explore | Grilled Cheese

I am old enough to remember it but a lot of people only very slightly younger than me are not.

Community! Collaboration! #ParshaChat

I think that living in reality is pretty critical to doing things and making things better. #ParshaChat

And I see this a lot in politics too, where people throw themselves hard against impossible demands in a way that interferes with getting progress in a way that *is* achievable. #ParshaChat

This happens a lot with disability, where people try very hard to overcome disability through sheer force of will and it both pervasively fails to work *and* prevents people from doing the things that they *can* do. #ParshaChat

I think that people get themselves into a lot of trouble trying to do impossible things and then blaming themselves and doubling down when it doesn't work.

And... #ParshaChat

I have professional colleagues who are too young to remember it. The folk who were part of those memories have retired or died. The memories feel dark, hollow, full of drifting ashes and empty blue skies. #ParshaChat

A2: It's making me think about how no one can live up to the mythos of being a superhero who rescues everyone and creates perfect justice but also we don't *need* a hero like that. We can just do the things!
#ParshaChat

That's a very important message for me personally! #ParshaChat

I am also hoping that this is not yet the year that I have to explain 9/11 to my kid. #ParshaChat

A2 I could imagine the verses being read in a biting and sarcastic tone, and the listeners feeling mocked, but I can also hear them being said in quiet, slow, and meditative tones. #ParshaChat

Yeah, the combination feels very heavy. Unetanneh Tokef also feels very heavy alongside that. #ParshaChat

A2: Reassuring, meaning something along the lines of: You are not asked to do impossible things. If something is impossible, it's not the thing you're supposed to do. #ParshaChat

A2: The two main tones I imagine as possible ways to read this are:
Exasperated, meaning something like: Come ON people, just DO it already, it's *not that hard*.

Or, alternatively:
#ParshaChat

9/11 is a lot of intense, vivid, anxious memories. Trying to combine that with the joy of Rosh Hashanah is tough. #ParshaChat

Yes! Which is really important when he has been harping on the many times we failed, and prophesying that we will fall down on the job again. Especially because of that, we also need the encouragement! #ParshaChat

Possibly. Or just as him being very aware of the impossibility of climbing up to the heavens or swimming across the sea. #ParshaChat

What a question! It could be soothing and supportive, encouraging, or snarky, challenging, demanding, demeaning. Great question! #ParshaChat

As in "Don't ask me to do any more when you are perfectly capable of doing it yourself?" #ParshaChat