Check out these how to put on eye make up images:
Natural-Beef (buynaturalbeef.us) …item 3..Stop Feeding Cows Chicken Manure (Posted: 04/26/2012 8:52 am) …item 4.. ‘Shocking’ Cattle Prod Robbery in Tallahassee [SLIDE SHOW] (Wed 9:38 PM, Jan 09, 2013) …
Image by marsmet491
Because poultry litter can be as much as eight times cheaper than foodstuffs like alfalfa, the U.S. cattle industry may feed as much as a million pounds of poultry litter to cattle each year.
A thousand chickens can make enough waste to feed a growing calf year-round. Although excrement from other species is fed to livestock in the United States, chicken droppings are considered more nutritious for cows than pig feces or cattle dung.
……..***** All images are copyrighted by their respective authors ………
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…..item 1)…. Bloomberg News … www.bloomberg.com/news … Mad Cow Is Reason to Change Rules, Not Swear Off Beef
By the Editors May 9, 2012 7:00 PM ET
www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-09/mad-cow-is-reason-to-ch…
The discovery last month of a case of mad-cow disease in California could be taken as good news.
The cow in question was found at a rendering plant, where spent animals are sent for processing into leather, soap, cosmetics and pet food. Tests detected the illness before slaughter. There was never any chance that meat from the cow would enter the human food chain. Cattle futures prices, which initially plunged, are higher now than before the announcement.
Agriculture officials say the animal was infected with an unusual form of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, the formal name for mad-cow disease, which they believe occurred spontaneously. It wasn't, we were assured, the result of giving cows feed containing cattle brain and spinal-cord tissue, the route that infected herds throughout the U.K. in the 1990s. (People who eat meat from an infected cow can contract variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a fatal neurodegenerative condition.) The practice of mixing used organs and slaughterhouse scraps into cattle feed has since been banned in the U.S. and many other countries. It is one reason episodes of mad-cow disease now are so rare.
There may never be a satisfactory answer to how the California cow was infected. Yet the case is a reminder that the U.S. food safety system is in need of improvement, not just to prevent mad-cow disease, but to curtail outbreaks of food-borne illnesses that sicken 48 million Americans a year and lead to 3,000 deaths.
—–Cheap Feed
The federal government could start by ending the practice of feeding cows what's euphemistically called poultry litter. Poultry litter is the spilled food, feathers, excrement, carcasses and bedding material that accumulates on the floors of commercial chicken barns. This material is far cheaper than corn, alfalfa or other feeds that have soared in price in recent years, and farmers use a lot of it — 2 billion pounds a year by some estimates.
Because chickens aren't susceptible to mad-cow disease, poultry farmers are allowed to use feed that includes certain cattle byproducts. In other words, cows can still end up eating feed containing cattle-waste products via poultry litter. The European Commission has banned feeding all forms of processed animal protein to farm animals. The U.S. should do the same.
The U.S. also needs a better system for tracking cattle. Agriculture Department officials initially had trouble locating the California cow's offspring. (The one they found tested negative.)
The process shouldn't have been difficult. Many countries – - including less-developed ones like Botswana — tag all cattle, either with plastic ear markers or microchips under the skin. Information gathered from tagging can be stored in a national database and used to log veterinary records, exposure to disease and transport history.
The U.S. had promised a tagging program back in 2003, but it was never put into effect amid objections by the cattle industry over costs. An Agriculture Department study last year estimated the expense at between .5 million and .3 million, assuming it applied only to animals shipped between states.
That's a relatively small sum compared with the billion in revenue generated in 2009 by the cattle industry; an outbreak of mad cow disease, of course, would come with its own public health costs.
A plan was sent to the White House for review after the California mad-cow discovery that would limit tagging to animals for interstate transport. The ranching industry supports this proposal. But any program should include all cattle. The sick cow in California never left the state and might have been exempt from tagging under the latest plan.
—–Slipping Through
The U.S. needs a more efficient overall inspection regimen. Of the 35 million cattle slaughtered each year, only 40,000 — much less than 0.1 percent — are tested. This low rate raises the possibility that some diseased animals are slipping through. What are the odds that just one cow was infected with mad-cow disease?
The Obama administration in 2009 pushed for legislation to strengthen food safety, including more inspections of production and processing operations, and two years ago Congress passed the Food Safety Modernization Act.
