That I honor the wisdom of children.
And everything else about them.
That I honor the intense care and concern of parents.
And everything else about them.
That I honor the endless dedication of teachers.
And everything else about them.
That I honor the sometimes anxious hunger of students.
And everything else about them.
That I witness joy and sorrow, success and frustration.
That I witness discovery, growth, and transformation.
That I witness things that can’t be seen and aren’t easily articulated,
Like 14 year old’s that have known each other since kindergarten now swimming in the Mediterranean Sea in what might be the most carefree and dreamed of moment of their lives.
Like wisdom, like spontaneity. Like daring, like compassion. Like running into a wall and then picking yourself up and finding a different way that you didn’t know you could go. On a daily, sometimes hourly basis.
That I cultivate middot.
Like patience. Like organization. Like curiosity. Like flexibility. Like balance. Like calm. Like calling people back within 24 hours. Like saying yes and saying no. Like sensing what kind of work needs to be done and who needs to do it. Like being okay with being wrong.
That I allow myself to be something to whoever needs me to be something.
Like a guitar playing rabbi, or a disciplinarian, or a tikkun for some past experience, or a life coach, or a punching bag, or the help desk, or Hadara and Caleb’s daddy, or the leader, or a friend, or an inquirer, or a witness. Or even “Rabbi Micah.”
That I collect experiences and translate them into meanings.
That I collect meanings and translate them into words and from there into phrases, sentences, paragraphs, and stories that bear witness to the heroic life that is unfolding within, around, and beyond me at all times and for which I can claim no credit and about which sometimes say little other than that it seems to be deeply interconnected.
Stories that, in their telling, invite me and others to participate and not only participate but shape and retell, until we finally get them right. Or at least right enough to see their beauty and laugh a bit.