Tag: grandparents

Being a Grandmother, a Mother, a Daughter, and Sad

 

These two are both dads now.
These two are both dads now.

Once a year I pay special honor to my parents.  In a  service on Yom Kippur called Yizkor, I say a prayer to their memory and pledge to do something to remember them:  to donate charity for their sake.

This year, even more than usual, I wept as I prayed, and afterward. I have three grandsons now, one of whom shares my father’s name, and my parents don’t know it.  They aren’t here to enjoy these lovely boys, or to help me handle the issues that emerge when one’s children have children.

Our boys and their wives are stunning parents (and wonderful to us) and our grandsons are, of course, perfect; that’s not the issue.  It is, rather, that I know now some of what they must have felt and I would be so grateful if I could tell them what I have learned about their own grace as grandparents, and ask them for advice on the moments that grab the heart, or maybe even, as in every family, for a moment, break it.

When the Children Become the Parents: After You…

ancestors other1Two new grandsons have joined our first (born almost three years ago); one is 6 days old, the other just over two weeks.  They are beautiful and delicious; watching our sons with them is breathtaking.

With the birth of that first little boy, we became grandparents; he brought us a new identity. Just after the birth of the second of the three, though, the rabbi took us beyond that.  With the birth of their children, our children have become ancestors, taking their places, as we had done, in the thousands of years of Jewish history.

I’ve written before about the special meaning of our “Biblical” lineage , especially since we can’t trace our personal ones very far back, but I’m saying something else here: look forward as well as back.  There’s something compelling about the concept of one’s children becoming ancestors – something wonderful and profound.

BARACK OBAMA, SARAH SILVERMAN, FLORIDA AND A COUPLE OF QUICK MEDIA THINGIES

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The first one is this poster, which I found on Jason Rosenberg’s Facebook page.  It’s not quite as good as "I am a community organizer" but it’s kind of cool.
The other thing is today’s New York Times story about The Great Schlep and Sarah Silverman video, which apparently has been screened more than 7 million times in the two weeks since it appeared!  Basically, it urges Jewish grandchildren to lean on their grandparents in Florida to vote for Obama or risk the end of loving visits from the grand kids.  Given her occasional forays into yukkiness, it’s actually pretty cute. 

The Jewish Council for Education and Research, and co-executive director Ari Wallach, are creative, agile and smart and they’ve done a great job both of creating and promoting a very good idea.  Even if few kids can afford to hit the beaches of Hallandale and Miami, they’ll get on the phone and make their case.  And the press has loved it.  If you missed the video, here it is.