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3 Comments

Beware - Wet Cement!

By Chana Weisberg

Topics: Parenting; Parenthood, Childhood; Children

Have you ever tried to write something on a sidewalk when the cement was still soft? It's almost effortless. Even the smallest marking leaves an enduring ... More

Have you ever tried to write something on a sidewalk when the cement was still soft?

It's almost effortless. Even the smallest marking leaves an enduring impression.

The same is true with our children...

	By Chana Weisberg More articles... \|
	Chana Weisberg is a writer, editor and lecturer. She authored several books, including her latest, Tending the Garden: The Unique Gifts of the Jewish Woman. She has served as the dean of several women’s educational institutes, and lectures internationally on issues relating to women, faith, relationships and the Jewish soul.

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Reader Comments
Latest Comments:

Posted: Feb 5, 2010

Wet Cement

Excellent analogy, Chana. Two nights ago we went to see the revival of "South Pacific" (Lincoln Center) where one song says the same thing...

You've got to be taught
To hate and fear,
You've got to be taught
From year to year,
It's got to be drummed
In your dear little ear
You've got to be carefully taught.

You've got to be taught to be afraid
Of people whose eyes are oddly made,
And people whose skin is a diff'rent shade,
You've got to be carefully taught.

You've got to be taught before it's too late,
Before you are six or seven or eight,
To hate all the people your relatives hate,
You've got to be carefully taugh

***********************
Chana's wet cement says the same thing in a more general sense. Thank you, Chana.

Posted By Harold Braunstein, Brooklyn, NY
via chabadmanhattanbeach.com

Posted: Feb 4, 2010

clay in our hands

This is beautiful. I am finding so many of these articles and commentaries to be so wonderful. The metaphor is so true and it's one I will repeat as a therapist and to others. I work with clay and do ceramics. Yes, when the clay is soft, the imprint is so easy to make, and surely with children, we must be careful, because we have such power, and we need to think carefully what we say, how we say it, and always to do it with love. I know we do not forget and that children are so especially sensitive to what' said, how it is said, and it does impact them, deeply. We need each other. We knead each other.

Posted By ruth housman, marshfield hills, ma

Posted: Feb 4, 2010

You are absolutely right.
Well said, excellently thought out

Posted By Esther Dukesz