Noticing

Disclaimer: this post  has nothing to do with teaching. I had a very interesting moment this morning. Went into the deli across the street which is run by Arabic-speaking people. They had a radio tuned to an Arabic-language station, as they often do, and there was a news broadcast. I couldn't understand it, of course, but for three words: Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and jihad. 

In front of me were two women making purchases. One was telling the other about how she'd just had another baby, how it was 5 months old but only 7 lbs 5 oz (to give you some perspective, my child was 15 lbs at 5 months) and the father is in jail. 

All judgment aside, all political or social opinions aside, this is why it's so interesting to live here: you can't escape the world and its pressing issues, writ large, writ small. It's all around you; it's your neighbors and the people you  do business with. 

I don't intend at all to start a discussion about single motherhood, overcrowding in jails, or the Israel-Palestine conflict, which, sadly, has flared up again. Just, as we say in education, noticing.