To return to the introduction for Shoshanot, please click here.

 

 

The World Famous Rat Hole #5

 

==Tareisia K. Simmons narrates==

 

Dear all,

I actually am in better touch with my siblings than I am with my parents. I am not in touch with all of my siblings, just the two oldest younger sisters, Olivianna and Vivianetta who live in Kingsville, Texas with my mother, Julietta. I am not sure why this has happened. Maybe a social worker or teacher makes the two older girls write. I feel oddly duty bound or honor bound or bound somehow to write them back. I tell them what I am doing, what songs I am learning, what I am reading, anything I've learned to cook. I'm thirteen, in eighth grade, and take French so I lead a busy life. Being in Praise Choir makes it even busier.

My sisters have busy lives of their own. Olivianna is trying to work for her middle school's newspaper. Vivianetta loves arts and crafts and wants to be an artist some day. I don't have the heart to tell her that most artists starve. Lots of other people will tell her that anyway.

When it comes to choices with my siblings, I made two of them. One was not to be a mother to Jasmine, my youngest sister. The other was not to listen to my siblings when my Aunt Ruth beat me with a stick in Syracuse and go to the authorities anyway. Those weren't good decisions for keeping siblings together but they were good decisions for me. They were quick and unhappy choices as Naama Roth might call them.

Tareisia K. Simmons

Rose Among Thorns #2

411 Hillview Place

Ithaca, New York 14850

Point Two-Five

 

 

"PRAISE THE LORD!" I shout from the computer room in a voice loud enough to make Sherman who is studying in the dining room/main room/study hall ask me to shut the (twenty-five cents worth and it starts with F) up.

"What's that all about?" asks rawLay-Lay[/raw]. "Sirius gate!" I scream. "They're still alive and they found land. They're gonig to try to land the Gate! Praise the Lord!"

"Amen!" Sherman answers.

"It's not a miracle until they touch down. Won't the atmosphere burn up the ship?" asks rawLay-Lay[/raw].

"I don't know. They said it was possible to try to land so they must have way they can do it," I answer.

"I think we need to call the Liturgy Committee," answers Sherman. "Go fetch Stephanie, Naomi, Tamima, and Lindsay."

"Lindsay's in Sibley," I remember.

"Fine cell phone her. Read her that letter from the Telegraph list you're on."

I go back in the computer room and place the call. "Wonderful news!" cries Lindsay. "I guess all those weeks of praying paid off."

"All we prayed was His will be done," I remind her.

"Well it worked anyway. His will may be postiive. I guess now that there's really hope we need to pray for a safe landing."

I watch as the liturgy committee deliberates. Naama who is over at Mann is not here tonight. She is steward and so leaves the religious part of running the hosue to others.

"We need to start praying now and not wait until Friday," says Tamima.

"They could all be dead by Friday," muses Sherman. Yeah he reminds me of vermin.

"People are studying all over though," answers Stephanie.

"Not a problem," comments Sherman. "We hold an all night vigil and a day time vigil as well. We hold it even though it is Passover. We take turns as we need study breaks. We hae candles going and we say prayers as we can. We can keep it going in relays."

"That's a big undertaking," comments Tamima.

"Twenty some lives are at stake and now they have a fighting chance. I think the crew of the good ship Serious Gate deserves all the support we can give them."

It goes to consensus rather than a vote and the vigil starts. I've got to go read Psalms. That is one of the ways you can pray. It is kind of like a shot out. You dedicate the Psalm to the good folks on the Sirius Gate. Yes, I know the correct spelling but Sherman doesn't care or maybe isn't sure. Still his heart is really in the right place.

Maybe they'll make it. Maybe God's will really is positive.

Tareisia K. Simmons

Rose Among Thorns #2

411 Hillview Place

Ithaca, New York 14850

Point Two-Five

 

==Isabella McGlaughlin==

 

Dear all,

Last night everyone here was cooking. Mostly it was baking, trays and trays of cookies to take to Washington. Even the tutors came out and helped in the kitchen. Taresisia couldn't work in the kitchen because she had to rehearse with Praise Choir. Unity is frustrated because they don't sound right yet.

This dedication down in Washington is much bigger than it ought to be, and I don't care if Marguerite is going. Marguerite is Marguerite Weinstein, the founder of Rose Among Thorns. Her title is Malcha ha Shoshanot which means Queen of the Roses. It's pretty but I've seen her and she doesn't look the part. Well maybe beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

My part in this dedication is paper decorations, that I am making and boxing up. I have some of the younger kids who don't sing helping me. It is fun to teach them how to cut and fold paper so it forms long and intricate chains.

