Kehilla Across the Generations

The early 20th Century American humorist, Frank "Kin" Hubbard, said about vacation: "If some people didn't tell you, you'd never know they'd been away on a vacation."

My vacation this month took another tack: If some people didn't tell me, I'd never know I had been away on a vacation. That's because my weeks were filled with activities that were very much like my work: nearly constant connection with people, a retreat, and a spiritually moving bar mitzvah experience in a most surprising place.

My two-week vacation revolved around a reunion of my husband's closely-knit Greek family, (picture a Sephardic "My Big Fat Greek Wedding"), on the occasion of the bar mitzvah of his nephew, Kevan. Kevan lives in Hawaii, and knew that few family members could go there this summer, especially his 98-year old grandfather and 90-something grandmother. Because Kevan is an amazing kid, (now picture a young man making a "hang loose" sign), he chose to have his bar mitzvah at Martin's Run Senior Living Community, in Broomall, PA, where his grandparents reside.

A bar mitzvah at a senior living community. It meant that weeks before the actual date, residents at Martins Run who I met during visits or out in the community told me about how excited they were for the weekend. "We're having a bar mitzvah!" they beamed, becoming the extended family for the event. For an entire weekend, the Elias family and the Martin's Run residents were a mashup, from sharing a communal Shabbat kiddush lunch, to Sunday swimming around the residents doing water exercises, and Elias grandchildren shooting pool and playing video games on the TV next to the residents' bridge group table.

Shabbat morning, though, crossed more than the generations in the facility; it linked the world-wide Jewish community across time. The Torah scroll from which Kevan read was Torah Number 586, a 130-year old scroll rescued from the Czech Republic town of Lipnik nad Becvou. Purchased and re-kashered by the Martin's Run Community, it was rededicated in April 2012.

The last bar mitzvah boy to read from Torah Number 586 was Irik Schreiber - in 1941 before the 100 Jews in the town were sent to concentration camps by the Nazis. Now in 2013, another boy, a surfer kid whose back yard is the Pacific Ocean and summer camp was in Japan, became bar mitzvah using the scroll.

I had a moment when I wondered what the Jews of Lipnik nad Becvou would think about the American community where their Torah came back to life. That morning, the rabbi and gabbai were women. The family of the bar mitzvah boy lives in Israel, the U.S., and Canada, and spans a spectrum of Jewish affiliation from ultra-Orthodox to Reform. The bar mitzvah boy's mom is not Jewish, and the next bar mitzvah boy in the family is being raised by two dads, one of whom is a convert to Judaism. I know that the residents of Martins Run, whose life perspectives were shaped by the fate of Jews in communities like Lipnik nad Becvou, were proud to be able to make the voice of a bar mitzvah boy be heard again on their behalf.

My next vacation will come in late October, after United Synagogue's Centennial Celebration. In that venue, hundreds of voices representing the diversity of Conservative Jewish experience will come together. Until then, I'm satisfied that even though I can't say I went away on vacation this summer, finding kehilla across the generations was much more memorable.

Learning Communities and Action Communities

More than 1,000 people belong to a community that they probably don't notice.

Here's what they have in common: They are members of Conservative kehillot (sacred communities). They are now synagogue leaders or someone thinks they should be someday. They want to know more about a specific topic, or are curious about what they might learn. They want to do something to change their synagogues or themselves. They want to feel that they're not alone.

From presidents to current leaders to emerging leaders, they share a commitment to learn, do and feel something new that will help them strengthen themselves as leaders and, in turn, their kehillot. They're using United Synagogue's new Sulam Leadership resources, developed in the last two years, and they form two distinct groups - a Learning Community and an Action Community.

Let me tell you about what's happening in each one.

Sulam Learning Community

In the last year, more than 600 people came to conferences and workshops in their shuls and in groups around the continent to learn about mission and vision, leadership succession, "sacred strategies" and goals, governance, and strategies for increased engagement. About 200 people regularly joined in on webinars about volunteer development, starting strategic planning, assessment, and financial sustainability. 55 new and incoming synagogue presidents went on retreat with our Sulam faculty. And more than 300 new leaders were identified, recruited and engaged in Sulam for Emerging Leaders.

