The Supreme Court as Parent

"Tsk, tsk," the Supreme Court ruled this week. "You shouldn't talk like that," the judges implied as they upheld a ban on the use of fleeting expletives on television before 10 pm.

But if we don't like the language we hear on television or radio, what about what we hear in corporate boardrooms, in schools and on the street? Should the Court, like the Taliban, attempt to control all public behaviors?

I picture the Court not as it looks today, with judges of both genders and several races, but as it used to look - white men who dictated their social mores on a nation that would not necessarily follow its rulings.

The Court was doing what many of us parents do so ineffectively; i.e., trying to control our teens from the top down.

Thus, if we parents do not like the language we hear from our children we might punish them, for example, by slapping a fine on them (since we are the Supreme Court of our families). I doubt, however, that it will be effective.

Maybe the Courts of both the family and the nation need to think of more effective strategies to influence social behavior.

Choosing the Route to Jerusalem

There is very good highway from where the young man lived to the center of Jerusalem. He knew it well, having traveled it by bus many times. But it's full of traffic for most of the daylight hours. As he contemplated driving his family to Jerusalem for the day, he asked himself, "Should he take this well-traveled road or follow a back-roads route that his friend recommended?"

He was nervous. The back roads would come near an Arab town and through more than one checkpoint. Yet the idea of trying something new and avoiding all that traffic was enticing. What should he do?

On the one hand, he could easily take the safe route if he were too anxious about the alternative. But, if he would be willing to step out of his safety zone (after all, his friend had already done so and said it was OK), he might learn something new and worthwhile for the future. It might also be fun!

My comment: Anticipatory anxiety about trying something new is understandable. It's the same as so-called stage fright. But once an actor steps onstage, anxiety could trip him up, impair his performance and ruin his enjoyment. In this instance, with the show on-the-road so to speak, anxiety could "flatten the tires" and ruin the trip for everyone.

Back to our story:

The young man made his choice. He was going to try something new. He resolved to put his feelings aside, concentrate on the road ahead and enjoy the adventure. After all, this venture was a small one in comparison to his decision to move with his family to Israel the year before!

He never regretted his decision.

Life continues to be a series of adventures.

Never Too Thin

I was at the seamstress/tailor the other day.

Aside: Curious about the difference between the two terms - was "seamstress" a woman and "tailor" a man? - I googled the two terms and found the following: A "seamstress" is one who sews, makes crafty items and garments. A "tailor" is one who makes a garment fit or tailors the garment to fit the individual.

Waiting for my turn, I watched as the tailor discussed the fit of a dress with a young girl. The girl was tall, thin and appeared to be around 14 years of age. She stood hunched over, as if to cower into herself, hiding her pubescent body.

The tailor commented that the dress - a hand-me-down from her sister - did not fit properly; "too tight" in one place and "too loose" in another. The girl, possibly hearing only the former, immediately asked, "Should I lose weight?"

This girl was so thin that I could see her rib bones and small nipples through the fabric. Rather than modify or discard the dress, which she obviously liked, she wanted to do the same to her body. Maybe she wanted to look like her sister (or friend or classmate).

Her mother sat nearby and didn't comment. Her mother, by the way, was pleasantly plump so the issue of thinness did not seem to stem from the home.

When the girl stepped into the dressing room I quietly asked her the age of her child. She was 18 1/2 years old.

Rather than a diet, I thought to myself, she needed self-confidence and a new bra.

Behind the scenes at FOX TV News

Do you see that sofa on which the TV anchormen/women sit? It looks like it's comfortable, spacious, and part of a huge office that probably overlooks the Hudson River.

Guess again.

That sofa is so small that if any one of the three "anchors" move a few inches they'll either fall off or bump into their co-host.

And the room is really a small platform surrounded by teleprompters and cameras, behind which lies a darkened area populated by more machinery and the technicians who run them.

Such is the world of TV news.

World events are magnified and amplified, and mundane problems are projected as critical life events, all to the purpose of creating pressure and popular interest.

Indeed, my four-minute stint yesterday on FOX & FRIENDS demonstrated what a pressure cooker these anchors inhabit.

They speak at a breakneck pace, don't stop to make eye contact or connection, hurrying to get the news out and move on. They're in a locomotive at high speed. No time for thoughts, feelings or people.

Except behind the scenes.

That's where you find, what I might call, the beautiful people: The make-up artist, hairdresser, assistants and assistants under them. The eager young cadre of helpers who get to work at 4 am so that the show can get on the road on time, every morning, every day of the week. They work when you and I play, sleep when we begin our evening, take time off when the rest of the working world is in the office.

They make up the infrastructure of that artificial TV world.

Someone should do a show about them. But more than 4 minutes worth.