Now I am at school though which brings up another ritual. At lunch I get a pass to go to the nurse and get my second dose of Ritalin. I've been on Ritalin since I was ten. Without it, I don't concentrate well. I have ADHD. I was born that way, but I want to be a good student and live as normal a life as possible.

When I started middle school, I was a walking disaster. I wasn't even much good to myself. The nurse recommended a full workup and the psychiatrist prescribed Ritalin. My parents had a big fight over this. No one wants to "medicate their child." This is really dumb since if someone prescribes medicine for an adult, they take it. My father said I should start the pills and see what happens. The pills worked. They give me insomnia but I can study and my grades improved and I had something resembling a normal life.

This made my mother angry. She felt my dad took the easy way out, medicating me, but then she ran off when I was twelve. Well two years later, dad remarried. You can guess what the stepmother wanted me to do: "Isabella, don't you want to get off those pills. They're not good for you." She suggested that if I ate a better diet, I might cure my ADHD. I said "NO!" I said I wanted to eat what the other kids ate and taking pills was easier than following a diet. She said the pills would have adverse effects on my health later in life. I told her I'd get those treated when I came to it. I wantd the pills. They worked and they were easier. I even told this to the doctors to which stemamma dragged me.

Still, getting meds at school is humiliation. A line of lost souls forms at the nurse' office. Why we can't have our own pills in our purses and lockers is beyond me, but school has rules. A lot of the kids getting pills are also special ed/learning disabled. I'm behind where I should be, but I go to regular classes. I feel so out of place waiting for my pills. I also know who in normal classes gets antidepressants and antianxiolytics. You'd be surprised, but these kids hate the line. We kids who need medication are told in no uncertain circumstances that we are second class citizens. I'll be glad when I go to college and can carry my own medication and take it when I please and no one will ask my any questions.

Isabella McGlaughlin

Ithaca High School

1616 N. Cayuga St.

Ithaca, New York 14850

Point Two-Five

 

==Naama Roth==

 

Dear all,

I am about to go out and take my spot on the bus to Washington, DC. This will be the first time I see Alise since she was drafted. I guess that is what is most important. Rose Among Thorns #2 wouldn't have happened without Alise, and now #12 has happened due to her. She says she has no gift to preach and lead. I would like to tell her that it is a gift she has had to earn and she deserves it.

It appears that just about every Rose Among Thorns house and even some houses that are "in the pipeline" are either sending representatives or more commonlybus and vanloads of members to bring food, decorations, song, and celebration. They are also bringing discension. I've heard bits and pieces from Caufeld who is riding down to DC with the Syracuse continguent. For those of you who havne't followed the story, Syracuse is Rose Among Thorns #1, the mother house if you will. Marguerite Weinstein, Malcha ha Shoshanot, is our founder and leader. Without the Malcha there would be no Rose Among Thorns.

Marguerite Weinstein has been all over House #11 in a way she was never all over this house or for that matter any of the others. House #11 is different. It is based in Waltham, Massachussetts and most of its members have strong ties to Brandeis University. Brandeis is one of the few Jewish universities in the United States. House #11's members voted to buy a Torah scroll. The problem is one can read the Torah from books (chumashim for those of you who like Hebrew even though it is all too often used as jargon) that cost $25 a piece rather than an unwieldy scroll that costs thousands of dollars, and yes you need five such scrolls to have the complete set.

Marguerite considers buying a Torah scroll a waste of scarce resources. Ilana, the leader of #11, has stood her ground saying that houses have autonomy. If they have to raise their own funds, they also can decide what to do with them. Marguerite has answered back that Rose Among Thorns is not the neighborhood synagogue though for many of us it functions that way. She says if we try to compete with established synagogues we won't survive. Those cater mainly to the well to do and settled and Rose Among Thorns serves all people. At present the rift is unresolved. Marguerite can't defund a house. She doesn't fund them in the first place. I suppose she could ask them not to use the Rose Among Thorns name, but if they refuse, she's stuck with a trip to court and legal bills. She has to decide how badly she wants to fight.

And yes, I think Marguerite is right. We have services without scrolls here in Ithaca and we are both one of the more conservative and Jewish flavor houses. On the other hand #11 is a great resource for Jewish style houses and for Jewish members. We spend a lot of money keeping the bus and the two vans roadworthy.

