As we were raising our daughters unwittingly yet willingly,
we raised them teaching them diversity. My husband told me to never call him a
liberal. So, instead I said, “You were a feminist before I was.” He didn’t seem
to mind that.
You see the word liberal to my husband who was born in 1956
meant someone who was not dedicated to democracy. Kind of like when my dad
would call someone a ‘pinko-liberal-commy’. I didn’t buy into that. And today my
husband would be considered a liberal, but its not a bad thing.
And as luck would have it, this former US Marine, their
mother—one of our daughters recently called me, a “Femi-Nazi”. I would have
laughed if I didn’t think she was so serious and needed some corralling on her
accusation. I gently caressed her verbiage that day. It’s not that her mother
mostly considered ‘The Bad Cop’ of her two parents had gone soft. Its that now
I had to play the roll of her deceased father and being mom too. So, our
daughters now get a two-fer in one parent—Yes, you can laugh.
Both of us parents read to our daughters daily, from the
time that they were both adopted as babies from a communist country. Both being from different areas. Both being
of different religious backgrounds, quite certain of that. And when my husband and I discussed raising
children twelve days into our dating, we had no clue what lie ahead.
I had no clue of his full background nor had he of mine.
Yet, he guessed correctly of my religious background. We already knew we were
cultural opposites before the end of the twelfth day. And we discussed how we
could make our differences work. The Hippy and the Marine fell in love and
wanted to create a family. Yes, the Marine who only wanted to serve her country,
its ideologies, its people and secretly thought she’d never get married. There
was only service to others in her purview. No, not declaring sainthood here.
Only declaring, I thought service was the only good I could do. Too, as to go
unnoticed. Under the wire I’d arrived, did something, and left quietly into the
night. I would say that was a practical thought. Help clean the slate for
others and then depart.
So, to the raising of our daughters, my husband and I took
equal part in raising them. He was big into swimming, hiking, skiing, reading, higher
education, psychology, fixing things, engines, guitars, staying in shape and
having hope. I was big into gardening, cooking, inventing, canoeing/kayaking, fishing, ice skating (on
real ice outside), human physiology, philosophy, boxing, the NFL, and having
hope. We were both into distance running. He was the social otter and I the
hermit.
My husband despised the idea of standing on an icy pond for
an hour or two. I took it as part of life to help and encourage our daughters
to be creative in the winter skating, sometimes to play hockey together. Too,
as a parent watching for bad ice and sometimes having to shovel snow off the
pond for the children to skate safely.
My husband joined us once on the icy pond. He shook his
head. “Jody, this is brutal.” I responded, “Now you know why I wear more than
one pair of socks and a sweater and two coats to do this.” I’d paused. Then
continued, “And yes it is. Just think how I then have to get their ice- and
snow-covered skates off so they can walk to the car in proper footwear.” I
giggled.
He preferred snow, making snowmen and downhill skiing with
them. I was the ski-mom—Taking videos of them coming down the mountain. Making
certain my husband had time to ski alone on the mountains, as I’d have the girls
‘defrost’. And then give them a bite to
eat for a couple hours before going back out for more skiing with dad.
Of my husband and I, I
ruled most of the actions at the dining room table. Especially at the breakfast
table. I was there five to six mornings a week with them. He was there usually
one morning a week, sometimes two with them. It was because of what our jobs
dictated. He had set hours as an inner-city high school math teacher. I ran my
own full-time business, providing treatment for ill and injured pain patients
from doctors. As well, treating a variety of athletes, professional, amateur,
and recreational. Too, having a professional athletic career on the side.
So, four days a week there were lessons from me at the
breakfast table before school. Which was Monday through Thursday. Then the
babysitter would arrive early Friday morning and the children when they were old
enough to read, read out loud to the babysitter at the breakfast table. It was
an assignment I’d give them of three minutes each, usually concerning religion
and or philosophy. Saturdays my husband took charge and made them ‘real’ French
toast, helping me get them ready for ballet or karate.
As my husband and I had discussed twelve days into dating,
fast-forward I kept my promise to him and his family. That I, this
pseudo-Catholic Shiksa would raise them to know Judaism—then everything else.
To this day, if you were to walk into my home, you might not
recognize any particular religious direction. For the books in our living room
hutch are filled with practically every religious book imaginable. From the
Oxford Annotated Study Bible to Jews for Jesus to the Quran to the Tao De Ching
to the Five Books of Moses to the Saint James Bible Version (my husband enjoyed
reading Christianity teachings that way), and so on. Too, I have the Bhagavad
Gita upstairs near my bedside.
