A d shetagi’a l’mekomo. Last night I got to do that to sit in the place of another which means that now I’m entitled to judge.
My daughter graduated high school which is very meaningful because it’s one car pool less. (Not an end to tuition though because it turns out that school tuition is child’s play next to the cost of seminary. And that in turn is nothing — from what I’m told — compared to what follows. And when it comes to support you don’t get to negotiate with a committee either. Tuition is just a trial run for real life.)
The graduation ceremony was very nice. I think.
It’s a mainstream chareidi Bais Yaakov a fine institution with policies that reflect a commitment to halachah and the spirit of Yiddishkeit.
Like a relatively new rule about fathers being kind of invited kind of uninvited to the graduation. I distinctly remember my father going to my sisters’ graduations but maybe there’s some new evidence that that generation didn’t know about. All I know is that on the printed invitation a start time was announced and then in a smaller font fathers were informed as to when they were expected.
My wife left on time and asked me to get the little children ready and bring them with me whenever it would be. Her tone indicated that it wouldn’t make that much of a difference.
I arrived at the suggested time but one of the valedictorians was still speaking so the fathers stood outside and made awkward conversation and felt demeaned.
There I said it.
It’s a weird thing to be the outsiders the second-class citizens.
I tried giving a little pep talk to the other men. I told them that we are the true kings of the Jewish home that we are the center of the family and we can’t come specifically because we’re so lofty. I told them that it’s a matter of perspective that the secular world could never appreciate the true glory and majesty of the Orthodox father standing on the sidewalk outside his daughter’s graduation.
