As we move onto the next Jewish holiday, Chanukah, Raphaela's teacher asked the parents to prepare a project about family history, and about heroism. The teacher explained that heroes come in small and large packages, and that each story would be read to open their mind to the idea that you don't have to lead an army against the Greeks to be considered brave.
A bit at a loss, because I don't see anything in particular that I have done in my life as especially heroic, and I can't fall back on the Israeli soldier stories. So I asked Raphaela if she thought that I was brave. She responded with a resounding "Yes!" When I asked Raphaela to elaborate on what actions in particular she admired, she answered, "Well, you dance and sing, you ran in the Marathon, and you eat and you read me stories."
Then it hit me, that the one thing I have done in my 46 years for which I can say I am proud and I feel quite brave...is in fact, Raphaela! I made a choice to bring an amazing little girl into the world, to be pregnant and give birth and raise her every day, for the rest of my days.
Of course, I cannot write about being a single mother and about my fertility treatments to a group of five year olds; I have pledged to never allow Raphaela to feel from me that she and our family are too unusual, and I will certainly not allow it to become a topic of general discussion among her friends.
4 comments:
Lurking so far ... but how about your great-uncle for a hero? Family, heroism and no complicated topics?
cheers
r
It's true, my great uncle qualifies, as does my great grandfather, a member of the Underground (Etzel) in pre-Israel, and also helped the American government during WWII. But how much do five year olds understand of the early history of the country?
PS Thanks for reading, and lurking :-)
you can tailor it to fit them like the maccabee story. Ask the teacher for assistance on how to relate the story to them.
Well, you ARE a hero. You left the country where you were born and raised, where your family and friends were, where everything was familiar... and you moved to Israel and started over from scratch, so that you could live and work and raise a child in the Jewish homeland. What could be more heroic than that?
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