The rules to carry out the law were supposed to be in place at the start of the year, but have bogged down at the White House, one that's perhaps consumed with election-year politics. The administration says it wants to get the rules right. And it's true, business shouldn't be overburdened with new regulations.
There is no good reason, though, for these basic steps to protect food safety to be put on hold until after Election Day.
Read more opinion online from Bloomberg View:
Today's highlights: the View editors on India's economic crossroads; A.A. Gill on London's shareholder revolt; Ezra Klein on Richard Lugar's concession speech; Noah Feldman on Israel's new coalition; Caroline Baum on the nature of U.S. unemployment; Reid Hastie on the failure of narrative thinking; Sam Sherraden on China's liberalization.
To contact the Bloomberg View editorial board: view@bloomberg.net.
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…..item 2)… buynaturalbeef.us … www.buynaturalbeef.us … Organic Natural Beef, Meat & Food
US Farm Using Chicken Poop (Manure) for Feeding The Cow and Cause Mad Cow
Posted on April 27, 2012 by admin
www.buynaturalbeef.us/2012/04/us-farm-using-chicken-poop-…
—–Mad Cow California: Stop Feeding Cows Chicken Manure
Cattle remains are still fed to chickens, for example, and the poultry litter (floor wastes that include the feces and spilled feed) is fed back to cows. In this way, prions — the infectious proteins that cause mad cow disease — may continue to be cycled back into cattle feed and complete the cow "cannibalism" circuit blamed for the spread of the disease.
—–Mad Cow California: Stop Weaning Calves on Cattle Blood
If you remember, Oprah swore she would never eat another burger again after hearing that cows were being fed the remains of other cattle. After she tried to remind the audience that cows were supposed to be herbivores.
Though some dairy farmers still wean calves on whole milk, the majority of producers use milk replacer, which too often contains spray-dried cattle blood as a cheap source of protein.
Prusiner won the Nobel Prize in Medicine for his discovery of prions, the infectious proteins that cause mad cow disease. He was quoted in the New York Times as calling the practice of feeding cattle blood to young calves "a really stupid idea," because it could complete the "cannibalistic" circuit blamed for the spread of the disease.
Since then, evidence that blood can be infectious has only grown, yet dairy calves in the United States are still drinking up to three cups of "red blood cell protein" concentrate every day.
—–What is Filthy Feed
Finding it hard to believe that cows eat chicken poop for breakfast? Confused about why our government allows such a risky and filthy product to be fed to animals used for food? Back in the 1960s, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) – the federal agency responsible for protecting the public health – banned the use of poultry litter as cattle feed.
In 1980, however, the FDA lifted the ban and decided to let state agricultural agencies regulate it instead. This decision was made decades before outbreaks of Mad Cow Disease started to occur and long before the health risks of feeding poultry litter were fully understood. Sadly for cows across the country, the states fared worse than the FDA in reigning in this risky business. After the FDA relinquished its authority, the states did not take up the task of monitoring and regulating the ill effects of litter feeding. Currently no one is keeping an eye on the practice, so no one is aware of the many problems it is causing.
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…..item 3)…. The Huffington Post .. www.huffingtonpost.com … The Internet Newspaper:
News Blog Video Community … HUFF POST … THE BLOG
Michael Greger, M.D.Director of Public Health and Animal Agriculture at The Humane Society of the United States
Mad Cow California: Stop Feeding Cows Chicken Manure
Posted: 04/26/2012 8:52 am
www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-greger-md/mad-cow-disease-…
More than a decade ago, the World Health Organization called for the exclusion of the riskiest bovine tissues — cattle brains, eyes, spinal cord and intestine — from the human food supply and from all animal feed to protect against the spread of mad cow disease. Unfortunately, the United States still allows the feeding of some of these potentially risky tissues to people, pigs, pets, poultry, and fish. Cattle remains are still fed to chickens, for example, and the poultry litter (floor wastes that include the feces and spilled feed) is fed back to cows. In this way, prions — the infectious proteins that cause mad cow disease — may continue to be cycled back into cattle feed and complete the cow "cannibalism" circuit blamed for the spread of the disease.
