Crowing Roosters

Rabbi Shira of Beth Elohim, a young mother and director of the temple's religious school, told me that in Hebrew the word for heart is the same as the word for rooster, pointing out that like the roosters crowing the heart discerns changes in tone, celebrating the transition of dark to light.

Here in Brooklyn it's illegal to keep roosters because the crowing makes for poor relations between neighbors, but hearts are not illegal, and thanks to the blogosphere, we hear more and more hearts crowing without any restrictions. In Brooklyn so many blogs maintain vigilance for the sake of the public good, asking for nothing in return. There are actually very few blogs running here in Brooklyn that don't express tremendous passion for justice, truth and beauty in some way. Posts from blogs monitoring the Atlantic Yards project intend to defy those who use power to violate individual rights and promote inappropriate development, others blogger's watchful eyes search for dangers in the form of thoughtless construction practices and other threats to public safety, and so many blogs lament losing an authentic, organically arising community for one spawned from corporate earning strategies and superficial values. There are the blogs dedicated to all the damaging imbalances entrenched in our unsustainable lifestyles, and others that grieve historic and unnecessary tragedies like the Triangle factory fire and take on tyranny in all its forms. There are those blogs that seek to build and strengthen humanitarian values within the community and give voice to the disenfranchised. I've been going on and on and I know I haven't scraped the surface. In order to pay specific tribute I'd have to list almost every blog I know of.

There is a lot of lamentation. How could there not be? Lamentation is good for the heart. So many things haven't yet been given the long, hard lamentation befitting them.

Sometimes there's celebration.

I pay homage to all these roosters here and elsewhere. It's happening all over the world, just as it always has, but now multitudes can crow legally from these blog perches without requiring excessive money or power. I'm so happy that we live in days when so many with good hearts don't have to hide their wisdom and passion for fear of losing their lives. I'm so happy that I wake up every morning to their company.