We published some of the good things they had to say about Sulam for Current Leaders' resources, and Sulam for Emerging Leaders trainers and participants spoke publicly about what it did for them. But here's what else we know:

• Evaluations from more than 300 "current leader" program participants were overwhelmingly positive. More than 90% said they learned something new and would share what they learned. More than 75% said they'll be able to do something new because of what they learned. 
• An independent evaluation of Sulam for Emerging Leaders by Drs. Steven Cohen and Ezra Kopelowicz showed that our pilot cohort hit the mark in terms of identifying and engaging potential leaders in the 30-45 year old age range. A study of SEL's second year will be published shortly, and will include information about how participants moved from learners to do-ers. 
• Every Sulam session, workshop, retreat or webinar has some kind of activity that requires analysis, strategic thinking or decision-making. Kehilla leaders in our learning community did more than just learn: They created new mission statements or reviewed their current ones, set goals that relate to their missions, mapped the roles of clergy and lay leaders, created volunteer descriptions and profiles, compared their fundraising efforts to their development efforts, and assessed their readiness to change their membership models.

Sulam Action Community

41 congregations took action last year with the help of United Synagogue:

• 31 congregations launched Sulam for Emerging Leaders. This requires a significant training and preparation time commitment from their rabbi and a training partner who facilitate the program, and from the synagogue leaders to identify and recruit people who have the potential to come to the leadership table in the future. 
• 10 congregations are creating and implementing strategic plans through Sulam for Strategic Planners.

The Sulam Leadership Network

Synagogue leaders don't want to go it alone. For 21 years, the presidents who met each other at Sulam for Presidents stayed in touch and supported each other through their presidencies and beyond. Many friendships forged at Sulam continue 20 years later. Sulam for Presidents was United Synagogue's strongest synagogue leadership network. Now the network is expanding.

The hundreds of leaders in our Action Community meet face to face when they begin working with our Sulam team, and continue to interact on regular conference calls. The Sulam for Strategic Planners cohort will meet at our Centennial Celebration in October. Not only will they get the next level of training in strategic planning, but a number of sessions at the conference, particularly those on "The Communal Conversation" and "relational Judaism," will inform their strategies as they move from planning to action. Also at the Centennial, our Sulam for Presidents graduates will reunite in a special "Sulam Suite," and at VIP learning sessions.

Our Learning Community has networking opportunities as well. Our MetNY district regularly brings together synagogue presidents at the beginning of the year. Small congregations conferences in our Central and Northeast districts, and a conference for large congregations last year brought together leaders with similar interests and challenges. Our district, regional and special interest networked gatherings will continue in the coming year.

But here is my dream - that hundreds of our emerging leaders will meet each other, too, and we'll grow our Sulam Leadership Network beyond current leaders. The Centennial Celebration is the perfect venue to begin. Imagine if the leaders of tomorrow could find each other while they experience prayer and learning at its best. Their voices need to be heard at "The Conversation of the Century," and when the conference is over, their energy needs to be supported so that they can create the Conservative kehillot of the 21st Century together.

Contact me if you want to help make that happen.

Collaborations, Alliances and Mergers

I like data. I am easily distracted by practical articles with comparison data, like this one on housing prices, (sorry about the continued downturn, Europe). I can also get hooked on peculiar websites, like this one with the scariest data that I can't understand, or one that just makes me smile from knowing that, unlike the Twitter world, I am much happier today than I was in 2009.

I have another source that I regularly monitor - United Synagogue's client relationship management system (CRM). Our staff and volunteers record significant contacts and conversations in our CRM so that we can inform one another of issues, make assignments and track follow up. And some of this year's numbers caught my attention.

From July 2012 until June 2013, our kehilla relationship managers had 219 conversations with leaders from 75 synagogues about collaborations, alliances, and mergers.

I don't view data as telling the whole story, but as pointing to where I might find a story. So before trying to figure out the story, here's a closer look:

• 12 of the 75 synagogues have fewer than 100 member households.
• 8 of the 75 have more than 500 member households.
• Most of the congregations - 31 total - fall within the 200-500 member range.
• 20 of the congregations are in the corridor from New York to Baltimore.
• 15 of the congregations are in Florida.
• 14 of the congregations are in New England.
• 13 of the congregations are in California.
• Most of the conversations were about collaboration, sharing resources or merging components of the communities, like religious schools, not selling buildings or a larger congregation absorbing a smaller one.

