sometimes sets parents up for failure, as well as government agencies responsible for the welfare of children.  They provide a list of red flags, which represent potential risks in a given adoption situation.  None of them necessarily has to be a showstopper, but are important to keep in mind in assessing a course of action.

Adoption is not unique in this regard.  Many young women have a similarly idealized image of babies, prompting them to get pregnant without adequate preparation.  In most cases, though, they spend their pregnancy preparing and adjusting their expectations.  They also have mentors (mothers, aunts, older friends) who can support them through the hard times.  As a result, most mothers learn to mother their babies effectively.  With adoption, these resources are less available, since there are fewer potential mentors in the community.  They are there, but they need to be actively sought out.

31 4 21 Future face of Down syndrome

An excellent piece over at Patheos, interviewing Faycal Guedj, a Tufts University/University of Paris geneticist who also has a sister with Trisomy 21.   To a large extent, this echoes and amplifies what I wrote about disability a few weeks ago.  New research offers more choices for individuals to determine how to best improve their own (or their child's) quality of life.

Most interesting, I thought, was the commentary on a little-discussed effect on early prenatal testing (non-invasive prenatal testing, or NIPT) .  Many in the Down syndrome community worry about the projected increase in T21-related terminations.  However, Dr. Guedj points out that,

An early diagnosis of trisomy 21 with NIPT (10 weeks of gestation) offers a tremendous opportunity to intervene in utero using safe and well-designed therapeutic strategies that will potentially lead to a very significant, which is not to say a complete, normalization of brain development and cognitive outcome in newborns and children affected with DS.

....as well as cardiac and thymic development, as he explains later.

In other words, more research, more treatments, and more attention will translate into both higher quality of life for individuals and more acceptance for differences.  As with nearsightedness, more options empower individuals to make the choices that are right for them, which ultimately reduces, not increases, the stigma. It is not either/or, but and/also.

31 4 21 Boston Sardine Tour

I love my minivan.

My aunt and uncle are traveling around the US with a bunch of HIGH SCHOOL buddies (we are talking people in their 60's), and they made a 1-day stop in my neck of the woods. They wanted me to show them around town.

I have an 8-seater Chevy Venture. There were 8 of them. Plus me.

After some consideration of the various alternatives, we decided to try piling all of them into my car. Amazingly, it worked. I drove them all over in a quick survey of the major sites, and apparently they had a blast. They never did get a chance to take a ride on the Boston Duck Tours. But at least they had the Boston Sardine Tour.

31 4 21 2013

No, that's not my gym locker combination.

It's October, which has 31 days.

It's also Down Syndrome Awareness Month. Down syndrome is also known as Trisomy 21.

So this is the 2013 31-for-21 blogging challenge, hosted by Big Blueberry Eyes.