Is This Thing On?

Hi February Friends!

I blog twice a year--my two-post assignment for this wonderful project. So I never quite remember how to handle the technicals. But I think this is working, and if it isn't, Ru will happily whisper in my inbox that I owe y'all a post.

As much as I want to write a long post instead of the motion to dismiss that I really need to write instead, I'm going to prioritize my job and treat this as a unique challenge to leave you all with some good vibes for today in shorter form. I also was looking back at old posts I've written here in past years and burying my head in my hands for how...laden they were.

Speaking of laden, if you want to lean hard into the bitters of February to the tune of one of my favorite writers and female voices today, experience this.

My life has been very immediate since I started my job--by this I mean, I've taken very few sudden movements, find myself committing to very little, and generally am playing on a pretty small court as I adjust to my career and its demands. I miss the self-indulgence of being a student, but I also enjoy the discipline of adjusting my life to the unpredictable demands of my job. But this week, I've been really appreciating having the time to cook at home. In order to prepare for a Shabbat dinner, I have to do a little each day in advance. I really like this idea of taking time each day on these tasks. While I was cooking last night, I switched between NPR and my favorite gospel music, and I'll leave you with highlights from both:

This interview with Dr. Lucy Kalanathi, who published her late husband's book that he wrote as he was dying from cancer. He died at 37, a newly minted neurosurgeon. The book has received incredible reviews and I am looking forward to reading it. Hearing Dr. Kalanathi speak about her and her husband's decision to proceed with their plans to have a child even after his terminal diagnosis was particularly...beautiful.

And from my gospel playlist, this top favorite, and this Sam Cooke & the Soul Stirrers classic.

(As I type this now, I'm listening to one of my favorite numbers from Hamilton, which makes me cry every time, but I don't want to post it because you kind of have to listen to the entire show to appreciate the value, so here's my plug to listen to the cast album or enter the dignital lottery or take out a second mortgage to buy tickets.)

Also, because I can't post to this blog without being super Jewy, today is the yahtzeit (anniversary of death) of a great Jewish sage, R' Yisroel Salanter, the great Lithuanian sage and founder of the Mussar movement. Mussar has been translated to mean the study of ethics, but it's a bit different from that. Mussar really refers to a movement, popularized by R' Salanter and his students, of scrupulous self-improvement through plumbing the sub-conscious and cultivating disciplined habits and character traits through meditations, visualizations, study, chanting, and other contemplative practices. Some of Mussar's practitioners and scholars were, shall we say...intense (some were known to go up to a potato seller and ask for cabbage in the deliberate attempt to be shamed by the merchant, thus diminishing the practitioner's ego, so...that's cool). I feel very attached to the Mussar tradition and leave you with a more modern approach to learning more about the topic, if you're interested.

Happy 4th, Selah,
Jana