Because poultry litter can be as much as eight times cheaper than foodstuffs like alfalfa, the U.S. cattle industry may feed as much as a million pounds of poultry litter to cattle each year. A thousand chickens can make enough waste to feed a growing calf year-round. Although excrement from other species is fed to livestock in the United States, chicken droppings are considered more nutritious for cows than pig feces or cattle dung.
A single cow can eat as much as three tons of poultry waste a year, yet the manure does not seem to affect the taste of the subsequent milk or meat. Taste panels have found little difference in the tenderness, juiciness, and flavor of beef made from steers fed up to 50% poultry litter. Beef from animals fed bird droppings may in fact even be more juicy and tender. Cows are typically not given feed containing more than 80% poultry litter, though, since it’s not as palatable and may not fully meet protein and energy needs.
The industry realizes that the practice of feeding chicken feces to cattle might not stand up to public scrutiny. They understand that the custom carries "certain stigmas," "presents special consumer issues," and poses "potential public relations problems." They seem puzzled as to why the public so "readily accepts organically grown vegetables" grown with composted manure, while there is "apparent reluctance on the part of the public" to accept the feeding of chicken excrement to cattle. "We hope," says one industry executive, "common sense will prevail."
The editor of Beef magazine commented, "The public sees it as ‘manure.’ We can call it what we want and argue its safety, feed value, environmental attributes, etc., but outsiders still see it simply as ‘chicken manure.’ And, the most valid and convincing scientific argument isn’t going to counteract a gag reflex." The industry’s reaction, then, has been to silence the issue.
According to Beef, public relations experts within the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association warned beef producers that discussing the issue publicly would only "bring out more adverse publicity." When the Kansas Livestock Association dared to shine the spotlight on the issue by passing a resolution urging the discontinuation of the practice, irate producers in neighboring states threatened a boycott of Kansas feedyards.
Maybe this new case of mad cow disease will reinvigorate consumer campaigns to close the "no-brainer" loopholes in feed regulations that continue to allow the feeding of such filthy feed to farm animals.
See also, part 1: Mad Cow California: Stop Feeding Calves Cattle Blood
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…..item 4)…. ‘Shocking’ Cattle Prod Robbery in Tallahassee [SLIDE SHOW] … WCTV News …
www.wctv.tv/home …
Posted: Wed 10:29 AM, Jan 09, 2013 … Reporter: Leon County Sheriff’s Office, Julie Montanaro …
Updated: Wed 9:38 PM, Jan 09, 2013
www.wctv.tv/home/headlines/Cattleprod-Robbery-186169361.html
January 9, 2013 by Julie Montanaro
A Tallahassee man is accused of trying to rob a convenience store … with a cattle prod.
The clerk says he zapped her repeatedly, but she got the last word when she pulled out a gun.
It happened at the Food Mart near Chaires Cross Roads on January 2nd.
According to arrest papers, the clerk says a robber wearing camoflauge threatened her with a cattle prod and when she didn’t hand over the money, he jumped the counter and started to shock her with it.
"It’s usually a gun, I’ve heard of knives, but a cow poke? That’s strange," customer Charles Smith said.
"That’s a new one," said customer Randall Sessions.
"You said with a cattle prod?" Joe Godfrey said shaking his head.
"It’ll make ‘em bellow," Robert Jones said.
Jones raises cattle nearby. He doesn’t even like to use the prod on a 2000 pound cow.
"You don’t use it often. Only if you have to. Cows get kind of shook up when you start using it and it does hurt," Jones said.
"And when you hear that somebody used this on a person?"
"I would think that hurt pretty bad," Jones said.
Arrest papers say the clerk was shocked twice in the leg. She backed up, and while the robber struggled to open the register, she grabbed a gun. The robber jumped back over the counter and out the door.
His run from the law ended Tuesday. 26 year old Lance Tomberlin was arrested and charged with robbery, aggravated battery and more.
"Pretty nice that the lady or guy or whoever the clerk was had a weapon to defend themselves," customer Joe Godfrey said.
"I guess that’s kind of good that law abiding citixens that’s the good thing about them having a gun. You know, he’s just lucky he wasn’t shot," customer Randall Sessions said.
We have reached out to the clerk, but have not yet heard back from her.
LanceTomberlin remains jailed. Arrest papers say a friend of his told deputies the two of them had been driving around doing drugs all day the day of the robbery.
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img code photo … Lance Tomberlin
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Leon County Sheriff’s Office Release
At 9:06 p.m. on January 2, 2013, a white male entered the Food Mart located at 9512 Apalachee Parkway.
