12/17/2024

JRB,

            Did you have fun at the Hanukkah party last night. I’m sure it warmed your heart when Rabbi Cosgrove called you a “mensch.”

            How did your visit to the Labor Dept go yesterday? Maybe your designation of the Frances Perkins’ (FP) Monument will make FP a household name. Being fairly new to me, I misremembered it this morning & when I told my neighbor, Barb, a former LABOR judge, about FP she had never heard of her. Imagine that -  someone steeped in labor, not knowing that FP was the first & longest serving cabinet member Perhaps the designation of five new national historic landmarks recognizing women’s contributions to American history will help us all to keep track of the women who created change.

            Speaking of CHANGE, I continue to be fascinated by the I Ching. I learned that it describes 64 hexagrams that can be used for divination. The 1st three evoke my latest perspective on dealing with life’s complexity – creativity, receptivity & difficulty.

Do you think my 3 Chinese students learned about the I Ching? As one of the few ancient texts to survive Mao Zedong’s cultural revolution, I suspect they studied it in school. Perhaps they memorized all the hexagrams.

Do you think it’s weird to position young folks as teachers? It’s not common, but kids, like David Hogg, argue we must listen to them. Did you hear that he’s hoping to be DNC Vice Chair? I hope you call him to strategize about your response to yesterday’s shooting at Abundant Life School in Madison.

Maybe he, too, discovered the I Ching given his success in practicing creativity & receptivity after his difficult experience as a student at Parkland.

I hope you can practice those first 3 hexagrams, especially regarding China’s role in Burma. According to the Irrawaddy Beijing is “actively prolonging the conflict …(by) creating a perpetual state of controlled chaos that allows continued resource extraction & strategic positioning.” Please do more to ameliorate the situation.

BYBS,

RCA