The great thing about life is that strange and wonderful opportunities have a way of presenting themselves when you least expect them, and if you choose to take advantage at the time, you can find yourself experiencing really awesome things, even if it’s only for posterity. When D was in fourth grade, he became involved in the school play. A fourth grade teacher (not his) headed up the production each year and, for an elementary school, it was always quite elaborate. That year, the kids were putting on a play called “The Elephant’s Child”, by Rudyard Kipling. He signed up to stay after school for practice several days per week,…
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Finally, Our Eagle Scout’s Court of Honor!
Many of you have followed our son’s journey to Eagle Scout, including the details of his Eagle project, which was the landscaping in the front yard of our temple. You know he finally officially earned the rank of Eagle on August 12th. That’s actually when the celebration begins. We had to plan his Court of Honor, the ceremony during which he is presented with his badge, awards, certificates and other goodies, and where he can be recognized personally by friends and family. After a couple of months full of preparations like invitations, letters to dignitaries, script-preparing, and of course, a special scrapbook, the festivities took place yesterday at our temple,…
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Nearly Wordless Monday
I am totally wiped out from the weekend, I have a really bad cold, and I have to work today, so I’m just posting a sneak peek of my next post (which will hopefully magically appear here by tomorrow morning!). Happy Monday, everyone!
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Bat Mitzvah Snapshots
I did a post after Yom Kippur a couple of months ago that contained a couple of mental snapshots from the day. Today, the person who stood up on the bimah and gave the announcements and guidelines for today’s service mentioned that, except for the official photographer who the family hired to capture the day, those who were there for worship services were not allowed to use cameras (of course I knew that already), but should instead capture memories of the service mentally, for keeps. Naturally I’ve done this all along, but it suddenly occurred to me that when I don’t have a camera, I really am good at taking…
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Honored To Honor.
I found out from a friend just a couple of days ago that Naperville was the home of a week-long display of flags on Rotary Hill in the middle of downtown. It was called the “Healing Field of Honor”, and it was put on by the Colonial Flag Company in conjunction with local sponsors. The purpose? To honor our military. Flags and yellow tags were “sold” (to raise funds for a local VA hospital), and people wrote all kinds of messages on them. The 2009 eight-foot flagpoles were set up in incredibly straight rows that completely covered the hill, which is used during other parts of the year as a…