Through the kindness of women...

Last week I was in Tel Aviv for a couple of days, and the rest of the week was such of a whirlwind that I didn't get the opportunity to properly thank two of the better known women in the J-Blogosphere for saying embarrassingly nice things about me.  Well, actually they said nice things about treppenwitz, but I'll take any compliments that come my way... even by proxy.

First Chayei Sarah, a good friend and very talented writer, posted her personal recommendations for the JIB (Jewish & Israeli Blog) Awards, and was kind enough to give my post 'Daddy Syndrome' the nod in the 'Best Post' category.

Then, based on Sarah's recommendation, another female powerhouse in the J-Blogosphere - Renegade Rebbetzin - devoted an entire post to making me blush.  I've been following RenReb almost since she began her site and love the way she walks that fine line between maintaining the 'midot' (positive character traits) one would expect from the wife of a community Rabbi... while venting both side-splitting humor and very lady-like rage at the sources of stress one encounters in this often-frustrating community role. 

If you aren't reading her you should be... if for no other reason than to gain a new-found appreciation and respect for the smiling, well-mannered diplomat/guiding force your community unknowingly gained when it hired its Rabbi.

As long as I'm already giving credit to women, why stop here when there are so many things in my life that can be directly attributed to the female influences in my life?

To mention just a few:

Shoes:  My two sisters are largely responsible for expanding my footwear repertoire beyond penny loafers and Topsiders. 

My little sister introduced me to the wonderful world of Camper Shoes.  This Spanish company's incredibly comfortable and versatile footwear are by turns reminiscent of bowling shoes and old-fashioned baseball shoes... but they are the closest thing we, the proletariat, will ever come to the rich, luxurious comfort of bespoke casual footwear.

My big sister introduced me to the sometimes-intimidating world of Doc Marten's.  While I don't go in for the more 'militant' styles of Doc's, my 'inner lesbian' has become a devotee of one particular design to the extent that I purchased not one, but two pairs before we moved to Israel!

Bath Sheets:  My lovely wife introduced me to the wonderful concept of a bath towel roughly the size of a racing spinnaker.  I'd grown up with good quality, no-nonsense cotton bath towels, but they were of the sort that were very thick and could barely be wrapped around one's waist (from hip to knee) once. 

Before our wedding Zahava and her mother (OB"M) went out and selected all the linens and bath accouterments for our new apartment.  Among this trousseau of mysterious dust ruffles, hand towels and sham pillows were these marvelous lightweight towels that were large enough to cover one's entire body from chin to shin several times around.  Apparently this is one of those things that girls learn about in 6th grade... and boys only discover (if they're lucky) after marriage.

Big Band Jazz: Although my father gave me a lifelong appreciation for classical music, I suspect that I would have gained at least some of this via studying classical trombone and my participation in youth symphony.  On the other hand, during the musical upheaval of the 60's and '70s, my mother managed to pass along her love and nostalgia for the 'Big Band' era. 

Again, one could easily imagine that my musical education and career might have exposed me to the swing music of the 30's and '40s. .. but I am pretty sure that my mother's enthusiasm and fond memories (from her very early childhood, mind you!) were responsible for my decision to play trombone and pursue a professional career in music.

Birds: My parents have always been big bird-watchers in a very general way, and have always gone to great lengths to attract a wide assortment of birds to their yard.  But it is my daughter Ariella who has really trained me to look around and take note of the incredible variety of avian wildlife that calls Israel home.  This past summer Ariella attended a 'bird camp' run by Israel's Society for the Protection of Nature.  I have never seen a child so revved-up over wildlife, and nearly every morning she calls me over to the glass doors leading out to our back yard in order to hand me the binoculars and breathlessly point out some new (to me) species of bird.  My ride to and from work has been immeasurably enriched by the knowledge she has given me of the feathered wildlife I pass.

Macintosh:  I'd bumped up against the early Apple computers, both in school and at home (my dad was an early adapter). But it was 'her designerness', my wife, who really opened my eyes to what complete and utter crap the Windows operating system was/is.  My little sister and her husband were/are also great fans of the products coming out of Cupertino, and through these influences I have arrived at the conclusion that the smartest thing I can do is to use my balky desktop Windows XP machine for target practice and migrate all my day-to-day computing over to my sexy wide-screened Mac Powerbook.  I'm still on the fence as to whether to stick with OS X or embrace Linux... but I will no longer be rewarding Bill Gates & Co. for inflicting cumbersome, vulnerable, crash-prone software on an unsuspecting world.

I'm sure there are countless other things in my life for which I have the double-X chromosome crowd to thank... but I'll stop here for now.  Maybe I'll have to come up with a post about some of the masculine influences in my life.  Naaah... who wants to read about 'pull my finger' jokes and a genetic reluctance to ask directions?  :-)

Happy Sunday !

Now go vote in the JIBs (here and here)!  You can vote once every 3 days!