BLUMA’S LAPTOP FIX
So we got this brand-new laptop as a gift, its a quality piece, has great specs and we use it a lot since we got it (as a gift) earlier this year. But some of you were here Thursday night when we had a lot of trouble with it. We use an external mouse (easier on the hands) and the computer wasn’t recognizing it. We changed the batteries in the mouse, still nothing. So resorted to the on-board touchpad, also no reaction. Ugh!
Our daughter Bluma saw our frustration and she sat down to tinker with it. Presto! she had it going again! What happened? Two things actually. The bluetooth was off, which is why the external mouse wouldn’t work, and the laptop’s built-in Touchpad was disabled using the F9 button. So she enabled F9, which allowed her to use the Touchpad, to re-enable the bluetooth, and now all is well with the world – or at least this nice laptop.
But everything has a lesson, right? The Baal Shem Tov taught that we ought to learn a life lesson and spiritual message in our divine service from all things that we see or hear in our lives.
OUR PERSONAL F9 TOGGLE BUTTON
F9 is that keyboard button that enables or disables the “Touchpad.” Are we allowing ourselves to be touched/affected or not?
Yes, there’s a time and place, there are reasons and circumstances in life to shut down our F9. Sometimes there’s just too much external stimuli, noise in our lives, sometimes we do it to avoid getting hurt or upset, we’d rather not “be touched” (i.e. affected). So, there are reasons why it is beneficial to have a “thick skin” but may we never become callous, impermeable and indifferent.
If we keep the figurative personal F9 closed too much, if its disabled most of the time, then we’re missing out on many valuable signals and meaningful inputs, possibilities and opportunities for connection and growth. We’ll never be affected, never be touched, never be able to change and move and grow. Enabling our emotional and spiritual F9 can make us more vulnerable, true, but it also allows for so much blossoming, affection (pun intended there), personal development, access to new and better things and people… We’ll (at least our inner emotions and soulful side) be too closed off to be accessed, to be affected. We need that side of us to be open more and open more often- obviously, each person in their own way, at their own level etc.
Some people shut down their F9 spiritually, (almost) intentionally. There are those who do not want to risk spiritual growth, they are anxious for Judaism to affect them any further, they put up walls and blockages and obstacles to ensure that no such signals or experiences or teachings can reach them. But if they’d just open up a little, at a pace and space that works for them, they may find more enriching and enhancing than they’d ever imagine.
THE “MAUS” CONTROVERSY
There was a big buzz this week online about a Tennessee School District that’s banning the reading of Art Spieglman’s “Maus” a graphic novel about the Holocaust. It’s actually the only graphic novel yet to have won a Pulitzer Prize. True, this story is graphic in more ways than one, its not for young children or the faint-hearted, it does not sugar-coat the horrors of the Holocaust. But it presents it using a visual medium (Nazis as cats, Jews as mice, pigs as Polish collaborators) that helps many readers (especially visual learners or those who connect better with parables) better absorb the story.
Not sure what the school board felt and why, but the sense online is that they wanted to shut down the F9 for these teens. Why read things that are disturbing or upsetting? Why expose yourself to such horrific tragedy? Better read some sanitized and idealized version , watered-down and dressed-up so that no one is affected by it. Perhaps if the readers are too young, there’s certainly a point in that, but we can’t coddle and insulate everyone forever. Shutting off F9 permanently will do more damage than benefit for teens and their future growth and development as caring, engaged, sensitive and aware people.
THE NOREASTER FORECAST
There was a lot of talk leading up to this weekend about the ‘Noreaster coming up the coast. Our weather here in Albany was especially tricky since we are at the western point of this projected storm, and our snowfall amounts (if any) depends on the slightest shift in trajectory as the storm moves north. If it moves ever slightly to the east we might miss it altogether, but if it veers even a small amount to the west, we could get (a lot) more snow.
Some people (usually adults) are hoping to avoid this storm. Others are eager and hopeful for a great snowfall (especially kids or those who love snow and winter sports). Think of how the slightest shift can bring a a tremendous windfall your way, and this is true whether you see this storm as dangerous and overwhelming or if you see it as abundant and beneficial. The way we handle our F9 button can make this possible or close it off.
JUST A BUTTON?
Obviously, fixing this within is more than a laptop keyboard button. Bluma’s isolation and remedying of the laptop problem was a huge help to us, but is certainly more complex and takes much more time and effort with the figurative & personal F9 in our lives. Let’s find ways to happily and healthily open up more degrees of our F9 button.
AND A TIE-IN FROM A VERSE IN THIS PARSHA:
All this ties back to a verse from this week’s Parsha (Torah portion of) Mishpatim. The Torah tells us: If you see your enemy’s donkey overwhelmed by its burden, and you feel that you might want to refrain from helping, you shall surely help along with him!
The Torah is concerned that we’ll turn up the volume in our headphones and rush quickly past. We’ll disable our F9 to we won’t be “touched”. We’ll find ways to put up walls and distances, and ignore as much as we can. No, says the Torah, enable your F9, don’t ignore, don’t be unaffected. Get down, help out, and do it along with him.