Yes, the buses and vans make me think of Vijaya. I miss her. I know she is stuck/trapped out west. I hope the substitute driver arrived and that her van is driveable. I hope you are keeping safe Vijaya. I miss you even though you have been gone nearly six months. I am glad to see you on the Telegraph.

Loaded on the bus with us are six big boxes of hamantashchen cookies, three sided cookies filled with jam of various flavors, and two boxes of paper decorations that will unfold to become chains and lanterns. These are Isabella's creation.

Well, I need to get on the bus. You'll hear more from the rest of the crew after we hit DC. I hear the computers and the internet in the Community Center is up and working.

Naama Roth

Head Steward

Rose Among Thorns #2

411 Hillview Place

Ithaca, New York 14850

Point Two-Five

 

==Tareisia K. Simmons==

 

First, I'm sorry no one wrote yesterday about the house dedication down in Washington, DC. Yes, for those of you on the Telegraph who don't know, Washington, DC is the capital of not just the District of Columbia which is sort of not a state and sort of a state but also the capital of the entire United States. Yes, that is pretty impressive isn't it?

We arrived at 7:30am and walked in to Oak Gardens Plaza. All ready the bus lot behind a local public school was nearly full with buses and vans. These weren't all Rose Among Thorns. I recognized some of them as media vans. Others came from area churches and a few from nearby universities and colleges.

Our first event of the morning was the Megillah reading. This was after all Purim which celebrates the story of the Book of Esther in the Bible. In that story, Haman, an evil advisor to King Ashverosh (also known as Xerxes), plots to destroy all Jews and pay a hefty sum in to the Persian treasury. Meanwhile, the king has taken a new and beautiful wife, Esther, but Ashverosh doesn't know Esther is Jewish. Well, Mordecai, Esther's uncle and some people say her real husband begs Esther to plead for her people and she goes before the king who raises his golden scepter and permits her to come in to his inner courts unbidden. She asks to throw a wine feast for the king, herself, and Haman and she asked him to come back a second day and at the feast she pleads for her life and her people's lives. By now Haman realizes he will soon be out of favor in court and perhaps dead. Such is the politics of the palace, so he throws himself on Esther's couch and on Esther and the king sees this. Everyone thinks Haman is trying to rape the queen. She probably yells and screams to heighten the effect and as a result Haman gets either hanged or impaled (sources vary on this one) and the Jews are saved. They reverse the evil decree and write one of their own (Yes Jews can be evil too) entitling them to take revenge on all who would harm them. As a result, Purim is a feast of gladness and a rather cool holiday written around a pretty good story. Hearing the story read is a big part of the holiday.

You are supposed to hear the story of Esther, the Meghilla, read twice, and we'd all ready heard it Saturday night, but on Sunday morning we gathered again in the Community Center surrounded by the great tryptic on the walls telling the story of Jael, another Biblical heroine who dispatched King Sisera with just one nail. The leader for our reading this time was Ilana, the head of Rose Among Thorns #11 out of Waltham, Massachusetts. She stood in a yarmulke (skullcap), tallis (striped prayer shawl, and striped bell bottom pants.

"Oy," groaned Mendel. "The only thing she's missing is teffilim."

"Reading's going to be in English," explained Sherman who is able in matters liturgical.

Mendel rolled his eyes. "That...it's so confused."

BaBa stood with lowered head pretending not to see the woman in pants and what is strictly male prayer garb. "We need readers!" called out Ilana. Just then Marguerite Weinstein appeared in the back of the room. Ilana and Marguerite are on the outs these days. "What the....." Marguerite could not contain herself. "You're the one who wants to buy a Torah Scroll and then four more...and yet you're not even dressed right. If you're going to respect tradition."

"I'm not Orthodox and this is not Chabad," answered Ilana.

"No, but Conservative and Reformed."

"You forgot Reconstructionist," Ilana cut in. "And they are every bit as much Jews as the Orthodox. They treat women better. They don't enforce Medieval dress and they don't make us sit apart from husbands or boyfriends. You want more. They also at least put part of their services in the vernacular to make them more approachable. They are willing to discuss difficult parts of the Bible as difficult and not gloss them over with so much hype. They also are willing to accept modern science, social science, education, archaeology, and the fact that the Bible might be pieced together from multiple sources instead of just stopping up their ears. We have as much right to the tradition as any Orthodox. It's our tradition too. It's our faith and our culture too. And it does not have to be watered down ulness you let it be that way and do I look watered down to you..."