The man produced a cattle prod and demanded money from the clerk. The man then shocked the clerk with the cattle prod several times before the clerk produced a handgun and challenged the suspect. The suspect then attempted to flee the store but was met by another Food Mart employee who attempted to restrain him.
The suspect tried to strike the employee with the cattle prod and was able to flee the scene in a dark colored Dodge truck, but not before having one of the truck's tires deflated by a third person on the scene.
Responding deputies stopped the Dodge truck, but the suspect fled the scene on foot and could not be located. Deputies and detectives established Lance M. Tomberlin as a suspect in this case. Tomberlin was subsequently positively identified as the person responsible for this robbery.
On 8 January, 2013, Tomberlin was interviewed at the Leon County Sheriff's Office and taken to the Leon County Jail.
Tallahassee, FL January 9, 2013 by Julie Montanaro
A Tallahassee man is accused of robbing a convenience store clerk with a cattle prod.
25 year old Lance Tomberlin is under arrest for robbery and assault with a deadly weapon.
Deputies say Tomberlin zapped the clerk with the cattle prod several times.
Deputies say as Tomberlin struggled to open the cash register, however, the clerk retrieved a gun and pointed it at Tomberlin. He jumped the counter and ran.
The incident happened January 2nd at about 9pm. Deputies caught up with Tomberlin yesterday.
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German officers rounding up Kutno Jews, German-occupied Poland, 1939 … item 2.. Haftarah Lech Lecha: Flyin' Like Eagles — (9 cheshvan 5773 – october 25, 2012) …item 3.. Inner Strength – Each of us lives in two worlds — (2012 / 5773) …
Image by marsmet545
Isaiah 40:27-41:16: It's rough goings for Abram's tribe in this week's parsha. Desert wandering, famine, Abram's brush with death at the Pharaoh's palace, Lot falls captive to the allied armies of Chedorlaomer at the evil city of Sodom. Not exactly a sweet deal following world flood and the promise of a new, great nation.
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… message header for item 1)…. LIFE – History – LIFE.com
Here, on the anniversary of the official establishment of the Warsaw Ghetto in October 1940, LIFE.com presents a series of photos from Warsaw and from the town of Kutno, 75 miles west of the Polish capital, in 1939 and 1940.
Adding perspective to the images is an essay (below) by Justyna Majewska, discussing just what Jaeger's haunting images can still tell us about that era, three-quarters of a century after they were made.
— Ben Cosgrove
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……item 1)…. LIFE History … life.time.com/history …
The Brink of Oblivion: Inside Nazi-Occupied Poland, 1939-1940
Hugo Jaeger — Time & Life Pictures / Getty Images
Elderly Jewish man speaks with German officers rounding up Kutno Jews, German-occupied Poland, 1939
life.time.com/history/world-war-ii-color-photos-from-nazi…
In the late 1930s and early 1940s, a German photographer and ardent Nazi named Hugo Jaeger enjoyed unprecedented access to the Third Reich's upper echelon, traveling with Adolf Hitler to massive rallies and photographing him at intimate parties and in quieter, private moments. The photos made such an impression on the Führer that Hitler famously declared, upon first seeing Jaeger's work: "The future belongs to color photography."
But beyond merely chronicling Hitler's ceaseless travels, Jaeger also documented the brute machinery of the Reich, including the Nazi invasion of Poland in 1939. Here, on the anniversary of the official establishment of the Warsaw Ghetto in October 1940, LIFE.com presents a series of photos from Warsaw and from the town of Kutno, 75 miles west of the Polish capital, in 1939 and 1940. Adding perspective to the images is an essay (below) by Justyna Majewska, discussing just what Jaeger's haunting images can still tell us about that era, three-quarters of a century after they were made. — Ben Cosgrove
Why would Hugo Jaeger, a photographer dedicated to lionizing Adolf Hitler and the "triumphs" of the Third Reich, choose to immortalize conquered Jews in Warsaw and Kutno (a small town in central Poland) in such an uncharacteristic, intimate manner? Most German photographers working in the same era as Jaeger usually focused on the Wehrmacht; on Nazi leaders; and on the military victories the Reich was so routinely enjoying in the earliest days of the Second World War. Those pictures frequently document brutal acts of humiliation, even as they glorify German troops.
