Questions of religion

I've been catching up on Tamara Eden's blog and came across this comment discussion in an April post.
Please read it.
Part of Tamara's post:
How is it that a person like me can be raised in a home where I felt so Jewish, and yet, knew almost nothing about Judaism?

How is it that a person like me can go to six years of Hebrew school and not know which prayers to say when?

How is it that a person like me, who loved Hebrew school, was always
beyond proud to be Jewish, never learned the importance of prayer until
I was an adult?

How is it that a person like me, even though nobody told me, knew that
certain things should and shouldn't be?

What follows her post is a conversation with tikkunger a non-Jew undergoing a conversion. The conversation is a very intelligent one about reform/Orthodox/Chabbad Judaism.
As I've just joined a Reform synagogue, it is a topic dear to my heart. I've commented on reform Judaism before and it is not my goal to repeat those comments here (although I did have to re-read my post and see what I said. Fortunately, I still agree with most of it).

The post did get me to think about these questions that Tamara posted. They are good ones, and ones I can't answer.
I suppose part of the problem is very few people can answer them. Tamara relates a lot of this knowledge gap to her Reform upbringing. I can sympathize with that view: my upbringing was similar. Growing up Reform, I got a very good grounding in history and ethics, and I knew the Reform service structure quite well, but I was in for a shock when I spent a year at an orthodox synagogue. Most of the prayers we learned were just the first few lines of the full prayers. Many prayers were skipped altogether, and others just weren't repeated quite the same number of times.
With the Orthodox community, I also celebrated holidays I had never celebrated before. It wasn't entirely because my synagogue didn't have a service for the given holiday, it was just that it wasn't part of my family to observe it. I stayed up late for Shavuout (the commemoration of Israelites receiving the Torah at Sinai) and ate cheese cake. The Seder lasted until 1 am. I had long Shabbat meals and ate cholent (a slow-cooked bean/meat/veggie concoction).
These moments were fabulous and deeply meaningful. Just because I didn't do them as a Reform growing up, however, doesn't mean I can't do them as an adult Reform Jew. Part of what being a Reform Jew is is learning what is meaningful to you and important to the tradition and adopting it into your life. Do I wish I learned more? Of course, but I don't plan on stopping my learning anytime soon.
I obviously don't know how I'd be different if I had a different upbringing. But although my background didn't teach me all I needed to know (whose does), it taught me to seek and value learning. And for that, I'm grateful.

China Part II: The International Winds Workshop

I wanted to talk about the meeting a little bit, because I think it is interesting from a scientific and cultural point of view. I hope you'll indulge me a bit.
First, I have to give a bit of background. Satellite images are something you're probably familiar with. Every tv weather forecaster stands in front of an animation of clouds flying over your region. Those images were created from very smart people figuring out how to distinguish clouds from clear sky given what a satellite measures: emitted and scattered energy. It's not a trivial task.
Once you have those clouds isolated, you can trace how they move over time. If you assume that they move at the speed of the wind, you can actually map out what the winds look like in the upper atmosphere. These winds are extremely valuable for weather forecasters, particularly over the oceans.
Those winds are roughly what the meeting is about. It was a meeting of satellite wind producers from around the world, and users of the satellite winds: namely computer weather modeling centers. What's pretty cool about it to me is that all of these great minds are gathering together to work on some very specific issues. International politics is forgotten in favor of problem solving and collaboration. The meeting is pretty low key and involves lots of socializing and eating together as well.
China was a great venue, as they are really up-and-coming in terms of satellites and meteorology. In a few years they will be among the best in the world. Combining this meeting with a chance to see Beijing as a tourist was an exciting experience. It's something I'm not likely to forget soon.

China Part I: the touristy bit

I was fortunate to to attend the 8th International Winds Workshop in Beijing, China at the end of April. Both professionally, and personally it was really a fabulous trip. I was there for 9 days, but because the meeting only lasted 4 and a half, I had some time to explore a bit.
I arrived there exhausted from jet lag and a bit shaky from a bumpy landing into Beijing. For future travelers, don't eat that last meal an hour and a half before landing. You'll thank me once you're on the ground.

We were picked up by a Chinese colleague who is working for my office at Wisconsin. He was kind enough to help us get checked into the hotel and then take us out to dinner.
The meals in China generally involved having entirely too much food arrive at the table at a steady rate. Just as you thought you'd tried everything, three more dishes would arrive. As we almost always ate in large groups, we were fortunate to have a lazy-Susan in the center so the dishes would rotate around while you were trying to grab that slippery mushroom with your chopsticks. Most of the dishes were not too exotic, but I definitely tried spices and flavors that I wasn't too familiar with. I'd say that was the primary difference between food in China and Chinese food in the US: the food in China was much more varied. The fish was often served whole. The meat was generally in separate dishes from the vegetables. The Peking duck we had was exquisite.
The service in general was also exceptional, although I think it was mostly because we were kinda pricey places. The hotel had someone greeting you at the lobby elevator pointing you to the lobby. Our conference room had two people running microphones to audience members if they had questions. When we went to a hot pot restaurant, where you cooked your meat and vegetables in a hot broth, servers stood above us and put food from the hot pot onto our plates (although I think that was mostly because we were foreigners).

The entire city is under construction for the Olympics in 2008, so many sites were covered in scaffolding and cranes were everywhere, including the tourist sides. The Forbidden City had several buildings that we couldn't see because of the repairs. The same was true for the Summer Palace. However, we could walk around the beautiful lake and gardens of the Summer Palace and see most of the enormous Forbidden City.

The Forbidden City was the giant complex of the Ming and Qing dynasties. Some 10,000 people lived there, and the size and scope of the place reflected it. The Summer Palace was where the Emperor escaped from the summer heat of Beijing. Given the dust and haze of Beijing in April, I can appreciate needing to escape in the heat of the summer.

No trip to China could be complete without a trip to the Great Wall. We saw it at Badaling, a city about 70 kilometers from the center of Beijing. The Great Wall has only been restored at parts, and this particular region is one of the best maintained and restored. The crowds reflected it: the wall was crawling with people. I think that was the only time I felt really overwhelmed in China: at Badaling. It was strange to be in a sea of people and not understand a single word of what was being said.

Beijing is definitely a city undergoing change. Western influence is obvious with the increasing number of English signs and western businesses. It's also obvious with the huge number of cars. As you could imagine, in a city built around the bicycle, the infrastructure is just not set up for automobiles. The roads were crawling, even on a Saturday afternoon. It is something that would take getting used to.
American culture still creeps into China in strange ways. We went into a bar one night, covered in Corona signs, where a band was playing western-style rock music in Chinese. Before the act started, however, the waiters led a lively version of "If you're happy and you know it" including claps, arm waves, and feet stamping. Surreal.

In the next post, I'll talk a bit about the meeting itself. If you're interested in pictures, send me your email and I'll send you a link.

New post on China

I'll have a summary of my Beijing trip up as soon as I can get it written.
Stay tuned!!!