Friday, May 29, 2009

Awesome Kid

Monkeyboy's in a youth choir, for kids from 2nd thru 7th grade.

It's called Kol NoVa, combining the ancient Hebrew word for "voice" with the ancient Hebrew word for "Northern Virginia".

The kids come from across the Jewish spectrum: Some are in Jewish day school, some come from a moderately observant Conservative background, and some are Reform.

The kids give up a chunk of what would otherwise be a free Sunday afternoon, most weekends in the school year.

They sing four or five times annually. At choral concerts, holiday events, and, twice each year, at the monthly Friday night service at Greenspring Village, a retirement community I've mentioned here before.

Here's a picture of Kol NoVa at Greenspring, one Friday night, earlier this month.


He's handling recent events in stride, and without missing a beat.
He bears the same smile today that you see above. (Second from the right.)
I'm trying to learn from his example. But there's an 8th grade bully I'd gladly strangle.
MiDC thinks that's nuts. He's satisfied that the wonderful school administrator dealing with all this, Mr. D., has his back and is working to make sure Evil Apu is treated appropriately. I guess a lot depends on whether the miscreant's parents react with pride or mortification. RFB is sure E.A. learned this behavior at home. I'm hopeful that's not true.
More on that, as developments warrant.

2 comments:

Tara said...

I'm all for choir concerts, I hope your son keeps up the singing for as long as he enjoys it!

And wow, what patience he has for keeping cool in spite of the nasty bully! Does there have to be one in every school? Is that supposed to have taught us restraint? Ugh.

CBLeon said...

I'm not surprised by MiDC's smile. He's one of the most level-headed, mature young men I know (not to mention polite and considerate as well).

Having just explained in an email that Kol NoVa's "NoVaShir" concert today like this: "NoVa = Northern Virginia, not lox," I wish I'd known that it's also ancient Hebrew...