Serendipities

Serendipities can be such wonderful surprises.

I found out about the Stanford Hospital's Jewish Chaplaincy's shofar sounding event (noon today at the hospital). As much as I enjoy sounding shofar, knowing that this would be the only opportunity for some in that community to fulfill the mitzvah of hearing shofar, I went.

Kids from Hausner went, too.

Aviv Monarch was there with them! Such wonderful memories from when the kids were at Hausner, sounding shofar each morning in Elul with them, sounding with Aviv, such an inspirational teacher for so many students. Faces lit, shofarot were juggled to make room for hugs, all-too-brief updates exchanged.

It was a wonderful surprise and, though it should certainly have been wonderful, I really shouldn't have been all that surprised once I learned that Hausner would be there: Aviv and his shofar were, when the kids were there, legendary!

Highlighting Failures?

Why do we highlight our failures?

Some friends are remodeling their house: it's almost done, and they gave me a brief tour yesterday. It's lovely: they did a nice job of adding some space and reconfiguring other. The kitchen's entirely remade, and looks to be simply wonderful: spacious, usable, etc., etc. There's a new island in the kitchen for prep work, serving, etc., with the oven built in, storage drawers and cabinets, and a nice drawer for the microwave.

My friends pointed out that they realized after installing things that they should have had the microwave drawer in a different spot: it would have been more convenient.

Here's this lovely new kitchen that's about 98% perfect. Sure, they pointed out lots of nice things, but why do we (certainly not just they: we, essentially all) point out so quickly our failings in such situations? I'd surely have never noticed this small problem as a visitor, even had they invited me for dinner, quite likely even had I gone over and helped cook.

Indeed, we should learn from our mistakes. Why dwell on them? Why point them out unnecessarily? Is it simply modesty (a false sense thereof)? Or do so many of us view ourselves in some ways as failures and must, to justify ourselves, point that out?

On Dark Skies

The skies in Truckee seem so dark compared to the ones here in Palo Alto—and they are, especially around Bennett Flat, looking in the western part of the sky. But they're not really all that dark!

The skies at Onion Valley, after the moon had set: those were dark skies. As much darker than Palo Alto's that Truckee's sky is, that's how much darker Onion Valley's is over Truckee's. The Milky Way is visible in Truckee: it's spectacular at Onion Valley. Delphinus is visible in Truckee, if you know just where to look: it's almost impossible to miss at Onion Valley.

Dark skies.