Word Soup

What shall it be this morning - avocado toast with havarti, Chobani with fruit & nuts, or leftovers? Yes, leftovers! After deliberation the next step becomes pro-forma, i.e., open Wordle on the iPhone to give my brain, not just the alimentary canal, a mild work out as I try to guess Wordle of the Day. This NY Times game is the perfect pairing for whichever breakfast decision was handed down.  

Wordle is mega popular. You probably know the routine, take a stab at some letters before going into unscramble mode to solve the day’s mystery word puzzle. Then tackle more brain exercisers from other offerings, like Spelling Bee, The Mini, or Connections. 

With Wordle still on your mind, consider these letter offerings, UNRRA and UNWRA. Don’t bother unscrambling, this homonymific  duo (both pronounced ‘un-ra’) consists of acronyms for two United Nations agencies. Although sounding the same and charged with similar missions, their accomplishments are worlds apart. 

UNRRA (United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Agency) became part of the United Nations in 1945 and played a major role in relief and resettlement of hundreds of thousands of Displaced Persons (DPs), mainly Holocaust survivors, in the  aftermath of WWII. 

my parents Rachela and Yosef
with UNRRA Team 340
Lager 609
Braunau, Austria © 1946

Within six years all of the Jewish DPs were ushered onto paths for lives to be reborn as they repatriated, primarily in North and South America, and the fledgling new state of Israel.

 

USHMM commemorative calendar
celebrating its Special Exhibit
Life Reborn

UNWRA (United Nations Works and Relief Agency for Palestinian Refugees), was established in 1949 to provide relief for refugees of the 1948 Palestinian/Israeli conflict, primarily the ~700,000 Palestinians who fled or were expelled from their homes when surrounding Arab armies invaded the newborn Jewish State. 

 

UNWRA’s mandate was subject to review every three years. That mandate has renewed regularly since, essentially institutionalizing the agency. It currently employs 30,000 workers. Nota bene, an equal number of Jews (700,000) were forced from their generational homes in surrounding Arab lands at the onset of hostilities. All those refugees were repatriated, primarily into Israel. 

Following the horrific October 7th 2023 Hamas pogrom several nations withdrew their UN support for UNWRA having learned a number of its employees participated in the brutal attack.  

Supporters also objected to how UNWRA had become institutionalized. By continuing to support Palestinians in refugee camps for decades, the agency provides opponents of peace with a festering irritant which maintains the conflict at a simmering level subject to periodic boil-overs.

Circling back to the big picture …. with repatriation of all its charges within six years, UNRRA’s mission (United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Agency) in post WWII Europe was truly a ‘mission accomplished’. 

It’s long past time to demand similar results from UNWRA (United Nations Works and Relief Agency for Palestinian Refugees) by facilitating resettlement of generations of Palestinian Arabs still lingering in UN camps.  

Then after seventy-five years UNWRA could pronounce its ‘mission accomplished’ and then finally be shuttered.

other than captioned images, all others are stock 

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No Words

 

 “No words”. 

That was the most common reaction as broadcasts flooded airways with reports about the orgiastic pogrom unfolding in southern Israel on October 7th, 2023. It was the deadliest day in Jewish history since the Shoah - the Holocaust. When the full impact of that 20th century crime, the greatest in human history, was just beginning to be felt, there were also ‘no words’ for it. In an address to his nation, then Prime Minister Winston Churchill told British listeners "We are in the presence of a crime without a name."

My parents were survivors of that ‘crime without a name’ and suffered  terribly. 

Jerusalem 1981
© David Greenfield

My father had endured five years in forced labor in various Nazi work and concentration camps, Auschwitz among them. He was liberated just days  before the war ended. 

My mother spent over two years hiding without a roof over her head in the forests of eastern Poland, now Ukraine, which surrounded her home. She was always in fear of being discovered and unsure where food for the next meal would be found.  

© David Greenfield

They bore lifelong scars, most not evident at first glance, but possessed by demons deep within their psyches.  

© David Greenfield

When Allied armies finally vanquished the Nazis in the spring of 1945, ending their quest to systematically exterminate the world’s Jews, each parent was able to step out of Europe’s ashes into the sunshine, a chilling one. They soon realized they were mere remnants of their respective large extended families.  

