In the world of high school basketball, going to a state tournament is the stuff of dreams. This year, the North West Yeshiva girls basketball team from Mercer Island, Washington achieved their dream. Not only that, but the 613s (the nick name given them because of the 613 commandments they keep) set two records. They became the first Jewish high school to make it to state, and then they became the first team in the state to pull out of a postseason game.
Why would an underdog team like the 613s pull out of the tournament when they worked so hard to get there? Because their priorities are set on their faith, rather than their game. See, it all started when the team was scheduled for a consolation round game. That game fell on the afternoon of the Fast of Esther, a time where those observing Purim (a Jewish holiday) don't eat or drink anything. The coaches and the head of the school, Rabbi Bernie Fox decided that playing basketball without any water would be too dangerous for the players. All of the team members were dedicated to keeping the fast and were supportive of the decision to not play.
Rabbi Fox contacted the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA) and offered several different suggestions as to how they could still play and keep their fast. Among those suggestions were to move the game to the evening, when sunset would call the fast to an end, and moving the game to a different location in the evening. The school even offered to help finance any costs incurred in this move. But the WIAA refused saying that it would not be fair to any of the other teams, and that it would eliminate the "state tournament experience". Not only did the WIAA refuse to allow the game to be moved, but the group is considering sanctioning the team for forfeiting the game. At this point only time will tell if that happens, as the WIAA will not be meeting to discuss business until late March.
With nothing else to do but forfeit, the 613s wanted to be good sports, so they suited up, took the court and shook hands with each member of the opposing team, the girls from St. John-Endicott. This display of good sportsmanship and dedication to their religious convictions has brought media attention to the small school of 95 students. Rabbi Fox said that he is very proud of his team. "Whether you're in a public school or religious school, you want kids to gather not just knowledge, but values to guide decisions in life," Fox said. "This was a situation where the team was challenged to do that - to prioritize. And they felt that as important as this basketball tournament was, they couldn't compromise their personal values." Purim, the holiday being celebrated, is to commemorate a time in Jewish history when one person's dedication to doing what was right saved her entire people. I think that it is more than fitting that this group of students are facing these tough decisions during this observance. Personally, I think they made the right choice.
Friday, February 26, 2010
Are we there yet?
For most people traveling can be… You know, I don't know how to finish that statement. I don't know how traveling is for most people. I haven't travelled for a long time. More of that "phobias from my past" thing. I can remember as a kid that I loved to travel from Topeka, Kansas where I was from, to Pea Ridge, Arkansas where my mother's family all lived. I enjoyed watching the scenery pass by the car window. I saw so many fun things. As I was thinking about how to finish that opening statement I remembered my fun travels as a kid, but I also remembered the "Vacation" movies that poked fun at the travails of travel, and how Chevy Chase was almost insane by the end of the trip. I have heard horror stories as well as tales destined to be part of family lore for generations.
This last weekend I had the privilege of traveling to Louisville Kentucky. The cheerleading squad my daughter is on went to an event sponsored by the Christian Cheerleaders of America. So, we packed up five cheerleaders, five parents and a lot of luggage into two mini-vans and started what was supposed to be an eight hour trip. One of the mom's husband was a truck driver and had the whole trip laid out for us down to the best rest stops and gas stations. But, you know the old saying about the best laid plans… The first person to ask for an un-scheduled rest stop was me, thirty-three miles into the trip. I should have followed my own advice when I was yelling at everyone to go to the bathroom before we hit the road. So, what was supposed to be an eight hour trip turned into a ten hour trip. We even tried to shave time off by eating at a rest stop somewhere in Indiana. Let me tell you that trying to eat a cold sandwich out of a cooler in the middle of February, standing outside is very conducive to making the meal go faster, but boredom on the road leads to restlessness and lots of stops. Each place was nice and I saw a lot of interesting things, with one exception. My advice to anyone traveling along I-64 is to not stop in a little town called Sulpher, Indiana. The only gas station in town had two port-a-potties out back next to an eight foot tall block and tackle (used to hoist either car engines or large animals for meat processing) as we left, I swear I heard strains of "Dueling Banjos". Scary, very scary.
Our trip back to Missouri took even longer, but this time we had an excuse. We spent an hour taking photos in downtown Louisville and we also stopped at the Gateway Arch in St. Louis. To further our complications, it started raining and snowing. So, our eight hour trip took thirteen hours this time. We rotated who sat where both directions, and I honestly got the chance to talk to other adults (being a single, homeschooling mom, this is a precious commodity!) and deepen our relationships. I had a great time, and I look forward to the next big team event this summer when we all get to drive to Dallas. I guess that I just don't get what the big fuss is about, but that is OK!
This last weekend I had the privilege of traveling to Louisville Kentucky. The cheerleading squad my daughter is on went to an event sponsored by the Christian Cheerleaders of America. So, we packed up five cheerleaders, five parents and a lot of luggage into two mini-vans and started what was supposed to be an eight hour trip. One of the mom's husband was a truck driver and had the whole trip laid out for us down to the best rest stops and gas stations. But, you know the old saying about the best laid plans… The first person to ask for an un-scheduled rest stop was me, thirty-three miles into the trip. I should have followed my own advice when I was yelling at everyone to go to the bathroom before we hit the road. So, what was supposed to be an eight hour trip turned into a ten hour trip. We even tried to shave time off by eating at a rest stop somewhere in Indiana. Let me tell you that trying to eat a cold sandwich out of a cooler in the middle of February, standing outside is very conducive to making the meal go faster, but boredom on the road leads to restlessness and lots of stops. Each place was nice and I saw a lot of interesting things, with one exception. My advice to anyone traveling along I-64 is to not stop in a little town called Sulpher, Indiana. The only gas station in town had two port-a-potties out back next to an eight foot tall block and tackle (used to hoist either car engines or large animals for meat processing) as we left, I swear I heard strains of "Dueling Banjos". Scary, very scary.
