Friday, April 25, 2008

re: TCM & autistic behavior

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0KWZ/is_6_3/ai_113301725

How to stick me in a little box (not my car)

Disclaimer: I don't need no steenkin' boxes. But sometimes people like to refer to them to help them understand things on terms with which they're already familiar, I suppose.

In the comments section of
this entry, Jewish Skeptic asked me if I'm a baal teshuvah.
I answered him then, but the question was one worthy of taking a quiz, imo.
So I took the one linked below, and my results are below that.
BUT
I had to look up what words meant in about 35% of the questions, so I'd shave some % points off of the right wing ones, 'cause if I were really right wing, I wouldn't have had to look anything up to take that quiz.

http://www.nerdtests.com/mq/take.php?id=200
Left Wing Modern Orthodox: 55%

Right Wing Modern Orthodox: 68%
Left Wing Yeshivish/Chareidi: 47%
Right Wing Yeshivish/Chareidi: 19%

Okay, today is 5/12/08, and I just took it again, this time without looking anything up. My new results:

Left Wing Modern Orthodox: 55%
Right Wing Modern Orthodox: 79%
Left Wing Yeshivish/Chareidi: 47%
Right Wing Yeshivish/Chareidi: 18%

The Orthodoxy Test
says that I'm Modern Orthodox

lol


The Orthodoxy  Test -- Make and Take a Fun Quiz @ NerdTests.com's User Tests!



What I've been learning: http://www.kolel.org/torahstory/module4/page1.html
I wound up at that page when I looked up pshat to take that quiz.
For people who don't know me: I went to yeshiva from preK to grade 2; grades 3-7 were at a prep school, and I had a Hebrew (studies, not language) tutor in grades 3 and 4, maybe grade 5, too (I always learned with my dad); in 7th grade - the end of high school, I went to my local public school (and lost most interest in orthodoxy after I was sent upstairs to sit with the women when I turned 12; add my mom being sick to that, and I didn't believe in much of anything). I went to New College at Hofstra (U.) for five years (got a degree, felt awkward at Hillel, but the rabbi was cool; I just wasn't used to community Judaism [I grew up in the woods of western Jersey and although there was a shul, my home life wasn't functional enough to get me anywhere but school on a regular basis]. Parents try their best. And they did.).

When I was in high school, a wise rav pointed out that my dad didn't own Judaism, and regardless of issues I had with him due to the double-life-leading that having only one observant parent can lead to, Judaism is for me to form a relationship with, if I wish. So I've just learned (pretty much independently and reading online) a little, since then.

Religion isn't logical, and it's very human. I'm willing to accept both of those ideas and keep what I think is good for myself and wrestle/agree to disagree with the parts I don't like. Religion is something I find to be deeply personal.

Yes, it can be rather communal, at times. I get shy, sometimes, too. I'm happy to be here, happy to be alive and evolving. Gratitude is a large foundation, for me.