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Nov. 23, 2009
JWisdom.com: Actually, it really is all about you with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff
Nov. 20, 2009
Rabbi David Aaron: How to make every second of your life come first
Caroline B. Glick: Whither American Jewry
Nov. 19, 2009
Binyamin L. Jolkovsky: Please Listen to this Godcast (5 minutes)
Jonathan Tobin: ADL Crosses the Line with Report Bashing Obama Critics
Nov. 18, 2009
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: What Judaism has to say about the secret of the Mona Lisa's smile
JWisdom.com: The (Jewish) Dating Game with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff (8 minutes)
Nov. 17, 2009
Steven Emerson: How Does the 4th Amendment Impact Terror Finance Investigations?
JWisdom.com: If Frank Sinatra married Edith Piaf with Rabbi Y.Y. Rubinstein (2 minutes) Life lessons from what would be regarded as the most inappropriate lyrics ever sung
Nov. 16, 2009
The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir : When borrowing is stealing
JWisdom.com: Deconstructing faith with Rabbi Warren Goldstein (9 minutes)
Nov. 13, 2009
JWisdom.com Sarah's subjective reality with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 6 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick: Obama's failure, Netanyahu's opportunity
Nov. 12, 2009
The Kosher Gourmet By Marialisa Calta : A sweet sweet potato treat
JWisdom.com Does God get tired? with Rabbi Harvey Belovski ( 5 minutes)
Nov. 11, 2009
Rabbi Avi Shafran: Jews and money: When anti-Semitism isn't
JWisdom.com Marriages are not made in Heaven with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff (VERY fast 15 minutes)
Nov. 10, 2009
Michael Doyle: Author of book exposing CAIR ordered to remove supporting documents from Web
JWisdom.com If the creation so loudly shouts the existence of the Creator, why aren't more people believers? with Rabbi Naftali Brawer (9 minutes)
Nov. 9, 2009
Mark Steyn: Shooter exposes hole in U.S. terror strategy
JWisdom.com It's never too late to have a happy childhood with Sarah Chana Radcliffe (5 minutes)
Nov. 6, 2009
Rabbi Berel Wein: Choosing to hear
JWisdom.com Zero to 1/60th: How to Empower An Hour with Gavriel Aryeh Sande (7 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick The mullahs' big week
Suzanne Fields A Fallen Wall for Fallen Man
Nov. 5, 2009
The Kosher Gourmet: Three scrumptious -- but simple -- butternut squash dishes
JWisdom.com Hidden Hints: Unlocking Faith & Prayer with Rabbi Jay Yaacov Schwartz (10 minutes)
Nov. 4, 2009
Tom Hamburger and Kim Geiger: Should prayers be covered?
JWisdom.com When God played peacemaker With Rabbi Sroy Levitansky (5 minutes)
Nov. 3, 2009
Martin Peretz: Beware, Barack. Beware, Rahm. Beware, Axelrod
JWisdom.com Are you are closet idolater? With Sara Yoheved Rigler (10 minutes)
Nov. 2, 2009
Paul Greenberg: The Holocaust is now on Facebook
JWisdom.com Abraham's Strange Change With Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer (5 minutes)
Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review June 9, 2006 / 13 Sivan, 5766

DVD: It once meant drive, view, drive

By Lori Borgman

Lori Borgman
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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | You can hardly drive a mile of interstate or thoroughfare without seeing a portable DVD player dangling from the ceiling of a mini-van or strapped to the back of a passenger seat, little round faces basking in the flickering blue glow.
They didn't have portable DVD players when our children were young. I am loath to admit this, but when our children traveled in the car they actually had to, um, well, uh, well, they had to look out the windows.

There, I said it. No doubt this has adversely affected them and they will one day wind up in a therapist's office.

Therapist: I see from your patient information sheet that family travel is the issue that brings you here today. It says you were "Devoid of Disney."Is that right?

Grown child: Yes, that's correct. We traveled a lot when we were kids and we never watched "Beauty and the Beast,""Aladdin,""Lion King,""Lady and the Tramp,""Pocahontas"- any of the Disney classics - when we traveled.

Therapist: Am I to assume this travel was by covered wagon?

Grown child: No, it was by automobile. Early mini-van, before the DVD.

Therapist: So without a DVD player, what exactly did you children do in the car?

Grown child: Well, mostly we fought. You know - "she touched me, no, she touched me first. Don't look out my window. That's not your window, that's my window. He breathed on me. He has his finger in his nose" - that kind of thing.

Therapist: That must have been very painful.

Grown child: Only when you lost.

Therapist: What did your parents do when this fighting took place?

Grown child: Often they begged us to go to sleep. Once, when we were heading into St. Louis , they threatened to make us run laps around the arch. Most of the time Dad just kept driving, Mom would yell at us, and when she was completely fed up, she'd rustle around in a big old bag and pull out a great big -

Therapist: What? A great big paddle?

Grown child: No, a great big book called "Mind Joggers."We'd do mind games, mental math, break codes, do word puzzles, that kind of thing. Mom claims it's the reason we all scored well on the math part of the SAT.

Therapist: Any other activities?

Grown child: Sometimes we'd listen to music or sing songs. Mostly we were looking out the window."

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Therapist: Talk about "looking out the window."

Grown child: We saw a lot of fields, corn, wheat, soybeans, endless ribbons of interstate, the Smoky Mountains, sunsets, Mt. Rushmore, thunderstorms, lightning bolts, old battlefields, all the Washington D.C. monuments, the New York harbor, rolling hills, strip malls, the Kansas Flint Hills, historic Savannah, back roads of the Appalachians."

The therapist dabs at a tear in the corner of his eye and begins scribbling on a small pad.

"Writing a prescription for me?" the grown child asks. "Another appointment time?"

"This is my home number. Have your parents call next time they take a trip."

"You'd like to see how they operate for yourself?"

"No, I'd like to send my kids with them."

Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.

JWR contributor Lori Borgman is the author of , most recently, "Pass the Faith, Please" (Click HERE to purchase. Sales help fund JWR.) and I Was a Better Mother Before I Had Kids To comment, please click here. To visit her website click here.

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© 2006, Lori Borgman

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