CHECK IT OUT! Legally Blonde and Spiritually Buber

I just read a really cool review (by Elisa Albert)!

http://www.jewcy.com/feature/2007-05-17/legally_blonde_and_spiritually_buber


I loved this article. Why?

• I read Buber's I and Thou and was TOTALLY confused by it.
  
• I liked the Legally Blonde movies. Sure--they were unrealistic and a bit goofy--but they were still fun to watch.
  
• The review was interesting, original, funny, and quite insightful.
  

Some cool quotes:

• "Buber's concept of the I/Thou relationship "stresses mutual, holistic existence without qualification or objectification of the other." In simplist terms, this means being a really nice person, giving others the benefit of the doubt, and treating people like the complicated, meaningful beings they invariably are. It means being Elle-like."

• "Giving people what you think they want (based on your classifications of them) is to reduce them to "it". Being fully yourself and offering your full self to unclassifiable others: totally "thou"."

• "At Harvard, Elle faces the specter of yet more I/it. She's mocked and reviled at every turn........Her classmates preen and posture, fulfilling their own odious stereotypes.......But, our Elle guilelessly refuses to reduce her peers to their obvious categorizations (the "it" of them), and relate to them as such. She relates to them firmly in her own self, open to them all, wearing her signature pink..........resolutely unaware of the raging "it" to which she herself is constantly being reduced."

• "Elle Woods ultimately triumphs personally and professionally because she never stops looking at the world through her own eyes, with her own humanity intact, so that what's reflected back at her is yet more actual humanity."
  

CHECK IT OUT! 6 Strategies for Achieving Misery

This article, by Sol Herzig, was very funny and (sadly enough) very true.

http://www.aish.com/jewlariousFeatures/jewlariousFeaturesDefault/Six_Simple_Strategies_for_Achieving_Misery.asp

I think the opening line tells it all: "The sobering fact is that serenity and joy are natural states for us all. Fear not. Practiced regularly, these strategies vastly improve our odds of attaining despair."

POEM: Like the Inner Wall of a House by Yehuda Amichai

I read a poem: Like the Inner Wall of a House by Yehuda Amichai
The first stanza caught me:

"I found myself
Suddenly, and too early in life,
Like the inner wall of a house
Which has become an outside wall after wars and devastations.
I almost forget
How it is to be inside. No pain anymore,
No love. Near and far
Are both at the same distance from me
And equal."

That’s a very striking image that I can relate to. I think anyone who has been hurt badly as a child feels damaged, exposed, and numb. Very numb. And with so little remaining of what used to be.

This is so backwards from how I used to picture this. Before this poem, my own images personal images were different. One involved a pretty room with the window and door bricked over with heavy stone. Another image included a house with burned out, empty rooms but a normal, average-looking exterior. But, an exposed inner wall of a house? This is a new perspective. Yes, I definitely could explore this poem more!

QUOTE: From Shammai

"Say little and do much; and greet everyone cheerfully" by Shammai
(in What is a Jew? by Rabbi Morris Kertzer, pg. 19)