Time has really been flying since my last post. I am proud of myself for remembering so far to post about every two weeks. I am not proud of my poor letter-writing skills. That is something I have resolved to do better. I love paper letters and I can mail them out at no cost to me. The trouble lies in finding the time and remembering.
Aram's parents have gone home...Aram didn't want them to go to the airport alone because they don't speak English very well, and she didn't want to come back from the airport alone either, so I volunteered to go with her to the airport in Tel Aviv in the middle of the night. I'm glad I didn't end up as tired as I thought I was going to be. I even survived the next day at work well. Often I feel that with how busy Aram is we don't get to spend nearly enough time together, but we spent a lot of time together with her parents and we had such a nice conversation on the train ride back home. Actually I'm really glad that I came with her because she did not recognize the stop in Haifa. I remembered it because it wasn't that long ago that I first came in on the train. The ride would probably have brought back relatively fresh memories if the image of a jumble of nearly unmanageably heavy suitcases didn't dominate them.
A few weeks ago I joined an art class that focuses on incorporating symbolism into art, but I don't think I'm going to stay with the class. The first session was mostly discussion and when the facilitator asked if we should start drawing this week I piped up that it should really wait till next week. Since then I've been finding excuses not to go. I really want to be making some artwork but I don't have many ideas. I'm kind of afraid to go to a class and be forced to draw but have nothing in my head to put on paper. Maybe the best thing for me is to push myself to go, but something compels me to try to get myself started in the privacy of my own home first.
Speaking of art, last weekend was a good one because I discovered an artists's village twenty minutes south of Haifa by the name of Ein Hod. It's a remarkable place - entrance is free and incredibly it's open on Saturdays, as is virtually nothing in Israel, and there were all kinds of things from paintings and drawings to pottery to a bookstore with many English-language books to even a music box museum - though I look forward to the day I can visit with a little bit deeper pockets, a camera, and no rain. I'll probably have to pack a lunch and push myself to eat it instead of dining at one of the restaurants. That was the reason I didn't have any money left over to buy art - my funds were depleted after transportation costs and lunch at an incredible Argentinian restaurant (these seem to be very popular in Israel for no clear reason. There are a great deal of Russian Jewish immigrants, but Argentinians I don't understand. Then again Argentina seems to be a country with a lot of minority communities - Germans, Italians, British and perhaps Jews too). If anyone comes to visit me while I'm here, I promise I will take you to this place to spend a day there.
This last Monday I went to a one-time cooking class as I've been feeling a need to branch out beyond hummus and pita with cucumber and tomato all the time. The teacher was an Indian man with incredible culinary efficiency. He prepared between 15 and 20 dishes I think for some seven or eight of us to share in the span of two and a half hours. I left the class feeling pretty inspired and fearless because he really encouraged us to have a flexible attitude about cooking and not be afraid to experiment with ingredients we like. However he was big on frying, and though it wasn't involved in all the recipes he made, still all of the recipes I've been moved to experiment with myself since then have been depressingly heavy on the oil. Next week I am going to try to be undaunted and play with some more, like rice with dill and cumin, boiled eggs with a very simple crushed tomato cilantro sauce, and (and I'm excited for this, it will be interesting) chai tea with black peppercorns.
Today and tomorrow are very special days for Baha'is at the Baha'i World Centre, because these are the days that we celebrate the birth of our two messengers of God, the Bab and Baha'u'llah. Now, in most parts of the world their birthdays are observed according to the solar calendar, such that the Bab's birthday is October 20 and Baha'u'llah's is November 12. However, in this part of the world for some reason I still haven't managed to unearth (but I'm making steady progress), all Baha'i holy days marking events that occurred before Baha'u'llah's declaration of his mission are observed according to the lunar calendar, and all those marking events that followed his declaration are observed according to the solar calendar. Being that we observe these two birthdays according to the lunar calendar, the dates that they fall on shift every year, but they are always consecutive, and the Bab's is always first, which is interesting as he was the first of the two messengers. So today to commemorate the birth of the Bab, we convened at the Concourse of the Universal House of Justice (as for most holy days, I understand) for a program not unlike the one I described in November, only it was at 2:00 in the afternoon instead of 12:00 in the morning. Tomorrow we will all assemble in Akka/Bahji to observe Baha'u'llah's birthday, as that is the site where he lived the end of his life, and was buried.