"You look confused," Mendel told Ilana.

"Do I really. How? You don't like my clothes. You don't like that I'm wearing a prayer shawl or that I cover my head with a hat? Why don't you say you disapprove rather than insulting me?"

"If every one does Judaism their own way..."

"Everyone does Judaism their own way," Ilana answered. "Learn some tolerance and with it cvility."

"I guess we may as well get started," sighed Marguerite.

"Marguerite," said Ilana. "I'm sorry about the pain our house has caused you, but it's not what you think."

Marguerite said nothing. "We have sponsors for the scroll and they'll sponsor other events as well. We've interested local families and foundations and the Clergy Association. We've needed to network."

"And what about Roxbury?" asked Marguerite.

"We'll get there. The Board of Hebrew Philanthropy has several agencies down there which deploy our members as volunteers. We work together and we can teach other houses how to work together. Our movement doesn't survive without raising funds. Look behind you, Marguerite."

Seveal couples in nice wool coats and expensive ski parkas had entered the Community Center looking for places to sit on the cold folding chairs. "Marguerite Weinstein, may I introduce you to the Shapiros and Cardozos of Back Bay. They helped us secure funding for our scroll of Shmos [Exodus].

"And Ilana's house provides the best tutors for our high school success program. They also help with home maker services for the elderly," explained Mrs. Shapiro.

"The only thing we can't seem to get is recreation and cultural events," sighed Ilana.

"Don't sell yourself too short," purred Mrs. Shapiro.

Marguerite shook her head and then she shook hands with the donors and smiled. A few minutes later the Mgillah reading began amidst cheers for Esther and Mordecai and boos, hisses, and wizzing of noise makers for Haman.

Later that morning there was a hamantaschen tasting contest where the judges were Luchi-Xara's three littles, Pandora, Zoie, and Kaya. Littles are an extremely BIG novelty down in DC.

Before lunch the choirs got to perform. We performed one song together and then Washington had a solo set. Then we performed another song together and then Ardsley had its solo set and then we had our solo set ending with One of Our Submarines is Missing. This is a very sad song because now it makes me think of Sirius Gate. Actually, if I were John Chung, I would have sentenced the mutineers to die by starvation and thirst. If you kill people you lose access to resources better people need to live. Then again, we're the kind of people who can happily wear "It just takes one nail" t-shirts with a picture of Jael on them, holding her hammer and nail and about to do King Sisera in while he slept.

They were selling the t-shirts at a big table and I bought one for fifteen dollars. The t-shirts and the licensing of Cheyenne and Miriam's design of Jael and her nail [It's pronounced Yale and her nail.] are making enough money to help keep House #12 self supporting. House #11 may have won the fat cats' hearts but #12 is doing it on their own. I'm not sure what this all means.

In the afternoon there was a trick basketball exhibition, line dancing by the line dancers from Syracuse (Rose Among Thorns #1), a martial arts demonstration by (Rose Among Thorns #5) the Albany house, and then the step show began. Frternities and sororities from surrounding colleges had come by to do their thing, probably to recruit among the volunteers though it takes months of hard work to go "On line" which is the word these kinds of fraternities use for pleding. Black fraternities are not like the white ones like Rock Ledge which is where Sherman and Caufeld are members, but Black fraternities step. That means they dance and chant and this is very impressive because they try to outdo each other's steps.

We had Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority and Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity, and the brothers of Q Si Phieee and the Kappas with their canes (They always have canes when they step), and Delta Sigma Theta all in red, and Zeta Phi Beta all in blue. It was really quite a show.

I almost wasn't hungry for dinner which was scrambled eggs and peppers which a big kitchen crew served all the performers. And yes we had the media there and they filmed the choirs who sung out of doors and the steppers and the martial artists and line dancers and basketball players, and the little kids dressed in costume for Purim and the Greek brothers and sisters in costume, and Unity streaming with sweat from conducting and Ilana in her tallis. They even talked to Marguerite. We are known to the whole world now. This is the start of something very big.

Tareisia K. Simmons

Boynton Middle School

1610 N. Cayuga St.

Ithaca, New York 14850

Point Two-Five

 

==Tareisia K. Simmons==

 

"I don't get it," I told Aunt Naama as we worked together in the kitchen tonight. "Three days I've been thinking about it and I still don't get it."