The photographs that Jaeger made in the German ghettos in occupied Poland, on the other hand, convey almost nothing of the triumphalism seen in so many of his other photographs. Here, in fact, there is virtually no German military presence at all. We see the devastation in the landscape of the German invasion of Poland, but very little of the "master race" itself.
It is, of course, impossible to fully recreate exactly what Jaeger had in mind, but from the reactions of the people portrayed in these images in Warsaw and Kutno, there appears to be surprising little hostility between the photographer and his subjects. Most of the people in these pictures, Poles and Jews, are smiling at the camera. They trust Jaeger, and are as curious about this man with a camera as he is about them. In this curiosity, there is no sense of hatred. The men, women and children on the other side of the lens and Jaeger look upon one another without the aggression and tension characteristic of the relationship between perpetrator and victim.
[Read the stranger-than-fiction story of how Time Inc. came to own Hugo Jaeger's archive, and see more of his photos.]
Strikingly, none of the people in these photos appear to have been forced to pose. In fact, Jaeger probably asked them for permission to take their pictures; maybe he and they had a short chat before he began photographing them. We can even go so far as to suggest that there is no sign of overt brutality here. To Jaeger (unlike for so many of the Reich's supporters), Jews were not mere "rats," or "parasites": He simply perceived them as fascinating subjects. While he probably felt that their subjugation was inevitable in the face of the German Blitzkrieg, he nevertheless captures these already subjugated people sympathetically.
We know, all these decades later, that these thousands of people were, in fact, prisoners, whether or not the ghettos that would follow had already been built. [NOTE: In a city the size of Warsaw the creation of the notorious ghetto was quote complicated, and took a few months to complete; in Kutno, the Jews were forced into their ghetto in one day.]
We know what it means that their homes had been destroyed. We know what the anti-Semitic regulations — like the yellow Star of David that Jews were forced to wear at all times in public — would ultimately come to symbolize. But Jaeger, photographing in 1939, shows these people as a community trying to rebuild against all odds.
Seeing these photographs today, seven decades later, we know the harsh, unspeakable truth. Within a very short time, the situation for Kutno's and Warsaw's native Jews became more and more difficult, and ultimately catastrophic. Poles and Jews were separated from one another. The Nazis created a Jewish council, the Judenrat, responsible for making Jews obey the Germans' diktats. The food supply dwindled horribly.
In June 1940, all of Kutno's roughly 8,000 Jews were forced into the ghetto — the grounds of an old sugar factory. Typhus and hunger soon began killing hundreds of them. In 1942, the Nazis implemented Operation Reinhardt, which effectively put in motion the Nazi's planned destruction of all Polish Jewry. In the spring of 1942 the Kutno Ghetto itself was "liquidated." Jews who were unable to escape and find help among their Polish neighbors were taken to Kulmhof (Chełmno), the first death camp, located on the River Ner not far from the city of Lodz. There, thousands of Kutno's Jewish men, women and children were put to death in "gas vans" — mobile gas chambers — in what were among the first mass murders of the Holocaust.
Operation Reinhardt also sealed the fate of the Jews of Warsaw. Liquidation of the massive Warsaw Ghetto started in July 1942 and took nearly three months. Horrifically overcrowded cattle trains carried 300,000 Jews to Treblinka death camp.
All these many years later, Jaeger's pictures from Warsaw and Kutno are still so hard to look at — and hard to turn away from. I presume that the beautiful young girl seen smiling directly, confidently, at the camera (slide #1 in this gallery) is Jewish: on the collar of her coat, we see what is evidently a folded, yellow Star of David. Neither she, nor Jaeger himself, could have truly, fully foreseen her fate: to die of typhus, or to starve to death, or to be forced into a gas chamber at Chelmno, only to emerge again in a haunting photograph long, long after she was dead.
Justyna Majewska works as a curator at the Holocaust Gallery in the Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw. She is also a Ph.D. candidate in the Polish Academy of Science's Institute of Philosophy and Sociology. Her dissertation focuses on social change in the Warsaw Ghetto.