As such, even though I am sadly missing being able to spend what I know as the holiday season with my family, I have observances that happen to fall this year near the dates of Thanksgiving, Christmas eve, and Christmas to keep me from feeling totally disconnected. (Another thing that helps with this is honestly the Christmas light displays of the relatively few but ostentatious Arab Christians in my area. I really enjoy these, and it's interesting to see that Christmas here is observed with many of the same traditions as I see at home, though I must say most of the Santa costumes I've seen, often with full face masks, are a little creepy.)
I wish a merry Christmas and happy New Year to everyone at home who celebrates these holidays, and ask you to have a wonderful time in my absence as you spend time together.
Friday, December 18, 2009
Friday, December 4, 2009
December 4
Since Aram's parents are here, I feel like I've always been busy between them and other things. Work of course occupies the bulk of my time. I was quite happy when my trainer told me that she thinks we've never had someone train so fast in our department. According to her it takes three months to be "trained" but she says I am "trained" after two months. I think I attribute this to my discomfort with having to interrupt someone to ask questions every five minutes over a period of time that feels too drawn out. So I think I asked questions every two minutes and voila. I also attribute this to still feeling quite ignorant of department policy. I don't like not knowing, and I know there are still whole realms of my department that I know nothing about, but I will need to. I don't like that feeling of ignorance so much that it motivates me to learn faster.
I've spent some of time my in the past two weeks pretending to be a pilgrim. I've gone to the pilgrim talks on some evenings (staff are welcome to attend, too, but we are supposed to sit in the balconies and I've sneaked into the lower level to stay with Aram and her family). Aram found old family friends and even distant family on pilgrimage, some of whom I've met. They were very friendly and one of them invited me to stay with her "when you come to Australia". I didn't say the thought never crossed my mind.
During the pilgrimage of my flatmate and her family was the first holy day I've spent in the holy land. It's unusual among Baha'i holy days because it commemmorates the death of Abdul-Baha (son of the founder of the Baha'i faith who led an exemplary life) on 28 November 1921, and it is observed at the hour of his death, which is, fortunately for the sleep habits of all of us, 1:00 in the morning. On Friday and Thursday night, the 26th and 27th, staff and pilgrims visited his old house in Haifa to say prayers and remember him, then we attended a memorial program with readings by him and about his life. One of them stands out in my memory because it was one of the last talks, if not the last, that he delivered to a gathering of Baha'is. Basically he told them that their time together was coming to a close, and they should struggle to live well enough that that they should be able to meet Abdul-Baha again. I'd never considered that heaven would mean being able to, in a sense, meet Abdul-Baha. When I read about his life it's clear that he was a well-loved person. Ten thousand people attended his funeral including local leaders, and he always seemed to be overflowing with love and gifts and comforting words and sound advice for people as well as a great sense of humor. Anyway, after the commemmoration all some 1,000 of us went to the Shrine of the Bab (this is Abdul-Baha's temporary resting place until the international Baha'i community finds the resources to construct his shrine) and circumambulated the building (this makes me think only of Islam though I understand that it is a practice at holy places in other religions too...I guess it was a way to pay respect and to all engage in a spiritual act together). Then some of the staff went out for the night and I assume that most of the pilgrims went straight home and went to bed happy but exhausted. That's what I did.
Since then I've been very busy...on Monday this week I went to the first in a series of art classes. We talked about symbolism and some ideas for our art projects, which I liked. Recently I was finally invited to attend a class with Steven Phelps, super genius. He's a physicist, a physicist, but he came to Haifa to serve in some capacity, surely not as a physicist. I don't know for sure but I'm guessing he was first placed in conservation, because it involves a lot of knowledge of chemistry which is related to physics. I further speculate off the top of my head that in this capacity he was motivated to learn to read the originals of the texts he was conserving. So (and this is no longer speculation but the truth) he learned Persian and Arabic, and eventually became one of the primary translators of the Baha'i writings into English. One only has to spend five minutes with him to recognize that his command of Persian and Arabic, and his of the Baha'i faith, are vast and amazing. Sometimes trying to study the Baha'i writings feels like some sort of weird stargazing, e.g., "this quotation is so beautiful let's read it five times." But Steven Phelps knows his stuff. Some of the things he said felt like a wild stretch, e.g. when he related the power of unity in purpose of human souls to the fact that in chemistry when elements combine they release energy. But I'll forgive him the stretches in light of his background. I'm so fortunate to be able to attend such a high-quality class without having to pay anything. There was even cake.
