We Tell Our Stories to Make the World Better

NY Congressional Representative Alexandria Ocasio Cortez caused an uproar recently by referring to the situation at the southern border of the United States as follows:

Elie Wiesel speaking at Yad Vashem in 2008

” The United States is running concentration camps on our southern border and that is exactly what they are – they are concentration camps – and if that doesn’t bother you...I want to talk to the people that are concerned enough with humanity to say that we should not — that ‘Never Again’ means something.”

As we know, this sparked a heated response, and then a heated response to the response.

Curiosity Can Save Us - a Message for Shavuot

There are many things I miss about when our children were younger, but one thing I don’t miss so much are parent teacher conferences.  Sometimes they were illuminating and sometimes they were frustrating.

Curiosity undimmed in the British TV series, "Call the Midwife"

I remember once Deanna and I went to speak with our son's English teacher.  I walked into the room and the teacher had his grade book out, and started telling us about how he averaged all the scores and came up with the final grade.

I listened and said thank you and then asked, Is our son interested in what’s going on in class?

I realized that what I said could be interpreted as a critique of the teacher which was not my intention at all, so I said, I’m really just trying to ask if he’s curious about what’s going on.  Does he seem to like the books you are reading?  Is he excited to write about them, to be be part of the discussions you’re having?

I want to take a few minutes this morning to talk about curiosity. It’s at the heart of this holiday of Shavuot and it’s at the heart of whether we succeed or fail as individuals, as a people, as a species.  Curiosity.