Jewswithoutjobs's Blog

whether you’re unemployed or just finding yourself hosting a self pity party, thought you might be interested: I’m in NYC where my son has just had an appendectomy. So i’m walking down the hall with him, holding onto the back of his typically prideless, backless hospital gown, watching him pushing the drip trolley along, remembering walking down a similar hall with my mother many years ago…..Started to descend into depths of worry. And then, i remembered how totally cool it was to be in Brooklyn, hanging with my boy, he a captive audience who not only couldn’t kick me out, but didn’t want to.

I just read a request from an attorney to be excused from court by the female judge. He was going on about how he hoped it would be a boy and then he’d need to cancel court, but if it was a girl, they’d be disappointed but would still manage to be nice to the parents. But he would’t need the time off…

That Jew should be without a job

Anxiety is a strange thing…It grows from fear, yet has the ability to motivate great achievements or mind numbing waste of energy. Many years ago there was a letter to the editor about how lack of connection and love really has led to many of the great achievements of western people. We’re all just trying to get a little love…If we happen to discover a cure for cancer, invent google, or figure out how to sort through all the choices at starbucks, so much the better. perhaps a little more “let it be” might leave us all with fewer things, but a bit more happiness.

Thought that title would get your attention…After months of not posting, making one lame attempt few months ago, I descended into “it’s too late” until one of my best friends looked at my youtube video, and laughed and cried…And I actually felt good again about this little project….Then I remembered a Catholic friend who told me the difference between shame and guilt. Shame she said is a deep seated sense of unworthiness, a feeling of inadequacy, a powerlessness in the face of inadequacy. On the other hand, guilt is a conviction that you’ve done something wrong, that you have the power to rectify…And she continued, it’s one of the things that differentiates Jews and Catholics. Now a caveat lest I incorrectly describe the situation, I apologize, but these were her thoughts: Catholics are raised feeling they are essentially (original sin) bad, but have the capacity to transform themselves in the afterlife

Jews conversely are convinced from an early age they’re great (chosen people) but that because they are so great, their behavior is continually disappointing to their parents!

Check out Brene Brown’s TED talk at Houston this year: Shame vs. whole heartedness

hopefully you’ll be hearing back from me soon

Is procrastination a four letter word?  If I’m a Jew without a job, what does it mean when I feel guilty that I haven’t posted to my non job blog? Everything I get ready to do as a business, everyone says “you gotta have a blog”…So I gotta Blog…but they didn’t say you’ve got to say something all the time or people won’t pay attention…How do you have time to read all this stuff that people more dedicated than me keep spewing out?

I do know that if Moses had a blog, we probably never would have gotten out of the desert.