On Wednesday my office had a farewell dinner at good old Fattoush for Sara, my trainer, who is going home to Florida, then eventually working as an elementary school teacher in Colombia, or that is the plan. After she leaves at the end of this month, our office will be six, then when Katy leaves in June, we'll be down to five. Thanks to budget cuts that are occurring at organizations around the world, we will stay at five. It is anticipated that I will pick up many of Katy's responsibilities in addition to mail processing. As far as the mail that she processes goes - and this takes up the bulk of our time - I don't know what we'll do but work harder. Yesterday for lunch and dinner I was treated to Aram's mother's cooking. She made some amazing dish involving eggplant and fries, but really it was good. Aram said she was so happy that I was so willing to try new foods, and I said well if they are good foods, I want to know about them.
I've spent some of time my in the past two weeks pretending to be a pilgrim. I've gone to the pilgrim talks on some evenings (staff are welcome to attend, too, but we are supposed to sit in the balconies and I've sneaked into the lower level to stay with Aram and her family). Aram found old family friends and even distant family on pilgrimage, some of whom I've met. They were very friendly and one of them invited me to stay with her "when you come to Australia". I didn't say the thought never crossed my mind.
During the pilgrimage of my flatmate and her family was the first holy day I've spent in the holy land. It's unusual among Baha'i holy days because it commemmorates the death of Abdul-Baha (son of the founder of the Baha'i faith who led an exemplary life) on 28 November 1921, and it is observed at the hour of his death, which is, fortunately for the sleep habits of all of us, 1:00 in the morning. On Friday and Thursday night, the 26th and 27th, staff and pilgrims visited his old house in Haifa to say prayers and remember him, then we attended a memorial program with readings by him and about his life. One of them stands out in my memory because it was one of the last talks, if not the last, that he delivered to a gathering of Baha'is. Basically he told them that their time together was coming to a close, and they should struggle to live well enough that that they should be able to meet Abdul-Baha again. I'd never considered that heaven would mean being able to, in a sense, meet Abdul-Baha. When I read about his life it's clear that he was a well-loved person. Ten thousand people attended his funeral including local leaders, and he always seemed to be overflowing with love and gifts and comforting words and sound advice for people as well as a great sense of humor. Anyway, after the commemmoration all some 1,000 of us went to the Shrine of the Bab (this is Abdul-Baha's temporary resting place until the international Baha'i community finds the resources to construct his shrine) and circumambulated the building (this makes me think only of Islam though I understand that it is a practice at holy places in other religions too...I guess it was a way to pay respect and to all engage in a spiritual act together). Then some of the staff went out for the night and I assume that most of the pilgrims went straight home and went to bed happy but exhausted. That's what I did.
Since then I've been very busy...on Monday this week I went to the first in a series of art classes. We talked about symbolism and some ideas for our art projects, which I liked. Recently I was finally invited to attend a class with Steven Phelps, super genius. He's a physicist, a physicist, but he came to Haifa to serve in some capacity, surely not as a physicist. I don't know for sure but I'm guessing he was first placed in conservation, because it involves a lot of knowledge of chemistry which is related to physics. I further speculate off the top of my head that in this capacity he was motivated to learn to read the originals of the texts he was conserving. So (and this is no longer speculation but the truth) he learned Persian and Arabic, and eventually became one of the primary translators of the Baha'i writings into English. One only has to spend five minutes with him to recognize that his command of Persian and Arabic, and his of the Baha'i faith, are vast and amazing. Sometimes trying to study the Baha'i writings feels like some sort of weird stargazing, e.g., "this quotation is so beautiful let's read it five times." But Steven Phelps knows his stuff. Some of the things he said felt like a wild stretch, e.g. when he related the power of unity in purpose of human souls to the fact that in chemistry when elements combine they release energy. But I'll forgive him the stretches in light of his background. I'm so fortunate to be able to attend such a high-quality class without having to pay anything. There was even cake.
