Thanksgiving

I love Thanksgiving. It speaks to my social and religious world view. It is a forces slow-down to be grateful and to acknowledge what you got. 

Like every year, this year other stuff is happening making it hard to be comfortable with being able to be Thankful. 

Gaza is Burning, Israelis are Running
While I stay far away from the blame game, it is clear that both sides have skin in this game. Israel shouldn't launch a ground offensive.  Hamas should stop lobbing rockets towards civilians.  The world should see this for the extremely complicated and convoluted situation it is and stop placing all the blame on one group. Ach.  Anyway, it is hard to be all happy happy joy joy when I have friends in harm's way and others digging out their boots and greens.

Remember that Storm that we Forgot About?
Yup people still don't have power and such.  Kids are still out of school.  Pets are still unclaimed. Sandy's impact won't be fully calculated until Q3 of next year.  That is nuts. We are talking BILLIONS and BILLIONS in damage but we should get back to talking about idiots waiting in line for Black Friday deals.

Complicated Number Things
Yeah the Fiscal Cliff is also getting me down. It could be the end of the world as we know it or other such doom's day things.

But, we get to eat pie.  So that is great. 

Not really the prep I was expecting

**WAYS TO SUPPORT THE RELIEF EFFORT**
The Mayor's Fund
URJ's Hurricane Relief Effort
American Red Cross
Give Blood

Now that this has been said.

I wasn't really expecting it and was planning for the worst.  But New York is the best city in the world and if anyone can dig out (or pump out) of a mess quickly it is New York.

A few notes about this mess:

1. Cory Booker is a bad ass.
There isn't much to say about that besides the fact that he is just in fact a bad ass.  He opened his home to anyone who needs help.  He is calling grandmothers to talk.  He is also saving puppies from burning buildings.  He is the perfect example of leadership and calm.

2. Chris Christie is a strong leader. 
I don't like his politics or his style but in this case he is doing a great job and understands the bigger picture.  His work with and praise of an arch rival such as President Obama is telling to his character.  I still would never vote for the man but it is nice to see.

3. WOW what a mess. And I am SHOCKED this race is still on.
But I am very happy it is on. It might be a great day for the city and it might be a drain on resources, but whatever it is, it will be and it will be one hell of a story. 

4. As always people are good.
The extension cord pictures. The adding people to cars to get into the city. The offers of bunking up.  We live in a great country and we should be proud of how we are working through this.

 I will update as we learn more about our beloved city.  Wish us luck.

Book Report: What I Talk About When I Talk About Running

I think I have found the reason why I have been a little off as of late.  My running schedule just picked up quite a bit.  This week will be a recovery week of 29 total miles and next week I hit 39 and then on to 40ish mile weeks until late October.  Over the past month of so, after fighting against my back and pissy hamstring, I had yet to have a good run.  I had been dreading the training and was extremely worried about my goal time for the New York City Marathon in November.

The reality was that I was injured and was just working through it.  Lo and behold, I did my prescribed exercises and daily foam rolling and my injury healed and my running improved.  I began to feel so much better and finally, this weekend, on my longest training run to-date, I had a great run. Fourteen miles with no pain and a ton of energy to spare.

While not a traditional book report blog post, I felt it was appropriate considering what I just finished reading. Murakami's What I Talk About When I Talk About Running is a strange book.  It chronicles his life as a runner, novelist, and a few other things.  It is widely considered a must read by runners, or at least by every runner I talked to about this book.

I finished the book feeling somewhat confused about the point of this collection of loosely incorporated essays. But as I broke out of my running funk, this very well-written some-what of a downer of a book, put me into another funk.  The story lines seem to say that amateur endurance athletes take on these crazy goals for no good reason or simply to prove it to ourselves that this Sisyphean feat is possible.  While I tend to believe this is the case, I want to change my point of view on the subject, as well as some others.

I had a long Gchat conversation with my mom about "the point" of doing things recently.  I went on about effecting change and the ability to do so being governed solely by access to money.  If you are a long-term reader of my blog, you will know that I used to be an impassioned advocate for a number of progressive causes.  If you are just joining me, you know I am sick to death of politics.  And this feeling started to creep into my other societal experiences.  This is the other subject I believe needs a perspective change.

My running has helped me become more focused and see things more objectively.  When you are out running for hours on end, you are forced to think a certain way.  Food is fuel.  Water cannot be wasted on washing your face.  The way your foot hits the ground changes the way your entire body works.  Sadly it is near impossible to apply the lessons  learned on the run in the real world.  The last few years have thought me a lot, but only about myself.

Running, for all its greatness, really is about self.  I used to very much care about others and how my contributions would help the whole.  But that has changed.  I don't blame running at all.  I blame political experts and fraudulent business practitioners.  The running helped me see this more clearly, but it has yet to help me get to a place where I wanted to care again.

It would be easy just to say I don't care and move on with my life.  But I don't want to do that.  So if nothing else, this book forced me to think about much more than what I think about when I think about running.  Which was good.

4 out of 5.

Why No One Can Have it All

Or Why Anne-Marie Slaughter is wrong.

While a number of very smart women have chimed in and written great articles about why this interminable essay was bad, missed the point, is dangerous, or simply stupid, there aren't a lot of men who have or will.  I grew up in a household were my mom went to work and climbed the corporate ladder.  My dad stayed home, ran his own business, and waited until both kids were in or done with college to have what you could call a traditional career.