My father and mother were my heroes, I loved them dearly. There isn’t a day that goes by in which I don’t think about and miss them. But as much as part of my heart will always ache for them, after witnessing the savagery of October 7th and ensuing antisemitic vitriol unleashed afterward, I am happy they are not alive today. They were spared the renewed nightmares they would surely experience.  

DP Camp
Austria 1949

My own fear was I would not have been able to allay their anxieties to comfort them. 

I would have ‘no words’. 

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Decisions

 

The new NFL season officially began with a kickoff in the opening game. That means armchair quarterbacks are back in action throwing their own flags whenever they believe coaches make the wrong play call or field refs botch one. These diehard fans take football battles very seriously, but at its core, football is merely a game. In the Middle East arena, strategizing the play by play for dealing with opposing adversarial ‘teams’ is a real life dilemma. Play calling there carries major consequences. In diagramming ‘X’s and ‘O’s for the country, Israel’s leadership knows full well lives are on the line. Consider this imagined, but relevant scenario in which ‘play calling’ has life and death outcomes.

 

Runaway

A trolley car has become untethered. It is heading toward a group of kindergarten kids on a school outing. All are likely to be killed in the ensuing collision. The trolley driver frantically searches for a way to avert tragedy.

At T minus 2 seconds he realizes he can switch tracks to spare the group. But diverting the car moves it onto the track where the driver’s parents are awaiting the next trolley. That collision will surely kill them. What should he do?

If Israel’s ‘government trolley’ stays on track continuing its current game plan of destroying Hamas, more if not all the remaining hostages will be executed. Six were murdered not long ago after almost a year in hellish captivity in the bowels of Gaza as IDF troops drew near. If however, the government diverts the ‘trolley’ and agrees to a ceasefire in exchange for return of all hostages, Hamas will get the ‘W’: return of Palestinians imprisoned in Israeli jails, an IDF pullout from Gaza, and retention of power. To be sure it will then reconstitute itself and live on to update its game plan to kill more Israelis at a later time.  

These are the no-win choices Israel faces on the Middle East field. OK coach, what would you do?

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Cloudy Dreams

 

"I had some dreams,

they were clouds in my coffee,

clouds in my coffee'

from You're So Vain - Carly Simon - 1972

When it's time to rise and shine each morning, memory of nighttime dreams quickly vanish ... unless I immediately reconstruct them. If I do, they become like Carly Simon's clouds in my coffee dreams, ready for interpretation and reimagining. And I know, if you can interpret, it can have far reaching benefits.

One morning after shuffling from bed to shower, then gazing lazily at the shower floor, faces suddenly emerged among the wet riverstone tiles ... and they were staring up at me!  One tile-face appeared to me as New Hampshire's Old Man of the Mountain - the second, a Sesame Street Muppet ... or perhaps a Beer Can Chicken!? Had they previously appeared in a forgotten dream? Was this déjas vue all over again and a message was being resent? If so, could I now find meaning? 

     

Old Man of the Mountain?

Muppet? Beer Can Chicken?

In Ms. Simon's coffee cup, dreamy cloud shapes were widely thought to have either a metaphorical meaning or to be representative of someone in her life being elusive or mysterious.  Were the riverstone faces in my shower delivering a subtle message? If so, interpreting significance, although important, was above my pay grade. What's your take on the tile-faces?

Let's first consider the Old Man, aka Great Stone Face.

the Old Man

Here's the Great Stone Face riverstone tile in situ on my shower floor .... 

the Old Man

... and here's my interpretation of the imagined face looking up at me, perhaps at a more youthful, cheerful time than when the somber visage was set as a granite profile on the side of Canon Mountain in Franconia, NH. 

Youthful, cheerful Old Man?

Is there a message about age and demeanor there?

Literally less than a tile-stone's throw away is either the Sesame Street New Muppet Kid on the Block, or a chicken astride a hot grill with a beer can stuck stuck up it's 'you know what'. 

Tile Stone-face

Muppet?

Uncomfortable Beer Can Chicken?

So, what are all these dreams, imagined faces, and cloud shapes all about? Old Man, Muppet, Beer Can Chicken - is there a connection? Am I just offering up a bunch of fluff? Shouldn't I be thinking and blogging about more lofty issues? There certainly isn't a shortage of important stuff to soak up one's time, energy, and passion these days. If you think 'fluff', let me remind you of a favorite tale of mine. It took place in ancient Egypt and became über-successful on stage as related by Andrew Lloyd Webber. It's about Joseph with his amazing technicolor dream coat and a journey from obscurity rotting in an Egyptian prison to becoming Pharaoh's No. 2.

