--- On Thu, 5/29/08, Linda Whittaker <olsvig2000@yahoo.com> wrote: From: Linda Whittaker olsvig2000@yahoo.com Hi everyone, This has been a busy week with routine work at the office, but also a visit from an old friend from Berlin . Prof. Berendsohn was here with his family on a holiday. I had worked with him on two international projects in the last ten years, but had not seen him for perhaps three years, since the last project ended. I have stayed at his home in Berlin and know his family, and he has stayed in my home. I don't have many friends like that, so it was great to see him again. Walter Berendsohn is Jewish on his father's side and half his relatives live scattered around in Israel , but he was himself raised as a Protestant. Working with me, oddly, was a way for him to discover his Jewish roots, and he has been steadily gaining interest in the subject. The three children he has with his typical German Gentile wife are all learning modern Hebrew in school (with varying levels of enthusiasm) and he is taking them around the country to see the range of Israel from Jerusalem to the Dead Sea , from desert to forest. I will be curious to see where this journey takes him in the end. Clearly he identifies himself as Jewish today, and is proud of it. As a German professor of botany in Berlin , that must be rather interesting. So we sat on the front terrace of the grand Jerusalem YMCA (probably the fanciest "Y" on the planet) in the fine late spring sun, and caught up on a few years.
I am glad our projects will be overlapping in the coming years; it seems we converge on Vienna , where both of us are working with the same people on informatics issues. Seems like old times in a way, since our two projects together were on informatics. Not many of us do that kind of stuff, I guess…. I had a checkup with my hematologist and it seems I am doing well. He is a teaching professor who does research on my disease (autoimmune gastritis) so I have read some of his articles. This time he politely asked for some of my conservation reprints! (One mark of an academic is curiosity; guess he wants to see what his guinea pig does in real life….) It seems like my anemia is under control; hope it stays that way. Not that I don't get tired. I had a house guest last weekend, and will have the same this weekend; a lady coming from Beersheva who attends a Bible study with me on Thursday and then goes to our Saturday congregational service before going home. She is a nice lady, doesn't have much money but a lot of good will. Unfortunately she also has an acute case of logorrhea. (Blabbermouth, to you laypersons.) From 5:30 in the morning until she hits the sack at night, blah blah blah nonstop. I live alone for a good reason; my tolerance level for human company is pretty low. A couple hours and I have enough; am happy to toddle back to my solitary peace and quiet. Having Motor-mouth on my hands for two days was a shock to my system; by Sunday I woke up feeling lousy. I knew it was just the stress of having someone in the house disrupting my peace and my routines. I settled down again quickly enough….But I learned my lesson. This weekend, she knows her way around my house and she can take care of herself. I'm going into hiding as much as possible until she leaves….. Much like my own cats, I suppose…. (Note later from the following day. I didn't hide fast enough. Took two ladies back to my village from the Bible study, including the one above and an English lady much like her. Both charismatic Protestants. The subject of following God's guidance came up while I was driving--uh, do suchlike ever talk about anything else?--and I commented that God doesn't talk to me. Oy va voy it set them off like the button that launches a cruise missle. Do they get trained in this or what? Both were full of advice on how I was to "improve" my faith - by praying an hour every day, 'opening my heart', and because God doesn't talk to me, my faith isn't very good and I am doing lots of things wrong.....Personally I think they are delusional about hearing voices, but I bit my tongue. However it took some doing to get across to them that I'm happy with my faith life, I don't particularly WANT God talking to me (an astounding idea to them). They voiced the opinion that since God isn't talking to me, I shouldn't be on the steering committee of my congregation -- which I have been for years, to the satisfaction of the leadership -- etc. These two are missionaries. Honest to Pete, how much luck do you have fishing when the first thing you do is tell the prospect a hundred things that are wrong with the way he relates to God? The effect of all this is repulsive in every way. There is no respect for other points of view. When I managed to beat them off my own case, they started on the Catholics. (My sister is a Catholic so that just raised my dander even more.) I was fuming when I got home - a dangerous way to drive - and when I got home I lit into them both about their intolerance and self-rightousness. One, after cooking in it for an hour, actually apologized for her behavior, realizing how offensive it was. I don't know about the other one. Uff, every time I have a conversation with a charismatic about religion, it goes like this; it's not the first time. I've spent time with Cathlics, Mormons, Unitarians, Lutherans, you name it. But the most obsessive, narrow-minded bunch I ever encountered, far worse than Mormons, have been these Pentacostal charismatics. Jesus Christ, what gives with these people??? And how do I turn off the faucet when I am trapped with one??? There is plenty to do this weekend anyway. The cat shelter where I volunteer on weekends is having a charity concert (Do-Re-Meowwww, very cute)
and of course I have to be there. A soprano. I wonder if anyone but me gets the humor of that…. And I scheduled myself a spa visit on Shabbat. So with all that going on, I hope I keep the contact with Motor-mouth to a level I can handle…. (It's not that I'm getting old; I was ALWAYS like that!) Shabbat shalom, Linda |
Friday, May 30, 2008
FYI shabbat shalom 30.05.08
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