"What don't you get?" asked Naama.

"Ilana and Marguerite on Sunday," I answered. "Ilana is all t'd off at Marguerite for not letting her spend money and Marguerite is angry at Ilana for wasting money which really isn't wasting it but it is spending it in a way that Marguerite disaproves, and then Ilana mentions all these fat cat donors, and Marguerite forgives her."

"Ilana knows how to raise money," Aunt Naama reminded me.

"Duh..." I groaned, "but it's like she bought praise. I mean Marguerite has to realize that...well, she never praises you."

"That is because Colin and Kayla angeled a lot of this house. Technically they used their own money so we are not tightly tied to Independent Rainbow but it was easy to find one big deep pocket. I'm an Independent Rainbow scholar who will go back to being an Independent Rainbow employee at some point in the future." Naama sighed.

"Well, then it's just the same!" I shouted.

Mendel raised his eyebrows as did BaBa.

"You can't run without funds and donors," BaBa counseled me.

"Yeah, but money is power... I mean it doesn't come with no strings attached."

"The terms are pretty loose," Naama tried to reassure me.

"Yeah but if you piss off Independent Rainbow or if Ilana pisses off her fat cats, then they can just say...It's not worth twenty-five cents but it starts with F and ends with You and cut off the fumds. They could throw us out in the street."

"Most of us are students here. Most members of Rose are students," Aunt Naama seemed unfazed. "We don't bring in enough money working to support the houses without angels."

"They're not angels," I growled. "What would you do if they screwed you over? I'm sorry. I know that's twenty-five cents."

"It's on me," answered Naama. "If what you say comes to pass, we will have to manage?"

"How?"

"I'd quit school if I was not done with it all ready. I'd give as much of my salary as I could to support the movement and I'd urge others to do the same. We'd pool our rent and rent a house. We'd sell furniture, computers, anything. The movement is in here," Naama pointed to her heart.

I wanted to laugh in her face or maybe spit in it.

"You asked and I told you," answered Naama. "The alternative would be to give up and close down and I won't do that."

"It won't happen," answered Mendel.

"How the..." I stopped myself from cursing "do you know?"

"Because Marguerite is Moshiacha."

"All the Christians say that bout Jesus."

"Jesus wasn't it," commented Naama.

"Then why is Marguerite it?"

"She comes from the right family and she is genetically male. I know the story. She's like Dinah in the Book of Boraiches [Genesis -- Boraiches is the Hebrew word for that book.]. She qualifies."

"I'll believe it when I see it," I answered.

"You want a miracle?" asked Aunt Naama.

"Yeah...."

"Look at House #12. They are nearly self supporting and they should never have been yet in six months, Alise has a house, and probably the most financially healthy house in all of Rose Among Thorns land. Is that enough?"

"It's not enough. It just proves Cheyenne and Miriam were good artists."

"And who gives artists their gift?" asked Mendel.

"They work hard," I answered.

Then I added: "You know, sooner or later we're all going to get screwed but good."

"Why do you say that?" asked BaBa

"Because I know about fat cats. Remember the Mossmans who threw that party for all the Hunter girls last June...Well they're fat cats. They're different. They like to watch poor guys beat on each other and they have no shame. I saw the boxing room. All these pictures of boxers and boxing on the video screen and Mr. Mossman saying 'oh yeah I boxed in college or high school.' What would he do if he had to really live close to those boxers and follow them home instead of just seeing them in the ring? What if they were his neighbors? What if his daughter went to school with their kids? He wouldn't like them. He'd want to kill them and he'd find an excuse. He'd do it and get a fancy lawyer to plead self defense. He'd buy his way out. Those are the people paying for Rose Among Thorns. We're in deep excrement."

Tareisia K. Simmons

Rose Among Thorns #2

411 Hillview Place

Ithaca, New York 14850

Point Two-Five

 

 

==Naama Roth==

 

What's wrong with this picture? It is 4pm. I come back from class and the library to start dinner. Isabella McGlaughlin is not on kitchen crew but Kelli is these days if she doesn't have too much to study. She is holding her own, but it's an uphill battle. Sometimes she makes herself useless so kitchen work is good for her.

Anyway, we are cutting up vegetables for curried string bean and vegetable salad when she turns to me and says:

"Aunt Naama, can I ask you to do me a favor? If I do this myself, it will just piss Isabella off."

