I know these lines from the baseball movie “Bull Durham” because I had a son who played in the minor leagues, who had a fine character that greatly exceeded his accomplishments on the field. But in my life it mostly applies to my wife who, when our chi…
I know these lines from the baseball movie “Bull Durham” because I had a son who played in the minor leagues, who had a fine character that greatly exceeded his accomplishments on the field. But in my life it mostly applies to my wife who, when our children were in elementary school, contracted bacterial meningitis and was left a quadrilateral amputee - both legs above the knee and all ten fingers to the first joint. And yet, she refused to be deterred. She appeared every year in our sons classes to teach about disability and difference. She was always the team mom. She was a teacher, a homemaker, a disciplinarian. And because of that our sons had happy childhoods and grew into kind and successful adults. She had, and has, an indomitable spirit, refusing to be defeated by her circumstances. Every Friday I read her Psalm 31 and the verse that always strikes me is, “Her children rise and praise her, her husband and he lauds her”. And yet, when she dies...who will know that greatness is in her grave?
The liturgy for the sabbath evening meal not only honors, in individual sections, everyone present at the table - mothers, fathers, children as well as God - but properly understood teaches both the reader and the listener what qualities in others and in ourselves are honorable and to be striven for. It’s actually brilliant in that way. Proverbs 31 not only honors my wife but teaches me what is honorable in her.
“Full many a flow’r is born to blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert air.”
I know these lines from the baseball movie “Bull Durham” because I had a son who played in the minor leagues, who had a fine character that greatly exceeded his accomplishments on the field. But in my life it mostly applies to my wife who, when our children were in elementary school, contracted bacterial meningitis and was left a quadrilateral amputee - both legs above the knee and all ten fingers to the first joint. And yet, she refused to be deterred. She appeared every year in our sons classes to teach about disability and difference. She was always the team mom. She was a teacher, a homemaker, a disciplinarian. And because of that our sons had happy childhoods and grew into kind and successful adults. She had, and has, an indomitable spirit, refusing to be defeated by her circumstances. Every Friday I read her Psalm 31 and the verse that always strikes me is, “Her children rise and praise her, her husband and he lauds her”. And yet, when she dies...who will know that greatness is in her grave?
The Woman of Valor (Prov. 31, no?) -- is it not only the woman, but the man who also recognizes and acknowledges what he sees?
The liturgy for the sabbath evening meal not only honors, in individual sections, everyone present at the table - mothers, fathers, children as well as God - but properly understood teaches both the reader and the listener what qualities in others and in ourselves are honorable and to be striven for. It’s actually brilliant in that way. Proverbs 31 not only honors my wife but teaches me what is honorable in her.
That’s beautiful and loving. Thank you!
Sounds like she's blessed with a damn good husband, too.
Gary, thank you for a comment that is a real contribution, in the spirit of what Douglas intended by sharing this poem.
Gary, thank you for sharing! How very inspiring!