I'm not surprised about where these conversations are happening. United Synagogue has high concentrations of its affiliated synagogues along the east coast, and reflects the generational history of Conservative Jews, creating communities in the early 20th Century in the northeast, and then in Florida in the mid to late 20th Century.

Before my friends who wish to point out that this also shows the decrease in numbers in the Conservative movement jump in, I'll say, "Point taken," and I'll ask that we move on. Collaboration and merger have the potential to change the dynamics, if not the demographics, of Conservative communities, particularly when mid-sized congregations combine forces.

Some of the most innovative collaboration and merger strategies are happening among mid-sized congregations in New England. For example, three synagogues in the Boston area - Mishkan Tefilla, Beth Emeth and Temple Reyim - are formally working towards creating a merged religious school with an innovative approach to formal and informal learning. Three other synagogues in the area were recently discussing creating one large community on the south shore. 

Not every merger story is about synagogues on the decline or one synagogue "absorbing" another. Florida has areas where large congregations of primarily older members are situated near small and growing congregations, made up of mostly young families. Discussions of alliance come from trying to create complementarity and continuity.

If I looked no further than the data I'm finding in our system, the numbers point towards the story that today's synagogue leaders are more open than ever to the idea of creating a strong community rather than clinging to their separate structures, and there are many potential collaborations and mergers on the immediate horizon. However, I'm not sure it will be that easy.

In the last month, the merger of the three synagogues in the Boston area changed course as Ahavath Torah in Stoughton, MA, pulled out of the talks. Another formal initiative in New Jersey between Beth Judah in Ventnor and Beth El in Margate stopped when the Beth El community voted against it.

In an eJewish Philanthropy article last week, Debra Brosan and Rabbi Hayim Herring describe their quick check on the landscape of collaboration and merger:

"The bottom line is that the leaders with whom we spoke saw the opportunity for greater synagogue collaboration and, in some cases, mergers, but were cautious about the prospect of congregational leaders taking a proactive stance."

Brosan and Herring discuss the hesitance:

"...synagogues resist collaboration even when it makes sense because they fear a loss of their own identity and a loss of members."

I believe that more than ever, this generation of leaders understands the benefits of working together towards creating strong, vibrant community. They are willing to discuss many options with our kehilla relationship managers, and sometimes begin a conversation with someone in the synagogue nearby. But as the details of the give and take of cooperation move from theoretical to real, synagogue leaders navigate complicated territory with no single "right" roadmap.

The majority of USCJ affiliated congregations - more than 65% - are in areas that do not have a local Federation bureau or program that supports synagogue strengthening and transformation. Until recently, United Synagogue had few resources to help congregations with mergers or collaboration. We began with sharing Tzemed Chemed, a helpful overview of the landscape written by Rabbi Paul Drazen, and often referred congregations to consultants, volunteers or other synagogue leaders who experienced it themselves. Our new resources, particularly on strategic planning, and our kehilla strengthening team approach are the beginning of our response to work with our affiliated kehillot more closely. We are gearing up for more services in this area over the next three years. I believe that with support, we will see more collaboration and alliances than ever, with the possibility of new communal structures that replace the traditional concept of merger.

The data in our system tells me that there is a new story ready to be written.

Finding Kehilla on the Road

I have written before about how much of my time is spent on retreat with people, and how quickly community can be created among strangers. I have just come back from two months of traveling and retreat-ing with groups from Boca Raton to Toronto. I've been in Baltimore, MD, Birmingham, AL, Atlanta, Harrisburg, PA, West Palm Beach, Jacksonville, FL, and Canada, meeting with people, leading a Sacred Strategies conference, and on retreat at Sulam for Presidents.

Here's what I found out.

1. Conservative Judaism has six generations under one roof. In addition to the usual five age-based demographics that we talk about - (Traditionalists, Baby Boomers, and Generations X, Y and Z) - we have another one that crosses almost all boundaries: the "Camp" generation. USY and Camp Ramah have created a shared experience that is as powerful as the cultural and political dynamics that molded people based on the time period in which they grew up. Camp created peak Jewish moments, connections, relationships and pure joy that former campers yearn to find in their congregations, but can't.

The retreat experience rekindles that spirit. Here's an example of a spontaneous eruption of celebration on Saturday night at Sulam for Presidents as we ended two long days of learning, prayer, reflection and bonding and realized we had to leave the next day.