Related Topics: 1940, Germany, Holocaust, Hugo Jaeger, Kutno, Poland, Third Reich, Warsaw Ghetto, World War II
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…..item 2)…. PunkTorah … punktorah.org …
Haftarah Lech Lecha: Flyin' Like Eagles
9 cheshvan 5773 – october 25, 2012 by punktorah
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punktorah.org/featured/haftarah-lech-lecha-flyin-like-eagles
Isaiah 40:27-41:16: It's rough goings for Abram's tribe in this week's parsha. Desert wandering, famine, Abram's brush with death at the Pharaoh's palace, Lot falls captive to the allied armies of Chedorlaomer at the evil city of Sodom. Not exactly a sweet deal following world flood and the promise of a new, great nation.
In the haftorah, Isaiah addresses Israel's complaint: "My way [of serving G‑d] has been ignored by the Lord, and from my G‑d, my judgment passes [unrewarded]." Isaiah reminds Israel of the Creator's greatness and promises "He will give the tired strength, and to him who has no strength, He will increase strength. Youths shall become tired and weary, and young men shall stumble, but those who put their hope in the Lord shall renew [their] vigor, they shall raise wings as eagles; they shall run and not weary, they shall walk and not tire."
The life metaphor here is nagging but utilitarian: sometimes we've just gotta wait for the payoff. Delayed gratification is never easy, particularly when we work slavishly for what seems like a frustratingly futuristic reward.
We work our way through school hoping to pave our way for a career; we put in long hours away from friends and family for what typically feels like little pay. We put up with bosses and clients we'd often rather not. We scrimp and save, think twice about superfluous purchases. We try to keep an eye on the future and hope that all our efforts will "pay off" in the future. Sometimes it feels like we do everything right and still can't catch a break. We are Israel, face up to the heavens, wondering why we go unrewarded.
Yeah, I'd feel like I just got the brush off if I got Isaiah's reply as well—a pat on the back and an 'attagirl' for all my hard work!? I could sit around and wait to fly like an eagle, but unless I crank up some Steve Miller Band to go with it, that probably won't make me feel better.
I think there's more than just the "have faith" consolation going on. When we don't get that long-awaited reward for our good behavior, maybe it's time to shake it up a bit. Feel stuck in a dead-end career? Your employer "reward" your years of faithful service by downsizing you? Just mired in some mid-life existential muck? Nobody said "sit and wait," did they? Isaiah just promises that one day, things will be better. He didn't say you wouldn't have to make that happen. Because along with all that free-will stuff comes a responsibility to ourselves to take the reins on our own pursuit of happiness.
Casey (Kefira) McCarty is a published author living in Ohio. She is the Assistant Director of the Columbus Idea Foundry, a community workshop space, and is an artisan who crafts jewelry, Judaica and fine art available online and in Central Ohio galleries and boutiques. You can find her online shop at www.sinemetudesigns.etsy.com
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…..item 3)…. aish.com … www.aish.com/tp/pak/fp
HOME … WEEKLY TORAH PORTION … PARENTS & KIDS … FAMILY PARSHA …
Inner Strength
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by Nesanel Yoel Safran
www.aish.com/tp/pak/fp/Inner-Strength.html#top
Chayei Sarah(Genesis 23:1-25:18)
Inner Strength
Being a strong person means more than being able to lift a heavy weight over your head. In this week’s Torah portion we learn about Abraham’s son, Isaac, the second of our forefathers. Our sages teach that Isaac’s most outstanding character trait was ‘gevura’ – self-control and inner strength to do what’s right even when it’s hard. We have all inherited this trait from him and by tapping into it can become strong where it really counts.
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STORY
In out story a group of kids get their ideas about strength turned over on its head.
"THE SIXTY-SIX POUND STRONGLING"
"I’ll take Robby."
Maybe they’d pick me next, thought Joel optimistically.
"I’ll pick Kenny."
Nope.
"I’ll take … Glen."
Joel Landers liked playing football with the guys in the neighborhood, but he hated standing in the line-up as they picked out teams. This was mainly because he was always picked last. (That is, unless you counted the time Kenny brought his five-year-old cousin along, and Joel suspected the only reason they didn’t pick that kid before him too was that he was wearing a cast.)
"I pick, um Fred, I guess.
Last again. Well, what could he expect? At 66 pounds, even with his coat on, and arms about as thick as spaghetti, he wasn’t exactly what you could call prime football material.
"C’mon Beanpole, you’re with us. But be careful, it’s pretty windy today and if you blow away it’s gonna be kind of tough to find you," joked Danny, the team captain putting one of his huge arms around Joel’s shoulder.