On Wednesday my office had a farewell dinner at good old Fattoush for Sara, my trainer, who is going home to Florida, then eventually working as an elementary school teacher in Colombia, or that is the plan. After she leaves at the end of this month, our office will be six, then when Katy leaves in June, we'll be down to five. Thanks to budget cuts that are occurring at organizations around the world, we will stay at five. It is anticipated that I will pick up many of Katy's responsibilities in addition to mail processing. As far as the mail that she processes goes - and this takes up the bulk of our time - I don't know what we'll do but work harder. Yesterday for lunch and dinner I was treated to Aram's mother's cooking. She made some amazing dish involving eggplant and fries, but really it was good. Aram said she was so happy that I was so willing to try new foods, and I said well if they are good foods, I want to know about them.
November 22
The last several days have not been very eventful; I've been taking all the phone calls for the department of pilgrimage for the last two weeks, so I've been handling all of the crazy questions that anyone feels so moved to ask...my favorite so far has been "is it ok to bring my dog on pilgrimage?" (The answer is no.) This has been a bit draining, especially because I feel I was thrown into it maybe a little bit prematurely (and intensely), but then again, it has been a great way to learn the department policy fast. I've been having issues of another kind with telephone calls in the evenings, but never mind those.
I've also been having a few problems with feeling down, and I'm not really sure why, but sometimes I wake up in the morning and the first thing I feel is too overwhelmed to move (but it passes within minutes). I think the reality and the sheer differentness of my surroundings have caught up to me. I'm really going to have a snow without winter, I'm really going to spend my first Christmas away from my family. The other day I was looking at a map of Wisconsin (maps are popular decor here) and when I turned around it hit me that, oh, right, I'm not in Wisconsin. I'm nowhere near it.
There are many positive things to speak of, however. On Saturday I visited three sites that require so much maintenance as holy places that staff members may visit once per year (and the average Baha'i may visit once in every five years, at the most). I won't go into detail about their histories, mostly because I don't yet know them well, but I can say that all of them were residences of Baha'u'llah and his family. The exteriors are quite plain, but the interiors are so delicately ornamented, with so many small artifacts so carefully preserved, that is like stepping into a cross between an old movie and a patterned dream, with a quiet spiritual energy like a persistent hum that pervades the whole place.
A look of something like shock has crossed the face of nearly every person I've informed that I visited three holy places on Saturday, and I tell these people that I don't understand why they are so surprised...I have never been to any of these places, I honestly didn't know some of them existed before I came here, and, naturally, I wanted to see them as soon as possible. Besides all of the places I visited are in Akka, and to make a single trip really seemed ideal to me. I suppose I could have gotten quite tired by the end of three staff visits, but fortunately I didn't. I was quite awake for all of them, and all the more grateful for the extraordinary comfort and beauty of the last place, the Mansion of Mazra'ih, thanks to an encounter with a very very strange cab driver (he was a vague mix of aggressive and flirtatious...fortunately I was not alone and he was quite harmless).
Today I met my flatmate Aram's parents who are going on formal pilgrimage with her over the next two weeks (formal pilgrimage is 9-11 days). They are Persian immigrants to Canada and they are learning English, and they are adorable. Aram's mother poured her tea into a bowl because she couldn't find a cup. Aram told me that they visited the shrine of the Bab today and that her parents cried and cried when they visited it. Relations between Israel and Iran are of course so bad that Iranian Baha'is are not able to go on pilgrimage at all unless they have been away from Iran for the last five years, and they have a passport that is not Iranian, but from another country. So it was a very emotional time for them. I hope they will have a wonderful time together.
I've also been having a few problems with feeling down, and I'm not really sure why, but sometimes I wake up in the morning and the first thing I feel is too overwhelmed to move (but it passes within minutes). I think the reality and the sheer differentness of my surroundings have caught up to me. I'm really going to have a snow without winter, I'm really going to spend my first Christmas away from my family. The other day I was looking at a map of Wisconsin (maps are popular decor here) and when I turned around it hit me that, oh, right, I'm not in Wisconsin. I'm nowhere near it.