2. Peak Jewish experiences don't just happen. Every group is different and a meaningful moment for one person or group might never be repeated with others.

Here is an example: Our closing ceremony for Sulam for Presidents has two simple components. Before we say tefillat ha derech, the prayer for travel, participants are asked to say how they have changed during the weekend. A tallit is passed from one president to the next, and when it's your turn to speak, you wear the tallit. The symbolism in the moment is that this tallit has been passed from president to president in every Sulam program for several years, and when it is on your shoulders, you are the next in a line of hundreds that have worn it before you. The tallit wraps one person, but no Sulam president is alone.

One year, our group included two women who had never worn a tallit before. Moving into the presidency of their synagogues was adding weight to their decision about whether or not they would begin this mitzvah. They realized during the tallit ceremony at Sulam that this was the moment when they would make that change in their practice and identity. They asked if they could pass the tallit to each other, and the group shehecheyanu was said with tears of supportive joy.

Knowing that we can't force inspiration, spirituality or meaning, we have only one rule at any of our retreats:

The "recipe" for every day must have three ingredients, the same that are the foundation of our kehillot: Learning, Worship and Community. 

3. Our new kehilla presidents don't need to be taught about Generation X. They are Gen X. Fourteen of the 40 presidents at our Sulam retreat were between the ages of 33 and 45, and their eyes are wide open. During a large group conversation about change that led to mentioning sisterhoods and men's clubs in synagogues, one 43-year old president said, "Women my age smoke cigars and men my age like to cook. How will our Sisterhood and Men's Club adjust to that?"

4. Collaboration, mergers, sharing space, and sharing staff are going to be considered signs of visioning and planning, rather than foretelling the doom of a community. From the growing community of young families in Congregation Shaarei Kodesh in West Palm Beach, using a small space as their base and renting a large space during High Holidays, to Beit Reyim Synagogue in Ontario that has moved into the Jewish Community Campus, leaders are looking at their vision of 21st Century community first, rather than how to sustain buildings from the 19th and 20th Centuries.

In the last two months, I didn't find much support for the tired narrative of the decline of the Conservative movement. Instead, I saw how Conservative Judaism, born 100 years ago in North America during a time of unprecedented change, gives us the framework for continually creating meaningful Jewish identity and experience. There are signs of fresh thinking, fearlessness and a commitment from a new generation of leaders whose shared experience will build the Jewish community of tomorrow.

Presenteeism

An article in the January/February issue of Harvard Business Review, The Third Wave of Virtual Work, by Lynda Gratton, outlines the three waves of change that technology created in patterns of workplace relationships and collaboration. The first wave began with easily accessible personal computers and email capability, and allowed entrepreneurs and free spirits to work from home. Mobile technology created the second wave, as corporate employees, enabled to work from anywhere and at anytime, moved out of the physical spaces that used to be required to house bulky and expensive equipment. According to Gratton, it is predicted that more than 1.3 billion people will be working remotely within a few years.

But working remotely can feel like working alone. The friendly familiarity, collaboration and water cooler connecting that used to be possible when people shared the same physical spaces aren't naturally occurring in our new virtual workplace environments.

The third wave, happening now, is a response to isolation. A new dynamic is emerging, creating "urban hubs"- physical spaces that remote workers can share. Urban hubs give remote workers a place to go, (instead of the local coffee shop), for well-designed workspaces, meeting areas and current technology. What's different about this than the old office building model? It's down the street from your home and you're not necessarily sharing space with people from your company.

It can be argued, and it has been, that productivity wasn't guaranteed when people were expected to show up to work in offices together. The term, "presenteeism," was coined at first to describe the phenomenon of people coming to work sick just to be counted as present. The word has expanded to mean the erroneous expectation that showing up for eight hours to an office space with your colleagues will guarantee that something meaningful will emerge.

Urban hubs offer a new take on the rationale for workers inhabiting a physical space. Rather than grouping people according to their corporate affiliation, a work space becomes the hub of activity based on shared interests and objectives. Gratton describes a membership-based Tech Shop in California that provides space for novice inventors, with shared tools and equipment, populated by local creative people supporting one another. She predicts outcomes from the more than 2,000 - and growing - co-working spaces around the globe:

When hubs serve particular communities, they tend to take on distinct cultures, which can translate into varying terms of use. They can also become hotbeds of talent where techniques, contacts and passions are shared, just as they were in the medieval guilds - and as they are today in massively multi-player online gaming guilds. Where visionaries have built these hubs, and people have come in search of productivity, fellowship and mentorship, we are beginning to see talent clusters emerge.

