Action # 36: More SoSS

There are so many causes and so little time.

U. asked me if I want to take Jane Goodall's Conservation Masterclass.  I do. I also have a change in teaching position this year that will require my attention, personal goals for more meditation, am about to complete my new special education endorsement and a hope next summer to become a child's yoga teacher. All these things are for the benefit of the world and are thus a form of activism. It's all too much though. Doing 100 notable actions is really not easy.

Sometimes it's steady commitment that is the most important.

Yesterday was our fifth meeting of the local SoSS. There are times I feel I just show up. That would be good enough, but yesterday I hosted and I think some things I said were particularly important yesterday. Doesn't feel like a huge deal, but it does matter. So chalk up another action.

Regrouping

I'm on vacation now, sitting in an airport before flying from a road trip alone with U to meet up with ND and my parents back home in Portland, OR. I just now wrote a posting from my last piece of activism and am reflecting on what a year it's been.

Last summer ND and I planned to go to Portland to regroup as we do every summer. This times are critical for me, not just to relax, but to regroup, to come back to myself after a school year in frenetic Jewish Bergen County. This last year was different than usual.
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Acton #35: HIAS event

Exodus: I See Myself In You

A few months back the chesed committee at our shul held a HIAS volunteer event. Kids bagged packages for refugees while the adults heard a speaker talk about the organization. I was unable to attend, but ND and U went. U was really struck by the presentation, told me about it later, and we made a donation.

As a result we were invited to a special gallery event with artist Siona Benjamin. We attended and were reminded of the importance of HIAS's organization.

It was a nice night out, a reminder of how serious the refugee issues still are. The night we went was the same day the court gave it's decision on the travel ban. Mark Hetfield spoke about how the decision was actually good. That because the ban only stopped a very small number of people from entering the US it was a relative victory. Hearing this reminded me of just how nuanced many of these issues are... the things I read quickly in the news have so much more behind them than I usually know.