Far from the Home I Love

YouTube Link:  The Fiddler on the Roof: Far from the Home I Love

Tevye and his daughter Hodel are talking.

So you are leaving your home to join that hero of yours?
But why won't you tell me where he is now, this Joseph of yours?

It is far, Papa, terribly far.
He is in a settlement in Siberia.

Siberia? And he asks you to leave your father and mother to join him in that frozen wasteland?
And marry him there?

No, Papa, he did not ask me to go, I want to go.
I don't want him to be alone.
I want to help him in his work.

Praying Hands

If you grew up in a Catholic grade school, you might remember what it was like to attend daily Mass.

Franciscan nuns made certain we were kneeling in formation-like rows exhibiting the traditional praying-hands posture.  Hundreds of us posed in exactly the same way, pew by pew, must have been a little bit impressive.

When I was 8, I doubt that I spent any time at all considering what it meant to hold my hands in this position.  I'm sure that I was more concerned that fingers were straight, pointing upward, hands tightly together with the thumbs crossed in the proper direction.  The nuns were watching!