Companies whose remote workers find one another in urban hubs aren't threatened by the connections their workers make with people from other companies. Instead, the sparks created by fellowship and discovery fuel energy and initiatives.

Take out the HBR corporate language of productivity and what does this sound like? It is the ongoing conversation we're having in the Jewish community about how to re-imagine the use of our synagogue buildings.

We built physical spaces throughout the twentieth century with a "presenteeism" understanding of Jewish community. It went like this: If people just come into the building and are present for services, school and programs, something meaningful will emerge.

We have found that this logic has not held up. I hear it from synagogue leaders who ask, "What are the newest, most creative program ideas that get people in the door?" "What can we do to get young people to come to services?" "How do we make our services more interesting?"  They're watching the numbers in the sanctuary decrease and imagine that changes to what goes on in the sanctuary will bring those numbers back up.

The expectation of "presenteeism" misses the point. It is true that Judaism is best experienced and practiced in community, but defining our community and the quality of experience by how many people show up in the spaces we built is what we need to change.

This is more than merging two or three congregations into one building. We do need to accept the fact that more mergers are going to happen in the next ten years because of changing demographics. This also isn't about offering space in your current building to a chavurah or emerging kehilla.

This is about re-thinking hubs of activity and relationships. What are some examples in our kehillot?

• The leaders of three congregations in one community are exploring a vision of locating their joint religious school based on educational function, rather than choosing one synagogue location. This means looking at options that might place classes for the children in a site other than the synagogue buildings, and creating shared family experiences in all of the synagogues throughout the calendar year.
• The moving minyan: two or more kehillot collaborate and rotate minyan to various sites, rather than trying to get everyone to one synagogue building twice a day.
• Snowbird and Sunbird services: Rabbis and lay leaders travel in the winter to hold special Shabbat services for their members who spend the season in warmer cities. Or they co-sponsor summertime services in vacation areas with the synagogues in the resort areas. 
• Sharing the two-year communal adult education program, Context, sponsored by the Jewish Theological Seminary. Collaborative partners of Context become the hub for high level, intellectually rigorous study using local scholars and resources. The Conservative kehillot in Hartford, CT, Greater Washington, DC, Middlesex County, NJ, and many others in New York, Long Island, Brooklyn, and Queens are just the beginning.
• Congregational schools are beginning to use Shalom Learning, an online platform, for their learning curriculum and family engagement.
• The adult education program on Conservative Judaism at Beth Judah in Ventnor, NJ, connected speakers from the Conservative movement, including USCJ's CEO, Rabbi Steven Wernick, by webinar to their congregants who either watched at home or viewed the recording later.

The suggestions in the Harvard Business Review article about how companies can make changes also apply to our kehillot:

• Focus on collaboration. 
• Reconceive physical space.
• Tap remote talent.
• Invest in intuitive technology.
• Recognize idiosyncracy.

In a nutshell, where can we start? 

Move out of the mindset that only sees people in terms of membership and participation numbers. Both are tied to the bottom line of maintaining our buildings. Look, instead, at relationships and action. Is there a group you just wish would stop wanting their own services in their homes and come to Kabbalat Shabbat in your chapel? Is there a person who has all kinds of crazy ideas about adult education? Recognize their idiosyncracies and energy. Help them take one step towards their dreams. There might be others who want to join them. Don't get in the way.

Where can people collaborate? Where are points of energy in your community, regardless of location? What kinds of technology that people use at work (Webex, Go-to-Meeting) can bring resources to your community instead of trying to bring people or speakers to your building? 

No one expects anyone to sell off synagogue buildings in the next five years in favor of an online homeschooling chavurah-type Judaism. Let's recognize, though, that the presenteeism of the 20th Century doesn't work anymore, and the world is already giving us clues about where and how people want to naturally find each other in the future.

A Roomful of Conversation

If you were planning to host a party with the goal of having as many people as possible talk to each other about as many topics as possible, how would you design the seating? One long table or several small ones?