There are many positive things to speak of, however. On Saturday I visited three sites that require so much maintenance as holy places that staff members may visit once per year (and the average Baha'i may visit once in every five years, at the most). I won't go into detail about their histories, mostly because I don't yet know them well, but I can say that all of them were residences of Baha'u'llah and his family. The exteriors are quite plain, but the interiors are so delicately ornamented, with so many small artifacts so carefully preserved, that is like stepping into a cross between an old movie and a patterned dream, with a quiet spiritual energy like a persistent hum that pervades the whole place.
A look of something like shock has crossed the face of nearly every person I've informed that I visited three holy places on Saturday, and I tell these people that I don't understand why they are so surprised...I have never been to any of these places, I honestly didn't know some of them existed before I came here, and, naturally, I wanted to see them as soon as possible. Besides all of the places I visited are in Akka, and to make a single trip really seemed ideal to me. I suppose I could have gotten quite tired by the end of three staff visits, but fortunately I didn't. I was quite awake for all of them, and all the more grateful for the extraordinary comfort and beauty of the last place, the Mansion of Mazra'ih, thanks to an encounter with a very very strange cab driver (he was a vague mix of aggressive and flirtatious...fortunately I was not alone and he was quite harmless).
Today I met my flatmate Aram's parents who are going on formal pilgrimage with her over the next two weeks (formal pilgrimage is 9-11 days). They are Persian immigrants to Canada and they are learning English, and they are adorable. Aram's mother poured her tea into a bowl because she couldn't find a cup. Aram told me that they visited the shrine of the Bab today and that her parents cried and cried when they visited it. Relations between Israel and Iran are of course so bad that Iranian Baha'is are not able to go on pilgrimage at all unless they have been away from Iran for the last five years, and they have a passport that is not Iranian, but from another country. So it was a very emotional time for them. I hope they will have a wonderful time together.
November 10
As time goes by and I go on adjusting, it becomes harder and harder to keep a record of even just the highlights of what I experience. I've noticed that a lot of people spend more time absent from their work than they need to because they either don't know their own bodies, or they ignore them and eventually wear themselves down. Right now there is a nasty flu going around...mostly, naturally, among the young people who think their bodies never need rest. For my part, I'm really trying to take good care of myself...generally, I am early to bed and early to rise, try to minimize my stress levels in my work and stick to a routine (I've managed to give up coffee as a daily routine, though I don't suppose it's so much of an improvement that I've always had two cups of tea by 9:00am...and a third by 2:00pm...but hey it's a routine).
In addition to work I'm volunteering two mornings per month in the reference library. I love this place and I want to read every book in it, and the library is one department that needs help badly. I have a good friend who serves there so I think it's going to be a really good experience...plus as it's my first and probably longest-lasting duty to help digitize the card catalog, I get exposure to many titles in the collection, and I can come in and read these titles whenever the library is open and I'm not working.
As far as evenings go, I've been making a point of spending at least 2 nights a week at home and spending a third night a week doing whatever as long as I find it relaxing. One of the volunteers who is a grandmother mentioned that she has a friend who swears by doing things that re-create you in your spare time (e.g., physical exercise that re-creates your body in a sense, or painting that gives you a wonderful new skill), and supposes that is why it is called "recreation". On those nights that I spend at home I might visit the shrine of the Bab on my way home, then read, cook, clean, visit neighbors, work on various projects (e.g., my garden), or whatever serves to keep me fresh and happy and prepared for the next day.
It's tempting to join any number of formal or informal classes on all sorts of topics - often, study of the Baha'i writings, but also all kinds of things such as Hebrew, ballet, aerobics, quilting...so many things. At this point I am waitlisted for one class (which involves in-depth study of whole texts in the Baha'i writings that is supposed to be amazing, and is going to take a lot of time), and I am loosely affiliated with a Persian class...it's advanced for me, but I go because it's a chance to see my flatmate, who I otherwise rarely see. Sometimes I attend the very casual youth study class on Thursday nights, and sometimes I don't.