Arguably you could say, my home life was very much a product of the feminist revolution. I have been called on occasion a feminist.

But before going on to my thoughts on The Atlantic article, I asked two people who also lived in my house to comment on the article:

“Jesus, I got to the end of the first page and saw there were six more pages. No wonder she couldn't get her work done. Fucking academics -- they don't know when to shut up. – Mother, 58, Senior Executive at a Fortune 50 Company

“Ugh. This has been floating around all day and I've been avoiding it, because I don't give a shit why The Atlantic thinks I'm going to be barefoot in the kitchen.

“I just think [the concept of the article is] so stupid. Men make the same choices, it's just that they don't care as much -- or maybe they do! And then they step down too! Like, cool the fuck out; life is full of compromises…obviously you have to make compromises. I just think this is so dumb and backward ...  You can't be a traditional stay-at-home mom and a high powered executive in the same way you can't be a high-powered executive male and coach all your kids’ sports teams. There are 24 hours in a day, regardless of your sex.” – Sister, 25, Ivy League Graduate and Third-Year Medical Student at a Top 10 Medical School

My mother went on to say that the unbelievably long essay was a "six page cop-out" of the ideals that the author allegedly still supports and was riddled with hypocrisy and contradictions. 

And I agree.  The issue at the heart of this essay should be what do you value you more, not finding a way to have everything at once.  Feminism, as I understand it, was (and is) a fight for choices, not a fight for women have the same life as men.

Everyone, as my sister notes, must make choices in life.  This does not mean that society couldn't shift slightly to help make those choices easier.  And there is no doubt that because of women (and men) who came before my sister, she is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate and is well on her way to earning her M.D. at one of the best medical schools in the world.

The only thing she has to thank them for is opening the door.

And while that door was a real pain to open, she had to learn, study, lose sleep, sacrifice health, and make many other CHOICES to make it to where she is today. You cannot take away the fact that my sister -- not some conceptual fem-ubermench -- worked hard.  There were real sacrifices that were and continue to be made. 

The entire concept of work-life balance is a myth.  You either work more or you "life" more. There is never a perfect mix if you are racing to the top. Something has got to give.  And the sooner you realize that, the sooner "having it all" becomes just as meaningless as an essay written by an academic who had to live through two years of what every female executive at a large or growth company deals with everyday.

The Business of Sports

There is no doubt in anyone's mind that when Little Johny gets his first Little League Jersey, he is dreaming of his first contract, complete with slugging percentage bonuses.

Oh, sorry.  He is most likely pretending to be his favorite player on his favorite team as he cracks a game winner in the bottom of the ninth, the standing ovation from the capacity crowed and jumping-slapping-head-home-plate-dance that the norm for MLB walk-off celebrations.

While there is no doubt that sports are big business, there are a few things within the business of sport that transcend the money. I would like to think that kids playing, the thrill of winning it all, and the spectacle of the Olympics still fall into the transcendent category.  But it would appear I would be wrong.

It appears that the always classy Dwayne Wade, the measured and thoughtful Marc Cuban, and the author of that post and editor of My Athletic Life Tim Huntley believe that the athletes should get paid to compete in the Olympics.  Huntley points to a number of ill-advised responses to Wade's recent commentary from an ESPN blog.  The reason why those who say they would rather lose the Olympic championship than have greedy (yeah I said it) NBA stars represent our country are right is based on that kid who dreams of the big hit.

This isn't to disparage those with limited other skills from making millions of dollars but rather to say at some point, money should dictate all actions.  There are some things you do for honor and some you do for pay.  Oh yeah, you PLAY A GAME for a living. So shut up you spoiled brat, be thankful for your gift and the culture that pays you to be a brute, and go win the gold for the best country on earth!

USA USA USA USA USA USA!!!

We wern't nervous..but we were hungry - The Sohpia Grace & Rosie Sensation

Admit it. You think they are cute. Well, that is because they are. They represent pure childhood fantasy and they have no problem being on camera. In fact they love it.

The Ellen Show, a place where dancing around and having fun is not only encouraged, it is scheduled, has been featuring these British Bombshells for a few months now and I got to say, they are pretty fantastic.

How can't you smile at this?
In an age of reality TV "stars" it is nice to see kids just having a blast and knowing that what they are doing is something unbelievably special. They are cute, funny, and normal little girls with some talent. My friend said they are a perfect mixture of Shirley Temple and Russel Brand. That pretty much sums it up, but they are much more talented than Brand.

Yup, went there.

The Culture of Expectation and Entitlement

Members of the Jewish community are often flabbergasted when people my age choose not to join a synagogue or other institutions. As the token "young person" on boards and committees, I have heard it all before: Why don't you come? Is it too expensive? Would you come if it was free? And my answer to these question is always the same: It is an issue of values not value.

However, this is lost of the major funders of the Jewish community - Case In Point: Birthright.

Taglit Birthright Israel provides thousands of young people with what it would call an opportunity to experience Israel. Nay, they would call it a gift. The gift of Birthright. In fact we are told that it is a gift and we just should say thanks and enjoy it.

There are thousands of pages of journals, blogs, and news paper articles praising or condemning the programing of this "journey." And while there is a lot that is great about Birthright, there is a lot wrong with this program.

But the worst thing Birthright has done to my generation is that it has created an expectation of free goods and services.

This could not be any more clear in the completely misguided BirthrightNext Shabbat in a Box.

Meat Grinder Jews
Put in Numbers Get Committed Community Members