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Feb. 14th, 2004 06:44 pmToday my favorite cousin became a Bar Mitzvah.
I know it's wrong to have favorites. I can't help it: John is so much like me, I see my younger self not only in his interests (mainly reading) but in the way he approaches life, with an appetite for new knowledge and a sincere compassion for everything.
John is a skilled pianist and squash player, he loves Shakespeare, he loves learning new languages. But I didn't know until today that he's also a great public speaker.
He's ridiculously short for his age (as we all are in my family), so it's hard to keep in mind how mature he might be. Picture this morning: this skinny little freckled kid steps up to the Torah, reads his portion flawlessly (and the translation more smoothly than I could have). And then he reads his prepared speech, about how the tenth commandment is the most important, because many instances of breaking all the others are caused by breaking the tenth... and I'm sitting there listening, and I'm not thinking about how cute he is, or how proud I am, or how well-structured his argument is (although it is); rather, I'm following his logic because he presents it in such a way that offers no distractions.
Johnny isn't a kid anymore, though he may still look like one -- he's a confident, generous, intellectual young man, and well on his way to being a mature adult. I am very, very proud of him.
I know it's wrong to have favorites. I can't help it: John is so much like me, I see my younger self not only in his interests (mainly reading) but in the way he approaches life, with an appetite for new knowledge and a sincere compassion for everything.
John is a skilled pianist and squash player, he loves Shakespeare, he loves learning new languages. But I didn't know until today that he's also a great public speaker.
He's ridiculously short for his age (as we all are in my family), so it's hard to keep in mind how mature he might be. Picture this morning: this skinny little freckled kid steps up to the Torah, reads his portion flawlessly (and the translation more smoothly than I could have). And then he reads his prepared speech, about how the tenth commandment is the most important, because many instances of breaking all the others are caused by breaking the tenth... and I'm sitting there listening, and I'm not thinking about how cute he is, or how proud I am, or how well-structured his argument is (although it is); rather, I'm following his logic because he presents it in such a way that offers no distractions.
Johnny isn't a kid anymore, though he may still look like one -- he's a confident, generous, intellectual young man, and well on his way to being a mature adult. I am very, very proud of him.