If only I were built like big, strong Danny or some of the other big guys in the neighborhood, I’d for sure get picked, Joel thought to himself.
The guys began to play and were having a good time. Then Danny punted the football, giving it a good kick, just as a big gust of wind came. The kids stared in wonder as the ball flew and flew … and then suddenly CRASH!! The ball sailed right through Mr. Edwards’ porch window, which was unfortunately closed at the time.
Everyone ran like crazy. Mr. Edwards always yelled at them just for playing near his house. Now that they had actually done some damage, who knew what he would do? Led by the fast-running Danny, they knew that once they jumped over the fence they’d be safely out of screaming range. Joel started running with them too – and then…
"Wow, huff, huff, that was a close one, huff huff," said Danny, out of breath as he looked the guys over. "At least we all got out of there in time… Hey, where’s Beanpole?"
"Hey, look back there!" said Kenny pointing back across the fence. "There he is, and he’s talking face-to-face with Mr. Edwards!"
Joel tried to stay calm as the red-faced man came ambling his way. Sure, he could have taken off with everyone else, but somehow it didn’t seem right. After all, they broke a window. Shouldn’t someone at least own up to it and offer to pay?
"We’re really sorry, Mr. Edwards," said Joel. "From now on we’ll stay only on the far end of the lot. Here’s five dollars now, and we’ll get the rest of that 50 dollars to you within a week, I promise."
Joel wiped the sweat off his forehead as Mr.Edwards walked back into his house MUCH calmer than when he had come out. He even gave them back the football. Joel turned to look for his friends and saw nine amazed faces staring at him through the chain-link fence.
The next day Joel was daydreaming as the guys lined up to pick teams. He knew he’d have quite a wait until they got to him. Suddenly he felt a poke on the shoulder. "Go ahead," said Kenny, looking his way.
"Huh?"
"Danny just picked you for his team. Go over to him."
Joel looked at the rest of the guys still lined up waiting to get picked. Was this some kind of joke? He turned to Danny, who was smiling at him brightly.
"That’s right Bean… um, Joel. I picked you first. After seeing what you did yesterday – standing face-to-face with Mr. Edwards when we all ran scared – I think it’s pretty clear to everyone that you’re the strongest one of us all."
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DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
— Ages 3-5
Q. How did Danny feel about Joel at first?
A. They felt that he was weak and that they were strong because they were bigger than he was.
Q. How did he feel about him in the end?
A. Danny saw how Joel was the only one brave enough to do the right thing by not running away and realized that Joel was really the strongest one of them, inside where it counts.
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— Ages 6-9
Q. What do you think the guys learned that day about strength and weakness?
A. They had assumed that what made a person strong was his physical size and strength. But when only Joel, the physically weakest among them, stayed to take responsibility after they broke the window, the kids saw that there is a type of inner strength to do what is right even when it’s tough, that has nothing to do with the size of one’s muscles.
Q. Which type of strength do you think is more important? Why?
A. To be strong and healthy is a good thing and taking good care of our bodies is even one of the mitzvah-guidelines of the Torah. But even more important is how healthy and strong we are inside-meaning our spiritual strength to remain true to our values no matter what situation we are in.
Spiritual exercise: Do one thing that is ethically right even though it’s hard today.
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— Ages 10 and Up
Q. Wise men teach that it is harder for a person to conquer their inner negative inclinations than to conquer a fortified city. How do you understand this?
A. Each of us lives in two worlds. Our ‘outer’ world in which we struggle to get and hold onto the things we want and need (metaphorically ‘conquering cities’), and our ‘inner’ world in which we struggle with whether we choose to focus on positive or negative thoughts, feelings and values. Although it might not be so apparent, it is how well we succeed in the struggles of our inner world which will most determine whether we live a happy and successful life. Because these struggles are more hidden yet more important, they often present an even greater challenge than the outer struggles of life.
Q. What can a person do to develop his inner strength?
A. Like any other type of strength we want to build-exercise. Each time we choose to stand up for our inner values despite temptations not to, we get stronger. Also, the stronger we connect ourselves to God and feel Him more in our lives the easier it will be tap into our inner strength to live our lives the way we feel He wants us to.
Spiritual exercise: Do one thing that is ethically right even though it’s hard today.
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