August (only just) 2011

ISAACS FAMILY NEWSLETTER – August (only just) 2011

Please excuse the lack of newsletters over the last year. Writer’s block.

Ari - Peaking through the key hole
After his discharge from the army last November due to a foot injury, Ari (23) waited three months for a CT and three more for an MRI, following which a frighteningly young-looking doctor used key hole surgery to extract all sorts of bits and pieces of bone and tissue that were wandering free as birds inside his foot.

Condemned to rest, Ari killed the first days by learning to program in Flash (a program for making things on the Internet move and speak – like all those annoying adverts). Bored of that he indulged in voracious reading (averaging 3 or 4 books a week) and of course computer games. And we’re not talking Angry Birds or Packman but strategic games in which you build, rule and conquer kingdoms. This may be good training for his future career, depending on whether or not he chooses to depose some Middle Eastern despot, which is quite the rage these days.

As they say in England, Ari will be “reading” Economics and Law at the Hebrew University starting in November. His foot still isn’t right, but hopefully there will be an improvements so that he will have time for at least some irresponsible, reckless, rash and foolish behavior – which is what discharged soldiers are supposed to do before starting Life (with a capital L).

Elon - The Purple Knight
Elon (21) is now half way through his army service. He has become a “magist”, which, for those who are not familiar, basically means he is the brawniest guy in his unit. Elon’s brigade, Givati, has a purple insignia, flag and beret, and the soldiers adopt purple as their favourite colour. So Elon’s wardrobe is full of purple shirts, shorts, kipot, and for his birthday, we bought him purple crocs, which after some initial hesitation, he now sports proudly. He might start a trend on base.

Elon has a week’s holiday now, and is off with Ari and a friend to Eilat. Used to making do with the basics, the boys refuse point blank to sleep in a hotel or even a youth hostel, and bed down in the car or on the beach. One thing I can proudly say of these boys – they’re not spoiled (and not through lack of their mother and grandmother’s efforts).

Naphtali – Driving himself down the wall
Naphtali (19) today starts his second year of yeshiva in Itamar. Naphtali has roped himself into snapling (I think in the UK they call it absailing). After weeks of planning he arrived home this week with all the equipment – ropes, shackles, buckles, harness and all. He explained to me at length the physics of all the various contraptions to convince me there was no risk whatsoever in suspending yourself in mid-air above a 15 meter sheer drop into an abyss. Next day, he “snappled” down a 5 meter wall, so he’s obviously got the hang of it. Generously Naphtali offered me a go on some future trip. I’m already planning my excuses as, to be honest, I’m chicken.

Orly - Sugar and spice and all things nice
Orly (16) has concluded, empirically, that I am to blame for all the things she doesn’t like about herself. This includes: her feet (too big), her ears (one sticks out), and her sense of direction (I can lose my way in a lift). On the other hand, all the good things about herself – her beauty, her sweetness, her brains – all come from Judy. I don’t necessarily disagree with her analysis, but there are some truths about yourself that you prefer not to hear, specially not from a 16 year old.

Orly continues to relish my advancing age. She has nicknamed me “Doldy” – which is derived, with some poetic license, from “Old Daddy”. I have been called a few things in my life – Big Ears, Blondie and Jock being a few of the more repeatable ones. If I thought I had grown too old for new nicknames, I guess there is truth to the old adage “children keep you young”.

Orly returned yesterday from a school trip to Poland where she learned about the Jewish communities and their annihilation by the Nazis. These trips spark a lot of discussion. What is their value? Should we “reward” the Polish by supporting the “holocaust tourism” industry? Is this how teenagers should spend their summer hols? For these reasons, together with the cost, many of the girls in Orly’s school did not join the trip. Elon and Naphtali also chose not to go. We tend to discuss these issues out in the open and I was pleased to receive support from Ari for Orly’s participation. He said that his trip to Poland was the main reason he chose to become an army officer.

Abigail and Elisheva – Abisheva and Eligail
Poor Abigail (9) and Elisheva (6) tend to get dealt with together, like a pair of twins denied their individuality. Why? Well they are the two youngest (by far), they are both girls, both in primary school. It’s horribly unjust though, because of all the possible combinations of two of the six children (five factorial minus one?) they are undoubtedly the two most different.

At least the girls have enjoyed their summer, thanks mainly to Judy. In addition to our compulsory family camping holiday in the north, Judy took them to the pool, the seaside, shopping malls, to friends, and also arranged an “Isaacs girls” trip to Eilat together with sisters-in-law and nieces.

Elisheva has a friend who lives round the corner called Noa who more or less moved in here for the summer, which was good because Abigail more or less moved out with sleepover parties, evenings at the pizza parlour, Bnei Akiva camps and meetings, “poykes” (don’t even try looking that one up in a dictionary) and generally hanging out with friends as nine-year olds do these days.

All this joy ends today as School - the great Spoiler - begins tomorrow. The misery of impending school is echoed even by the firmament with grey skies and rain falling as I type – unheard of weather in these parts for August. September 1st trauma, is a condition that should be defined in some child-rearing text book. One of its early indicators is that during July and August, when my six and nine year olds rouse from their slumber, my first question for them is “what time did you go to bed last night?”

So I’m going to sign off now and think of something really nice to do with the girls on their last day (Orly also starts school tomorrow) and wish you and your families all a successful school year.