Olivia Judson’s articles are always so interesting. Here is a fascinating – and disconcerting – look at how cuckoo birds plant their eggs in other birds’ nests and fool them into caring for their chicks – often in lieu of the actual offspring that are thrown out!
Modern technology and education may not encourage creativity and imagination in children as much as the past. Reading books makes you imagine your own characters, and blocks of wood - or pieces of nature - can prompt a child to imagine its toys. But tvs, xboxes, video games and pdas are less likely to stimulate the unknown, as they guide you through a pre-created and pre-imagined world.
Here is an article from babycenter (an informative and valuable website for parents) that shares ideas on how to tap your child’s natural curiosity.
This video by a friend of my sister’s really touched me and intensified my appreciation of the need and beauty of loving and remembering my parents with every breath.
This interview mentions my uncle Larry Lubetzky - my Dad’s older brother. I recall how as a child my Dad recounted his liberation by American soldiers. It was many years later that I learned the platoon that rescued him was composed of all Asian-Americans - Japanese Americans to be specific.
A few weeks ago my sister uncovered an interview by the Yale Archives of my Dad, from 1987, which I am embarrassed I had never seen, sharing his life’s story, including the dark episode of Dachau. The video was dubbed into DVD and I made several hundred copies. If anyone wants one, please reply to this posting, or email me or call our office at +1 212 616 3006 x104 and I will gladly send you a copy - while supplies last.
This is a 911 call made by a 5-year-old girl when her father was having chest pains and could not speak. Her calmness and poise is remarkable for such a youngster!
The goal is not happiness. The goal is purpose. And from that purpose comes happiness.
- Linda Gallanter, at dinner, sharing that when raising children, giving them purpose is a much more effective way to make them fulfilled and happy in life (whereas worrying about them being ‘happy’ can yield spoiled or malcontent kids)
According to this provocative study, children from the very beginning are predisposed to help others – we are wired to be KIND to others.
I really liked this thought by Jonathan Safran Foer on his goal as a parent. He wrote it in the context of his journey as a vegetarian, but it has wider applications and resonates as a noble aim:
I’m not as worried about what [my children] will choose as much as my ability to make them conscious of the choices before them. I won’t measure my success as a parent by whether my children share my values, but by whether they act according to their own.
– Jonathan Safran Foer, in The Fruits of Family Trees, New York Times Magazine
This is a great little vignette…
Here is a project that seems quite powerful:
…a mesmerizing dialogue between teh children of the perpetrators of the Holocaust and the children of the surivors. Both live out the Holocaust daily, unable to move forward. Both finally face the past and are empowered to move on.
The trailer video contained here is worth watching.
I’ve always felt the weight on my shoulders from my Dad’s survival of the Dachau concentration camp. I cannot escape those shadows. It had never crossed my mind that the children of the perpetrators must have similarly been marked and shaped by that experience. Very poignant, and the trailer seems to confront the issue with depth and introspection. It includes the story of a marriage between the son of a survivor and the descendant of a major Nazi criminal.