That same hutch unit holds, multicultural historical
teachings on the religions of the world. Then bukoo books on philosophy, metaphysics,
the universe and well everything around and under the sun, and out of our universe.
Basically, ideas on science, math, medicine, and love. Yes, we read.
So, every morning at the breakfast table it was study the
Torah for five minutes, have a discussion for a few minutes. Then onto reading
parts of medical books and having a couple minutes of discussion on them. After
that, we’d talk about the constitution and perhaps once a week a discussion on a
current event item. Such to the likes of: gay marriage, the killings of Michael
Brown, George Floyd, and so forth. Yes, heavy material, but real.
I remember that morning when our youngest was age eight, “Mom,
two men can’t get married.” I replied, “What makes you think that?” She came
back with, “It’s not normal.” I replied, “To you it’s not normal. But you’re
not them.” Her face was one of shock. I continued, “You’re used to having daddy
and I being heterosexual. That’s all you understand currently. But two men can
get married. You and I may not understand that, but we can accept their
decision. And otherwise, it’s none of our business. It’s only an opinion.”
The other night, as our oldest called from out the west. “Mom,
I don’t understand politics.” I replied, “Yeah.” She continued, “We live in a
bubble in our town.” I replied, "Oh yeah. They mostly think only one way, most
haven’t with any regularity have read and don’t read.” She remarked, “But it’s like they’re
still in the same— Everyone goes back home and does what everyone else has
already done.” I replied, “Yes. That is why we have only one party that has
been mayor for decades. It’s still the 1950s here. No one ran against him all
three times. That shouldn’t be.”
We discussed the ongoing conflict in Gaza. I explained how
differently Israel would’ve responded if it were Yitsak Rabin instead of Benjamin
Netanyahu as Israel’s prime minister. I explained Iran’s involvement and my
theory as to why Iran backed the Hamas terrorist group to attack innocent Israeli
concert goers in October. I explained how there had been Israeli protests
against Prime Minister Netanyahu before the attack last year, and why.
She knew the history prior to 1946. But not much was taught
in any schooling she’d had on foreign current events. I remarked, “No one reads
up on this, they are self-involved. They think it doesn’t matter. But it does.”
I told her that even with over 350 miles of tunnels that were built for terroristic
activities under Gaza. That its one thing to destroy the tunnels, quite another
thing taking more than double the innocent lives of who you think is your
enemy. That’s genocide, no longer is it considered ‘an eye for an eye’.
Israel does know who their enemies would be. Too, the other
nine Arab nations have also been at fault as they have not helped this
situation of the Palestinians not having a country since 1947 or before. And
that’s on those Arab countries. It’s no longer about oil. This is about the
will of the Arab nations to find a way to annihilate a different religious country,
that had been a democracy of sorts. They don’t want anything other than their
own religion to be served up there. When they say, “From the river to the Sea”.
It means the genocide of Israelis. It has been and is being promoted by PFLP
(Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine). Which is connected to the
terrorist group called Hamas.
In theory, Iran thought if they encouraged such a terrorist
action against Israel, that they would soften Biden. Too, forcing the United
States to give into the release of the Six Billion dollars held in a South
Korean bank, for ‘good’ behavior. Iran also saw the protests of the Israeli
people against P.M. Netanyahu last year ramping up. They figured it was time to
strike.
The tunnels under Gaza which were made by terrorists in the
likes of Hamas and Hezbollah are supported by Iran. This shows that the attack
in October 2023 on the Israeli concert goers were planned well in advance.
Did the Palestinian people living in Gaza have a clue about
these terrorists and them living above their tunnels? If so, was it some or all
of the people living in Gaza that knew? Were those Palestinians threatened by
the terrorists or were they promised something of value by those terrorists? I
can tell you now that those terrorists, neither those countries that backed
them promised those Palestinians living in Gaza peace. I’m certain of that. Peace
is never on the mind of a terrorist. Remember that.
Remember we have a conflict going on across the Atlantic, democracy is at steak there. People
here in the United States, over 98% haven’t seen war, neither have they served
in our military. Yet, they conveniently choose to remain hatefully divided
against a brother because of skin color, religion, gender, culture, politics,
and so forth. Most cannot stomach the word rape, let alone the talks I’ve given
on life.
We could blame unnamed people who we’ve tribally allowed to
invade our sacred spaces. Or we can realize that terrorizing by threats, by
words, by actions or any other means against one another is cowardice.---
Jody-Lynn Reicher
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