So I'm really proud that I'm not overdoing it. I only have one major evening commitment so far, and it hasn't started yet. However there are other temptations that might sneak up on me. I told a neighbor I would try coming to his FUNDAEC class. FUNDAEC is a Baha'i organization whose mission is to apply spiritual principles to education at a system level. The idea is that it fills a void left by a general framework for education that is agnostic in its foundations. I want to go to at least one session because I am very curious how spirituality can be applied (a) to topics such as agriculture, chemistry, etc. and (b) without getting on people's nerves.
I can imagine one possibility. Baha'is as a worldwide community conduct two kinds of children's classes; one parallels Sunday school, but the other classes are called "virtues" classes, and the word God is never so much as mentioned; instead, character development and principles common to every major religion are emphasized. For some parents this is a free babysitting service with harmless content, and in my opinion that is A OK. In that case the classes provide a service to a community. Some couples may belong to two different spiritual traditions and not want to push their kids one way or the other or confuse them too much. That is good too. However, some, Baha'is and non-Baha'is, see these classes as a way to rope kids into the Baha'i scene to convert their parents eventually to the Baha'i faith. I am sure that in the case of some Baha'is running these classes, that is the truth, or it may not be an overt thing, but it is the intention that underlies the whole operation. When that happens I think it's really a shame, but I don't think it should cast a shadow on the purpose of the classes in its purest form.
Anyway, considering how virtues classes operate, you can imagine that an academic class with a spiritual rather than agnostic foundation, according to a Baha'i perspective, simply emphasizes character development along with knowledge development. I hesitate to make reference to a "moral" education, because the Baha'i faith leaves the treatment of a lot of enduringly controversial questions of morality, e.g. abortion, up to the individual. Anyway, arguably this new framework is not spiritual at all. You can certainly be agnostic, atheist, secular humanist, whatever, and uphold Baha'i virtues, even better than many Baha'is. So I wonder if FUNDAEC includes aspects that are uniquely spiritual and not arguably universal whether you consider yourself a spiritual being at all or not...and what they could be.
To follow up on my last post. I did go shopping for plants and I didn't buy geraniums (the shop owner wasn't sure what color the flowers on the geranium plants available would be...I didn't know they could be anything but red), but I did buy quite a few other plants. Some have small red flowers - I think they're called calendula(s?). I also bought a plant that vines and will eventually have dark pink flowers, and seeds for herbs, basil, parsley, cilantro, and mint. A friend showed me how to cut our ubiquitous water bottles to make very nice small flower pots. If I can find some nice heavy rocks to put in the bottoms of them, I can put them on my balcony and they won't blow away when the wind is strong (or they will and I'll have to hope no one is standing directly below my balcony at the time...hm). I want to build my balcony into a big beautiful garden, and incorporate some symbolism from my surroundings (being that my property is literally surrounded by the Baha'i gardens), my own life, etc., so that looking at my balcony is like reading a book. Naturally I am going to plant a lemon tree, and the rest I'll see. I have heard that the gardens department often pulls up fairly large quantities of flowers and plants from various areas for whatever reason, and I don't think they always know what to do with what they've uprooted. Maybe there is a chance I could move in. It would be more economical for me and less wasteful for them...a sort of symbiotic relationship.
In addition to work I'm volunteering two mornings per month in the reference library. I love this place and I want to read every book in it, and the library is one department that needs help badly. I have a good friend who serves there so I think it's going to be a really good experience...plus as it's my first and probably longest-lasting duty to help digitize the card catalog, I get exposure to many titles in the collection, and I can come in and read these titles whenever the library is open and I'm not working.
As far as evenings go, I've been making a point of spending at least 2 nights a week at home and spending a third night a week doing whatever as long as I find it relaxing. One of the volunteers who is a grandmother mentioned that she has a friend who swears by doing things that re-create you in your spare time (e.g., physical exercise that re-creates your body in a sense, or painting that gives you a wonderful new skill), and supposes that is why it is called "recreation". On those nights that I spend at home I might visit the shrine of the Bab on my way home, then read, cook, clean, visit neighbors, work on various projects (e.g., my garden), or whatever serves to keep me fresh and happy and prepared for the next day.
