Today’s column

June 19th, 2011

… is online here. The second question — the hair-pulling one — was originally much longer. I’m baffled by the LW’s family’s behavior: this will definitely go down as one of the odder questions I’ve received.


4 Responses to “Today’s column”

  1. Allstonian on June 20, 2011 10:00 am

    I’m certainly puzzled by the family-wide abuse of the LW’s hair – and person (trying to cut her hair WITH A KNIFE? Really???)

    When I had very long hair, I had my own share of odd encounters, often with complete strangers. Long braids, in particular, seem to trigger strange behavior. A man standing behind me in a cafeteria-style restaurant line once pulled on one of my braids, and then laughingly excused himself saying that he couldn’t help himself, pigtails just made him want to do that.

  2. Eeeeka on June 20, 2011 11:51 am

    That is one of the strangest things I’ve ever heard. I can’t imagine not telling them off, though I’m not terribly assertive myself.

  3. jane on June 20, 2011 9:04 pm

    Can you post the longer version of the letter here? I was tempted to comment about the fact that this woman was 50 years old and was still expecting her mother to stick up for her (weird) about something as juvenile as hair-pulling (weirder), but I thought that there must be some underlying dynamics that weren’t addressed in the letter. Now it’s just idle curiosity, I guess.

  4. Brooke on June 21, 2011 10:14 am

    Wow, that hair behavior is just sick.

    On the “openings and closings”: I didn’t know that! If anyone is interested, here is a bilingual version I found; the Hebrew is scanned and a bit hard to read, but manageable:
    http://www.torahzone.com/AsherYatzar.htm

    I’m planning to teach my next biblical Hebrew class the biblical words for urine, dung, genitals, etc. This prayer will give me a chance to raise the level on that, theologically. :^) Speaking on the Christological end, for me, “reflecting on the incarnation” mostly means imagining Jesus with a killer case of ringworm.

    Brooke

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