I am endlessly fascinated by the fact that I have produced three children from my DNA and not one of them shows the slightest resemblance in temperament to either me or their father. I remember being a teenager. Abate, I never was a male adolescent but I grew up surrounded by a surplus of male adolescents so I am not completely without experience of the male adolescent mind.
I am on holidays for the next three weeks and decided today would be laundry day. I was in the act of stripping my 15 year old son’s bed sheets off the bed and decided it was time to turn the mattress. I did have a momentary twinge about turning over the mattress but overall I was feeling particularly brave and resolute. What do I find lurking under the mattress? Penthouse, Playboy or Hustler?
No. I find this book. And yes, I suspect he is actually reading it. I found notes in the margins and he is using his favourite bookmarker to keep his place. I just don’t understand why nor why he is hiding it under his mattress, but then again, he did bring home an 88 in Latin. Who does that either – it is positively medieval.
It is not like I don’t have Jewish religious writings all around the house. I have a Siddur and a book of Tehillim as well as a number of discourses on the soul and spirituality. In the course of researching my novel, I have read extensively on the more esoteric writings from various rabbinical schools of orthodoxy and the books are scattered around the house. I remember last summer my The Seven Beggars went missing for a few weeks and didn’t think much about it until my son started to ask me about the use of Jewish allegories. He owned up to pilfering it.
I sat down on the bed and started to read his margin notes and I wondered what my grandfather would have made of it all. In my mind, I suddenly remember a favourite saying of his and I catch the echo of his voice saying, “What is bred in the bone comes out in the flesh”…but three generations removed?
3 comments:
OT - here's wishing you & yours a safe & happy holiday season.
Y.E.S.H.I.V.A
:-)
Thank you Candace. I hope you and your daughter enjoy the cruise.
Naftali - certainly it is a possibility for the future if he is so inclined…I admit to feeling a mite uncomfortable with him reading this material on his own without any real guidance. I have had to control my own impulse to rush out and buy him a better Talmud with appropriate commentaries or ask directly why he is reading it and why is he hiding it under the mattress? Good thing we are both on holidays as of Friday – it gives me time to work it into a private dialogue. It does explain certain dinner time conversation e.g., him wanting to discuss if one can really be dishonest without actually telling a lie (I know where he’s at from his bookmark), though at this stage I hesitate to bring it up in case I stifle his inquiring mind. Nothing kills a teenage interest more than a parental push at the wrong time in the wrong way.
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