Old/New World Discourse: Gratitude, Part II: Children

Today's bright sky, filled with shiny cumulus clouds, makes a chuppah over Jerusalem. Under that sacred cover, I garden, I cook dinner, and I type up various bits and pieces of creative writing. Under that sacred cover, as well, I celebrate the gifts that Hashem has Given to me, B'ayan Tov, including and especially my children.

Just as every book has a unique path to publication, every newborn has a unique place within its family. Furthermore, every child, especially pubescent ones, has a distinctive path to growth. Whereas developmental trends might exist, especially within families, and especially of the kind that can be predicted with some accuracy, each son or daughter is more a teacher than a student because of, rather than despite, his or her differences.

Consider that entire bookstore shelves are filled with books on how to raise children. Those volumes are printed in vast numbers because some strategies work for some children some of the time.

Parenting, though, like most of the highly important elements of life, is not about the parts or even about their sum, but about the appreciation of the existence of that sum. No matter the physical or emotional weariness that colors certain moments of this type of adventure, parenting is simply among the most wholesome of happinesses available in life. Parenting is a large blessing.

Not words nor paintings, or even music, can fully capture the value found in the spiritual dance that instantly takes place between a Mom or a Dad and their child. Multiply that twinkling by the roughly two decades during which most children reside at home and it can be easily understood how parenting provides a vast and enduring source of existential richness.

An increase in salary is easily demonstrated through a bank account. A decrease in waistline is easily demonstrated by new sized-clothing. Other triumphs, too, are perceivable in empirical form.

Similarly, a new understanding of Gemara might be acknowledged by one's rebbe. A feel of relief might accompany a particularly arduous attempt to set things right with another person. Other achievements, too, are perceivable in hermeneutical form.

Only the singular feats, such as raising a family, though, supersede such main concerns. Only such modes of reaching and, in truth, of receiving even begin to bring to fruition our potential as persons. Only such remarkable attainments are usually obscured from our mundane comprehension.

As I sit at my desk, looking my window, which opens up over Jerusalem, I try, in my small, human manner, to come to terms with the cloud iridescences Gifted to my life. Children, in my esteem, can be nothing more than a reflection of a Grander Luminosity.

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Little Smile:

According to Israeli norms, it seems that thank-you notes must continue to be sent to foreigners visiting this Old World, and to foreigners dwelling in that New World, but not to anyone else. When was the last time you sent, to an actual Israeli, or received, from an actual Israeli, an acknowledgement?