I thought "uh oh.." "What is it?" I asked.

"Well....Isabella she needs to shower or wash her sheets or something. She's stinking up our bedroom."

I rolled my eyes. I asked Kelli to sit tight for a few days. Sometimes stinkiness in young girls is hormonal. I said I'd ask Isabella to do her laundry. Then I put down my knife and checked the workshop. There was no Isabella. I checked the tutorie. There was no Isabella. I got on the cell phone and called Tareisia who had gone up to the Cornell campus to study in the library. There was no Isabella.

Finally, I checked Kelli and Isabella's bedroom. The room indeed stank of adolescent sweatiness. I could also hear Isabella snoring as she lay in a sweaty ball beneath a tangle of covers and sopping sheets. Isabella groaned. She rolled over. She opened her eyes and stared bleerily at me.

"Have you been skipping your meds?" I finally asked. Isabella's ADHD medication gives her insomnia so to be finding her napping in a sweaty bed was to say the least a bit weird.

"No," she sighed. "I think I've got a bug."

It turned out that Isabella had a sore throat. I gave her the thermometer to suck and she had a fever of 100 F.

"Can you get infected armpits from sweating a lot?" she asked.

I said I did not know. I did know that Isabella needed a trip to the Urgent Care clinic down on Buffalo Street. I got the rest of the salad bunked and asked Tamara to watch the kitchen while I walked a tired Isabella down the hill. She really didn't look herself, poor girl.

Well, the doctor examined her at the Urgent Care and then he took a blood test and marked it stat. No, Isabella does not have a strep throat. She has something called mononucleosis or mono for short. Her white blood cells are infected and she is likely to be dragging her sick self around Rose Among Thorns for weeks. The weird thing baout mono is that most people are immune because we've had silent cases of it. No one knows who is immune and who is not. Usually the probiotics help against bacteria but mono is viral. There's a good chance I'm naturally immune. I'm not sure why this house is always prey to epidemics in the spring time. I'm glad I just took my last prelim. The math department has a four week prelim cycle though. I just hope and pray that what Isabella has doesn't spread all over the house. Mono is the last thing we need.

Naama Roth

Head Steward

Rose Among Thorns #2

411 Hillview Place

Ithaca, New York 14850

Point Two-Five

 

==Naama Roth==

 

Last night while cooking dinner I got a phone call. A girl named Kira down at House #10 which is Ardsley, New York (One of three houses with a choir) called me in the office and wanted to know how to make farfelle. "Farfelle is like any other pasta," I told her. She asked how to make any other kind of pasta. I asked where the house cook was. She answered: "She's sick. She's got mono."

I said I had a sick teenager who did go to school today. If her temperature is below 99F at eight in the morning, out she goes dosed up with naproxen to keep the fever masked enough for her to stay abreast of her lessons. Mono lasts at least a couple of weeks and Isabella can't afford to lose the time in class. Were she a college student, there would be no question of her NOT missing classes. "The girl has mono too," I went on.

"Well four of us have it right now. I don't, but there's an epidemic of it at the high school. It's left us real short staffed."

I gave poor Kira my commiseration. Then when she hung up I called Syracuse, Washington DC, Waltham and a few other houses. It turns out that a handful of kids and adults sick with mono have been popping up across Rose Among Thorns land. I warned Alise who has high blood pressure though not bad high blood pressure. I'm not sure if having had a kidney infection last fall could make her get really sick. I'm not thinking about me. I hope and pray I had the silent infection with this as a kid so am immune as an adult. The last thing I need is to be sick.

I weigh in today and I think I am close to a hundred pounds! I've been menstruating regularly for the last two months and probably will in March and April as well. You have to have a certain percentage of body fat to have the hormonal cycle that makes a period. Stress or weight loss shuts down menstruation. On the other hand menstruation wreaks havoc with my anemia. I get iron injections weekly these days. I'm NOT the person to get mono.

Naama Roth

Head Steward

Rose Among Thorns #2

411 Hillview Place

Point Two-Five

Ithaca, New York 14850

 

==Tareisia K. Simmons==

Dear all,

It's crocus season. Crocuses and also snowdrops and glory of the snow are the first flowers of spring after a very long winter in northern New York State and yes, I know Syracuse, Utica, Rochester, and Buffalo are north of Ithaca. Binghamton is south of Ithaca, and Ithaca lies in a dry snow shadow, but they are all still north of New York City.