But think about it - why make them sit at all? What if there are no seats so people can mingle at will? Must it be inside, then? Whoa - stay with me - why can't you give them an outside trail to follow so they find each other on the path!

How would you plan the conversations? Let's go back to the idea of tables: Is there someone at the head of the table you'll assign to lead a discussion or will people naturally find the topics of mutual interest if you just give them the chance to sit near each other? If there will be leaders, how do you decide on the topics? Do you choose topics based on what the leaders would like to talk about? Or do you pick the broadest categories possible, have the leaders start the conversation, and trust that each person in the room will have some life experience to shape what follows?

How many conversations? How many choices? Won't it get overwhelming if there are too many? Will people not bother to come at all if there are too few?

These kinds of questions, and the exciting, (sometimes meandering), trails that creative thinking takes us on, have been the feverish focus behind the scenes at United Synagogue since late last summer as we embarked on planning our Centennial Celebration in October.

It's the Conversation of the Century. That's a whopper of a claim.

So how did we decide to approach this party with the goal of as many conversations as possible?

SEATING: We chose "All of the above." With an expectation of more than 1,000 people coming over a five day period that includes a Shabbaton, we're creating every possible combination of putting people together. There will be one "table," (ok, a huge auditorium), with one speaker to start the conversation, and choices to continue at other "tables," (aka conference rooms). We're setting aside spaces for reuniting with old friends, finding people who share your interest or your challenges, (Calling all synagogue presidents!). Want to walk around and mingle? A Centennial Square will help you find food, services, entertainment and your friends. There will be paths to follow through historic Jewish Baltimore, and service opportunities to leave behind something that will help others.

CONVERSATIONS: We chose eight big topics.

The Spiritual Conversation

The Global Conversation

The Personal Conversation

The Eternal Conversation

The Interfaith Conversation

The Israel Conversation

The Communal Conversation

The Future Conversation

Thought leaders, (some who will surprise you), will start the conversations.

Two examples: Clive Lawton, the founder of Limmud, will start the Global Conversation, based on his 20 years of experience spreading Jewish learning around the world. The Interfaith Conversation will get a start from Dr. Amy Jill Levine, Professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies at Vanderbilt University. Her insight into the similarities and differences between Christian and Jewish theology has drawn thousands to her speaking engagements.

A variety of other people will pick up the ball and continue the conversations in what we're calling "Follow the Conversation" workshops. You are invited to be one of those people. This is where we move from one table to many. But here is where we also want to diverge from just hosting a party with lots of conversations to convening a gathering where conversation leads to action.

Our Follow the Conversation workshops are expected to give people information, tools and resources where they can take next steps. Because what's the point of conversation if it doesn't help us to grow?

So come to the party. Stay for the conversation. Go home stronger than before.

See you there!

Life and Death

Did you know that there were no deaths of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan last week?

I learned this on Friday night, before the recitation of the Mourners' Kaddish during Shabbat services at Beth El Temple in Harrisburg, PA. I didn't see it in newspapers, although this morning I found references from the Associated Press to January's casualties being the lowest monthly number since 2008, with an explanation that it is related to troop withdrawal. If PBS's News Hour reported it with their weekly list of the troops lost in the war, I missed it (because I was in shul).

I was powerfully struck by the announcement. Instantaneously, I had an image of how for one week, no parent of an American soldier got the dreaded knock on the door about their child losing his or her life. Regardless of the political or tactical reasons that would account for the number, at that moment when our prayer service instructs us to think of death, there was one place where I realized that death did not reach this week.

Our liturgy is filled with ways to not only help us pass through suffering, but also opportunities to regularly be thankful for peacefulness and wholeness. I view the morning prayer, Asher Yatzar, thanking God for the inner workings of our bodies, as well as prayers for healing and mourners kaddish, as brilliant reminders for us to notice the gift of each moment.

Rabbi Eric Cytryn has included the names of the soldiers who died that week during Beth El's Shabbat services since 2003, when he began his tenure. Rabbi Cytryn said that it's possible that some people thought that it was a political statement, but he always considered it the role of a religious community to create awareness of matters of life and death. That is the power that is possible in a religious community of practice. For me, it was a beautiful example of how our communal practice of prayer can help us connect with matters that transcend politics, and continually give us opportunities to reflect on the gift of life.