It's tempting to join any number of formal or informal classes on all sorts of topics - often, study of the Baha'i writings, but also all kinds of things such as Hebrew, ballet, aerobics, quilting...so many things. At this point I am waitlisted for one class (which involves in-depth study of whole texts in the Baha'i writings that is supposed to be amazing, and is going to take a lot of time), and I am loosely affiliated with a Persian class...it's advanced for me, but I go because it's a chance to see my flatmate, who I otherwise rarely see. Sometimes I attend the very casual youth study class on Thursday nights, and sometimes I don't.
So I'm really proud that I'm not overdoing it. I only have one major evening commitment so far, and it hasn't started yet. However there are other temptations that might sneak up on me. I told a neighbor I would try coming to his FUNDAEC class. FUNDAEC is a Baha'i organization whose mission is to apply spiritual principles to education at a system level. The idea is that it fills a void left by a general framework for education that is agnostic in its foundations. I want to go to at least one session because I am very curious how spirituality can be applied (a) to topics such as agriculture, chemistry, etc. and (b) without getting on people's nerves.
I can imagine one possibility. Baha'is as a worldwide community conduct two kinds of children's classes; one parallels Sunday school, but the other classes are called "virtues" classes, and the word God is never so much as mentioned; instead, character development and principles common to every major religion are emphasized. For some parents this is a free babysitting service with harmless content, and in my opinion that is A OK. In that case the classes provide a service to a community. Some couples may belong to two different spiritual traditions and not want to push their kids one way or the other or confuse them too much. That is good too. However, some, Baha'is and non-Baha'is, see these classes as a way to rope kids into the Baha'i scene to convert their parents eventually to the Baha'i faith. I am sure that in the case of some Baha'is running these classes, that is the truth, or it may not be an overt thing, but it is the intention that underlies the whole operation. When that happens I think it's really a shame, but I don't think it should cast a shadow on the purpose of the classes in its purest form.
Anyway, considering how virtues classes operate, you can imagine that an academic class with a spiritual rather than agnostic foundation, according to a Baha'i perspective, simply emphasizes character development along with knowledge development. I hesitate to make reference to a "moral" education, because the Baha'i faith leaves the treatment of a lot of enduringly controversial questions of morality, e.g. abortion, up to the individual. Anyway, arguably this new framework is not spiritual at all. You can certainly be agnostic, atheist, secular humanist, whatever, and uphold Baha'i virtues, even better than many Baha'is. So I wonder if FUNDAEC includes aspects that are uniquely spiritual and not arguably universal whether you consider yourself a spiritual being at all or not...and what they could be.
To follow up on my last post. I did go shopping for plants and I didn't buy geraniums (the shop owner wasn't sure what color the flowers on the geranium plants available would be...I didn't know they could be anything but red), but I did buy quite a few other plants. Some have small red flowers - I think they're called calendula(s?). I also bought a plant that vines and will eventually have dark pink flowers, and seeds for herbs, basil, parsley, cilantro, and mint. A friend showed me how to cut our ubiquitous water bottles to make very nice small flower pots. If I can find some nice heavy rocks to put in the bottoms of them, I can put them on my balcony and they won't blow away when the wind is strong (or they will and I'll have to hope no one is standing directly below my balcony at the time...hm). I want to build my balcony into a big beautiful garden, and incorporate some symbolism from my surroundings (being that my property is literally surrounded by the Baha'i gardens), my own life, etc., so that looking at my balcony is like reading a book. Naturally I am going to plant a lemon tree, and the rest I'll see. I have heard that the gardens department often pulls up fairly large quantities of flowers and plants from various areas for whatever reason, and I don't think they always know what to do with what they've uprooted. Maybe there is a chance I could move in. It would be more economical for me and less wasteful for them...a sort of symbiotic relationship.