Naomi met all of us who were well enough after school to go see the crocuses. It is spring break at Cornell which means the bolsters and blankets are in our dining room/santuary so that students can loll around and do their reading assignments. They can also study at tables during the day. There is a fused kitchen crew. Leonie is staying in the guest suite because...she has mono.

Lindsay in Praise Choir got the mono too, and both Athena's kids have it. If kids are not babies, it goes easier for them than it does for grown ups, college students, or even teenagers. Anyway, I've had a scratchy throat. I figured it was just a bug since I didn't feel all that bad, but by the time I got done with a walk to the Cornell campus to look at the gardens on the Ag Quad and behind the Big Red Barn to see the crocuses and other first flowers, I was beat, much more beat than I usually do.

I really wasn't up to working in the kitche so I said I had to study. I fell asleep over my books in the tutorie. Naomi who had kitchen duty came to get me for dinner and found me. Naama said I looked peekid.

You know what the next step is.

No, some of you don't because you have old fashioned ways of dealing with sickness. Here, we measure things and that is what we rely on. This means if a kid or adult has a fever, very few of us can really tell by touching heads. Some of the older people can do this, but none of the adults here can. Instead, we wash off the oral thermometers (which measure body temperature) and you have to hold one under your tongue for four minutes to get a reading. I stood against the wall with the thing in my mouth, knowing that the number that came back would tell Aunt Naama and Naomi whether I was among the afflicted. The numbers are in every one's brain. 98.6F (Farenheit scale. There are two scales for measuring temperature in the United States) is NORMAL. Anything above that is a low grade or high grade fever. I pulled out the thermometer and wiped it on a napkin. I turned the spittly thing in the bright light. 101.6F was the reading. No wonder I had passed out in the tutorie. My throat wasn't sore, but my neck was stiff and I felt sore about the groin which meant swollen glands.

Needless to say, I am one of the afflicted. I've got the mono. That means no kitchen or tutorie duties. If my temperature is below 99F in the morning I can go to school, but my life is studying, eating, and sleeping until I start having a string of normal temperatures.

For those of you who are interested we not only break but mask fevers. Masking a fever means taking something that is long asking so the fever doesn't rise. We have pills for breaking and masking fevers calld antipyretics. They include aspirin (salicylate once made from willow bark, but now in a lab), tylenol (for those allergic to aspirin), ibuprophen (stronger stuff), ketoprophin (brand name Orudis, real strong stuff), and the strongest one of all, naproxen.

I took two naproxen as soon as I rolled out of bed this morning and then got back in bed and waited for them to kick. Since naproxen last twelve h ours per dose, if the fever is down it will stay down all day. My fever was 99.3F even with naproxen. Guess where I am. I feel a bit like a prisoner. Staying home from school is great, but you miss so much of what is going on out there. I am also going to be bored out of my skull. Mono really expletive deleteds. Does any one else out there have mono this spring? I am very glad that Aunt Naama does not have mono. It is the last thing she needs since her health is not good.

Tareisia K. Simmons

Rose Among Thorns #2

411 Hillview Place

Ithaca, New York 14850

 

==Naama Roth==

 

Dear all,

 

I have washed Isabella and LayLay's sheets for the third time this week. I'm in the kitchen every night. I study in the mornings and after lunch they let me out for walks in the hills. The forsythia have started to bloom. The crocuses are up. I tell myself to be grateful that there is not as much sickness in my house as there is down in Ardsley. I've walked them through meals twice.

I feel like I've lost touch with the rest of Rose Among Thorns land as well as a lot of other people on the Telegraph whom I'd never thought I'd miss. Last night Tareisia and Sherman (I'm not even going to mention Vermin) discussed whether it was time to give the crew of the Serious Gate Ship up for dead. They decided that since they were still eating reprocessed excrement and had oxygen and water and the heat was on, they were all still alive. They had just "gone anti-social." Going anti-social is no reason to stop praying. This one is never going to make it in front of the liturgy committee.

Vijaya and Alise, how are you doing? I've heard nothing from you. Alise, have you managed to get in to Building #17 yet, and Vijaya, how is the new driver working out? Inquiring minds want to know.