Our trip back to Missouri took even longer, but this time we had an excuse. We spent an hour taking photos in downtown Louisville and we also stopped at the Gateway Arch in St. Louis. To further our complications, it started raining and snowing. So, our eight hour trip took thirteen hours this time. We rotated who sat where both directions, and I honestly got the chance to talk to other adults (being a single, homeschooling mom, this is a precious commodity!) and deepen our relationships. I had a great time, and I look forward to the next big team event this summer when we all get to drive to Dallas. I guess that I just don't get what the big fuss is about, but that is OK!
Friday, February 12, 2010
One special son
I am the mother of a child with a disability. My son, John, has bipolar 1. You may wonder what this means to the rest of the world. We are blessed that John does not have the kind of bipolar that makes him dangerously violent, sexually promiscuous, darkly suicidal or manic. He is rather even most of the time, with a few exceptions. But perhaps that is the medication.
We first found out that John had bipolar when he was thinking suicidal thoughts. He was fourteen and had written a will and had a plan that involved knives. We had to wait overnight to get him hospitalized (I still wonder if he will be dead or alive when I wake him up some mornings) and it was there that he got his diagnosis. Once they put him on medication to ease the depression, he became manic. So the doctors put him on another medication to ease the mania. Today he is on three medications, one for the depression, one for the mania and one for the ADHD that he was later on diagnosed with. The medicines have some side effects for John, like weight gain and the chance of liver damage, but they have served him for the last three years.
He still has his manic moments, and he doesn't think things through to their conclusion. He is also very grandiose in his thinking. For example: He is seventeen and doesn't have his driver's license or permit yet. There is a reason. He is convinced that he doesn't need to study in order to pass the driver's written test. I have given him the driver's education book three different times for him to study. Each time I don't see him studying it but he insists that he is ready. He isn't. But, he does not listen to me when he is convinced that he can do something like this. So, the only thing that works is to let him do what he thinks he can and be there to help him pick up the pieces. This scenario has played out hundreds of times.
John also has a tendency to be very focused on one project to the point of not seeing potential problems. As I am writing this blog John is creating dragon busts from baked clay and then is painting the fired sculpture. He is so convinced that he can make money by making these and then selling them on the internet that I let him buy some clay and model paints. He was so focused on painting the art that he didn't put the lids back on the paints when he was done and he spilled paint all over my dining room table. Some simple preventative steps would have helped him to avoid the mess. But he just doesn't think that way.
There are some definite positive aspects to his condition. He has a wicked sense of humor and can make me laugh like nobody else can. He is also very creative. He draws, paints, writes, sing, acts and now sculpts with quite a degree of accomplishment. We just need to get the two balanced out to make him a bit more rounded. All the great art in the world won't do us any good if he ruins it by not thinking things through. All the great acting won't get him a part in a play if he is so obnoxious with his jokes that nobody will cast him. I love my son so much, there is no other person in the world that makes me laugh, cry and growl so interchangeably and so quickly.
We first found out that John had bipolar when he was thinking suicidal thoughts. He was fourteen and had written a will and had a plan that involved knives. We had to wait overnight to get him hospitalized (I still wonder if he will be dead or alive when I wake him up some mornings) and it was there that he got his diagnosis. Once they put him on medication to ease the depression, he became manic. So the doctors put him on another medication to ease the mania. Today he is on three medications, one for the depression, one for the mania and one for the ADHD that he was later on diagnosed with. The medicines have some side effects for John, like weight gain and the chance of liver damage, but they have served him for the last three years.
He still has his manic moments, and he doesn't think things through to their conclusion. He is also very grandiose in his thinking. For example: He is seventeen and doesn't have his driver's license or permit yet. There is a reason. He is convinced that he doesn't need to study in order to pass the driver's written test. I have given him the driver's education book three different times for him to study. Each time I don't see him studying it but he insists that he is ready. He isn't. But, he does not listen to me when he is convinced that he can do something like this. So, the only thing that works is to let him do what he thinks he can and be there to help him pick up the pieces. This scenario has played out hundreds of times.
John also has a tendency to be very focused on one project to the point of not seeing potential problems. As I am writing this blog John is creating dragon busts from baked clay and then is painting the fired sculpture. He is so convinced that he can make money by making these and then selling them on the internet that I let him buy some clay and model paints. He was so focused on painting the art that he didn't put the lids back on the paints when he was done and he spilled paint all over my dining room table. Some simple preventative steps would have helped him to avoid the mess. But he just doesn't think that way.
There are some definite positive aspects to his condition. He has a wicked sense of humor and can make me laugh like nobody else can. He is also very creative. He draws, paints, writes, sing, acts and now sculpts with quite a degree of accomplishment. We just need to get the two balanced out to make him a bit more rounded. All the great art in the world won't do us any good if he ruins it by not thinking things through. All the great acting won't get him a part in a play if he is so obnoxious with his jokes that nobody will cast him. I love my son so much, there is no other person in the world that makes me laugh, cry and growl so interchangeably and so quickly.
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