Miles to go before I can leave the office (to work still more at home), and I just said "no" to something in August... but seriously, the caffeine's starting to kick in (and it's only my first cup of coffee of the day), the work is interesting, and cool stuff aboundeth:

It's sunny and 68 F right now, and I got to scoot outside and enjoy some of it (ran errands when someone else needed my desk for an hour, and not even getting stuck in post office traffic could harsh that glow).

Plus, "Hurts So Good" on the car stereo and catnaps in the parking lot...

Errands done! We are no longer low on detergent, beer, or pears.

Microwave-in-the-package vegetables. Eating healthy-like away from home has never been so easy.

Came across a picture book called On Sukkot and Simchat Torah at the library. Text by Cathy Goldberg Fishman, illustrations by Melanie Hall (Kar-Ben 2006). It's pretty! (Too many series books aren't.)

My grandmother says that, if you put together the very last letter and the very first letter of the Torah, it makes the Hebrew word "lev" meaning, "heart".

[Punctuation = what's in the text.]

I can't quite get over the fact there's a picture book on Simchat Torah, and that my public library has it! *am inordinately thrilled about this*

Also at the library: Falling for Rapunzel. Text by Leah Wilcox, illustrations by Lydia Monks (Putnam 2003). This is a hoot: "Once upon a bad hair day / a prince rode up Rapunzel's way..." She keeps mishearing his request for her to let him in, and the twists leading up to the happy ending are delightful.

One more from the library: A Green Horn Blowing. Text by David F. Birchman, illustrations by Thomas B. Allen (Lothrop, Lee and Shepard 1997). Gorgeous illustrations. A boy who wants to learn how to play trumpet learns the basics from a migrant worker, using a "trombolia" squash:

It took me almost a week to coax my first sound out of that trombolia. Fortunately, John Potts was a patient man. "All it takes to play a horn," he said again and again, "is a whole lifetime."

Just announced, by the Jewish Theological Seminary:

Following the completion of a thorough and deliberate review process, The Jewish Theological Seminary has decided, effective immediately, to accept qualified gay and lesbian students into its rabbinical and cantorial schools...

From Chancellor-elect Eisen's e-mail to the community:

I take heart from the fact that, despite continuing disagreement over other contentious issues in some quarters, JTS and the Conservative Movement are much stronger because of changes that have occurred over the years. Neither the institution nor the movement has splintered, despite predictions to the contrary. I do not believe that we will splinter now, particularly if we take the proactive steps that I will outline below. Nor do I fear the “slippery slope,” used by some as an argument against the change we are adopting. Every choice brings unintended consequences in its wake. We never have control over what those who come after us will do with the legacy we have left them. We do all we can to set course in the proper direction. I trust my successors to act responsibly with the legacy I pass on to them, just as we have carefully weighed the relevant precedents, reasons, and implications before taking the step we are announcing here. We owe this precedent to our successors, this bridge to the reality in which they will be called upon, as we are, to build and strengthen communities of Torah. I am confident that, if they are educated in the principles that have long guided this movement and if they experience the special pleasures and obligations that come with membership in it, they too will make decisions in a manner that takes Conservative Judaism forward and helps its communities, and the Jewish people as a whole, to grow.

In sum: The CJLS has authorized the ordination of gay and lesbian Jews as rabbis and cantors. A solid majority of Conservative clergy and lay leaders supports it. The JTS faculty likewise strongly favors it. I am convinced this decision to ordain is right — right not just on the basis of my experience as a North American who came of age in the latter part of the twentieth century, or as a Jew who seeks above all to remain true to the tradition we call Torah, but as an American Jew seeking wholeness and integrity in the combination of these to the fullest possible extent. That, I believe, is what Conservative Judaism is all about.

orbitalmechanic sent me earrings. I promised her a poem. Her prompt was "family."

This is the first draft (albeit with a few tweaks since I hit "post"). I haven't decided if I'm going to revise/circulate it further or not, or whether I should write a second poem that's less about me and more to do with the prompt. Regardless, this one's still for Jessie. ;-)

( An Agnostic Jewish Advent Poem )

The assignment from the worship committee: "Activism as Religious Expression," for the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Cookeville

The homily:

( L'shanah tovah! )

Picture book rec #1: Maria's Comet - text by Deborah Hopkinson and illustrations by Deborah Lanino. About astronomer Maria Mitchell. Lyrical and nuanced story; richly colored acrylic paintings. The subject line of this post is from this book.

Picture book rec #2: Something from Nothing by Phoebe Gilman, adapted from a Jewish folktale. Recommended by Chinaberry, bless 'em - it shows the transformation of a boy's beloved star-and-moon-decorated blanket into a jacket, and then a vest, and then a tie, and then... and there are side-stories going on with the cobbler on the top floor of the tenement and a mouse family under the floorboards (the classroom of little school-mice learning Hebrew in the corner of page 10...!)...

Also of glee: during dinner with some friends (all over 30), I mentioned the Sayers-Rowling poster I'd presented earlier this summer. One of them instantly demanded, "Do you think Snape is good?" He was bursting to discuss the matter -- but three of our fellow guests hadn't read book 6 yet and didn't want to be spoiled, so they held their hands over their ears and la-la-la'd as best they could through the treacherous parts of the conversation. Later, once the topic shifted to "Peter Pan," the woman next to me said, "I always used to wonder what grown-ups talked about at their parties..."