November 2
For the last few days I have been a busy little bee. Over the weekend I had a chance to settle into my new room (and my new balcony)...it feels like a semi-permanent move so I feel that I have taken another step to feeling more at home here. Really it doesn't feel very foreign and it never really has, but it is really starting to feel truly comfortable. I have been a transient for five years; in college I usually had a surplus of possession that did not fit well into the living space. Here I have more space than I need. Of course with lots of space comes LOTS of cleaning...fortunately I think the worst of that is now. I went out onto the balcony and found that it has probably not been cleaned in a year. That plus the storage room (which I finally worked up the courage to clean in spite of rumors of a mouse living there) took up the bulk of my day on Friday. I am thinking of keeping a garden on my balcony - I have more space for a garden than i've ever had before - for herbs (mint, parsley, dill and cilantro are big around here and grow well in the climate), hardy flowers (I hear tell it's hard to kill a geranium plant in Israel), and maybe some desert plants like aloe and cacti. One of my friends told me that on a whim she planted the seeds of a lemon she used for cooking, and the resulting little tree is growing up nicely. It makes me laugh to think of this in comparison to the indoor lemon tree my dad was growing when I was growing up...it was pretty weak-looking and never bore fruit, but it's impressive that a lemon tree grew in Wisconsin at all.
If you have any suggestions for plants to grow, I would welcome them.
I thought i was over my fear of appliances (following the explosion of my iron and the meltdown of my curler), but it happens that fear resides in me again, after a cooking fiasco resulting in a small fire that fortunately did no long-term damage to anything but the pot and the ceiling above the oven (but you can't see it unless you look closely...i mean really closely). The burners on my stove are really tricky to adjust and that was the problem. No one else was in my building which freaked me out and made me decide that i'm not going to cook anything for at least a while unless someone else is home...and I'm not going to use any appliances except the microwave (the inside of which I managed to coat with boiled milk maybe one hour after I vowed to be much more careful) when I am by myself, either, unless I can't help it. This makes me feel a bit like a four year old who needs cleaning supplies to be specially locked up and medicines to have a safety cap. Oh well...I really am having to relearn how many basic things work, and that's just a reality.
In real news, most everything is going well, my training is coming along, and I'm enjoying my job although it's challenging the notion that I had previously that I am a detail oriented person. Details can be something like landmines in my work, so I am going to have to raise my detail bar I guess. Tomorrow night I am hosting a beginning drawing and painting class at my flatmate's request...that should be fun. I receive my clothing allowance at the end of every month, so unless I choose to simply save it up (and I might) I could be going shopping. However with what amounts to a free thrift shop right on the path of my walk home from work, and with Israeli fashion being the questionable entity that it is, I think I am just going to live simply for now - though I definitely, definitely need more pants - Haifa got cold fast. There have been more or less continuous lightning and thunderstorms for a few days, and they are really intense. If you kept your eyes on the sky, you would see lightning every few minutes or so. Sometimes it's so loud I wonder why my house isn't shaking.
If you have any suggestions for plants to grow, I would welcome them.
I thought i was over my fear of appliances (following the explosion of my iron and the meltdown of my curler), but it happens that fear resides in me again, after a cooking fiasco resulting in a small fire that fortunately did no long-term damage to anything but the pot and the ceiling above the oven (but you can't see it unless you look closely...i mean really closely). The burners on my stove are really tricky to adjust and that was the problem. No one else was in my building which freaked me out and made me decide that i'm not going to cook anything for at least a while unless someone else is home...and I'm not going to use any appliances except the microwave (the inside of which I managed to coat with boiled milk maybe one hour after I vowed to be much more careful) when I am by myself, either, unless I can't help it. This makes me feel a bit like a four year old who needs cleaning supplies to be specially locked up and medicines to have a safety cap. Oh well...I really am having to relearn how many basic things work, and that's just a reality.
In real news, most everything is going well, my training is coming along, and I'm enjoying my job although it's challenging the notion that I had previously that I am a detail oriented person. Details can be something like landmines in my work, so I am going to have to raise my detail bar I guess. Tomorrow night I am hosting a beginning drawing and painting class at my flatmate's request...that should be fun. I receive my clothing allowance at the end of every month, so unless I choose to simply save it up (and I might) I could be going shopping. However with what amounts to a free thrift shop right on the path of my walk home from work, and with Israeli fashion being the questionable entity that it is, I think I am just going to live simply for now - though I definitely, definitely need more pants - Haifa got cold fast. There have been more or less continuous lightning and thunderstorms for a few days, and they are really intense. If you kept your eyes on the sky, you would see lightning every few minutes or so. Sometimes it's so loud I wonder why my house isn't shaking.
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