He did it by interpreting what others couldn't see or imagine ...

Strange as it seems

There's been a

Run of crazy dreams

And a man who can interpret

Could go far

Could become a star

Could be famous

Could be a big success

Could become a star

'Nuff said, I made my point.

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Visit my web site anytime to view other blog-posts, Galleries of photos, and Photo-essays, then kindly share on social media. Also, if you think your friends and family might appreciate my posts, tell them to contact me and I'll add them to my list of followers. Thank you.

Goal!

 

In the blink of an eye, Jovan zig-zagged up and down the indoor pitch eluding his stunned, gawking young defenders. And he did it all while deftly dribbling a soccer ball. Then, before anyone could say, Lionel Messi, he stuck that ball strategically into an indefensible corner of the net. 

Goal! 

Even in my prime years, I couldn’t come close to matching such a feat of athletic agility, grace, and speed.

And he did it on one leg, the only one he had. 

Jovan and his buddy Nico, an equally adept monoped athlete, are professional soccer players representing the Bionic Project Inc, an organization on a mission to create a more inclusive world for everyone, regardless of physical ability. * 

Jovan and Nico

For these young men it makes no difference how they acquired their stand on one leg distinction. What matters is teaching that their stance does not cap an ability to successfully navigate the world and make a difference in peoples’ lives. 

That goal was a perfect fit for one Boston area school’s MLK Day lesson plan. This year the plan explored the theme of Disability Awareness and Inclusion. At the school, annual recognition of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s wisdom and messages is always considered a day on for learning and action, not a day off as in other schools.

 

So it was a natural to invite Jovan and Nico to offer a taste of Bionic Project’s programming on MLK Day. The men led several sessions including assemblies which engaged students on issues of assistive technology and the importance of getting to know kids with limb differences before probing how they acquired their different ability. 

Then it was time for action! 

Students, and some brave faculty, experienced an adaptive soccer match. First all players were fit with crutches for game play requiring one leg remaining continuously bent and off the floor. 

Two teams were then formed, each captained by either Nico or Jovan who followed up with a few warm up drills.  

When the starting whistle blew, it was Game On! 

Players left nothing on the pitch as they labored peg-legging after the ball, exhausting themselves in the process. When time was finally, and mercifully called, there were clear winners and losers.

  Winners - all students who experienced a full ‘day on’ of learning and action. 

Losers - disability bias and absence of empathy for those not often seen and recognized in society.

All in all, it was truly Mission Accomplished for this MLK Day lesson of Disability Awareness and Inclusion. I’m not a betting man, but I’ll wager that now students at the school will never underestimate the prowess of those who appear differently abled. That’s a Goal which should stick for a long time.

Visit my web site anytime to view other blog-posts, Galleries of photos, and Photo-essays, then kindly share on social media. Also, if you think your friends and family might appreciate my posts, tell them to contact me and I'll add them to my list of followers. Thank you. 

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*Nico and Jovan are athletes with impressive, and lengthy CVs both in athletics and education. Here are the details.

Nico was captain of the US Amputee Soccer Team at the 2014, 2018, and 2022 Amputee Soccer World Cups. He’s the all-time leading goal scorer for Team USA and board member and Director of Development for the American Amputee Soccer Association, Nico is a passionate advocate for disability justice and adaptive sports. As a licensed secondary social studies teacher with five years experience teaching in middle and high schools, he is also a passionate educator. Outside of the classroom, he shares his expertise with students as a high school soccer and wrestling coach. Nico earned his B.A. from Colorado College, his M.Ed from Lesley University, and holds a Master level certification from the National Alliance for Environmental Education.

Jovan Booker is a native of Long Island, New York.  He received his B.S. from Stony Brook University and his M.S. from Hofstra University and is a former Health and Physical Education teacher for grades K-12.  Jovan is Captain of the New York Metro Amputee Soccer Club and is also a national team player for US Amputee Soccer Team. He has scored multiple goals over 30+ international caps, and is a leader in advocating for disability sport access, equity, and inclusion on and off the pitch.