Naama G. Roth

Head Steward

Rose Among Thorns #2

411 Hillview Place

Ithaca, New York 14850

Poin Two-Five

 

==Mendel Menacheme Schneerson-Roth==

 

Dear Alise,

If I answer you about the closing of a general education and religious high school with a cliche you will call me on it as you say, but I'm going to say it anyway: "Those were different times, when Chaia Moushka and I escaped to Berlin and from there to Paris." Yes, we were running away. I'll say that now and I couldn't run away because Ha'Shem had a mission for me. He found me in Paris. I got a good break. I could have gone elsewhere.

Do all students need a general education or is it too much distraction of the wrong kind? I've never had to make up my mind. For years, the consensus within our community is that young men should study Torah and Talmud and we give them that opportunity as soon as they are able. General education is problematic. I'm not sure you understand. I know that my mother, Naama, surely does not. You are both products of secular schools and very successful products. I also know your intellectual travels brought you to religion. I know this happens with balae tsuvim, but what does it do to frum boys and girls? The girls need to be teachers so general education is fine for them, but the boys have other opportunities.

If Chabad Lubavitch is to survive, it needs schluchim. Schluchim are rabbis and more besides. Being a schliach is not easy and if a young man has other choices that secular society holds in higher esteem and that offer a workplace with community, we'll experience attrition in our males. That is the real reason for not emphasizing secular education. That it can also be a distraction from Torah especially in the humanities is another matter. I'd say that is so for frum from birth Lubavitcher boys. For girls who start out secular I'd guess it can often lead them back to God. Different populations are different.

Bais Belzel in Brooklyn was not as awful a failure as I feared it would be. We produced excellent schluchim, but we also produced your Dov who insisted on learning social work rather than rabbinical studies. Now, perhaps if I were still alive and in charge, I could bring a Dov Orenstein back in to the community. It would not hurt for us to have our own trained secular teachers and social workers, not to mention doctors or lawyers. This would hardly be a loss except that it might ultimately cut in to the number of schluchim. That is where it would be a delicate matter. I can understand why Dov resents closing down the school. I'm sure he has a very different point of view.

Mendel Menachem Schneerson-Roth

Rose Among Thorns #2

411 Hillview Place

ithaca, New York 14850

Point Two-Five

 

== Leonie Berne Zweig ==

 

Dear Alise,

Since you mentioned Dov coming to Washington, DC and his being an expert on surviving being drafted, does he have any words of success or advice for me. In six weeks, I'll be sucked in to the National Service system. I am noncombat option which is a big relief. Of course I could still get in an accident and wind up like poor Clay, but the odds are much lower. I know Naama is trying to get me a good National Service job by helping me create a resume, but I am still going to spend two years of my life (except for short breaks) away from my family and friends. It's not fair, but when something is not not fair for every one, it is fair again which I know sounds incredibly weird. That, though, is how it is. I am trying to keep my mind on tutoring, finals, and the semester winding down. There are no new mono cases at Rose Among Thorns and even Ardsley does not call the kitchen any more or if they do, Naama does not complain about it. Please, I can use all the help I can get.

Leonie Lay-Lay Berne Zweig

Freshperson Humanities Tutor

Rm 10402 High Rise #5

Cornell University

Ithaca, New York 14853

Point Two-Five

 

 

==Tareisia Kakira Simmons==

 

I looked at the letters on the screen as the letters formed words and the words had meaning. Deja Moran. Sirius Gate! They were still alive! God has heard our prayers! I printed off the letter and blasted out in to the kitchen. Aunt Naama was still up at school sitting on the front porch of Willard Straight Hall manning the recruiting table. Stephanie was away at Ithaca College. My own school does not start until September 5. We kids are doing most of the work while the adults recruit and go to class. I had to wait until Tamima and Tamara got home along with Naama. She checked to see if I had grated carrots for salad. I showed her the carrots and then saw her the letter.

"God answered our prayers!" I cried out.

"No He didn't," said Tamima.

I blinked. "Don't you think out of twenty-two people, at least one of them wasn't praying every day?"

"It's a pretty anti-religious world," commented Naama.

"Just one person," Tamima insisted.

"Look," said Sherman. "God answered your prayers and the prayers of the people on Sirius Gate if they were praying because he is giving them a chance at life. They haven't landed those lifeboats yet."

"We have to keep praying," I said. "I'm glad we switched from 'His will be done' last spring."

"Well we got overcome by events," Sherman quipped.

"I'm glad I never stopped reading the Telegraph," I added.

"We'll keep praying," Aunt Naama replied.

 

Tareisia K. Simmons

Rose Among Thorns #2

411 Hillview Place

Ithaca, New York 14850