Blog by Sumana Harihareswara, Changeset founder
Social Mobility, Greed, and Uncomfortable Timeliness
Hi, reader. I wrote this in 2005 and it's now more than five years old. So it may be very out of date; the world, and I, have changed a lot since I wrote it! I'm keeping this up for historical archive purposes, but the me of today may 100% disagree with what I said then. I rarely edit posts after publishing them, but if I do, I usually leave a note in italics to mark the edit and the reason. If this post is particularly offensive or breaches someone's privacy, please contact me.
The power was out for about twelve hours yesterday. Seth - thanks for looking up outage information on my behalf.
While I was lighting candles (do Jewish families ever use menorahs as regular candelabras?), other Bay Area residents were reading my column about the weaver, the barber, and the eight jars of gold.
I could tell a hundred different stories about the weaver, in which his wife killed herself, or he moved to the city altogether, or he performed an extraordinary prayer and Fate rewarded him, telling him that it had all been a test. Based on those different descriptions of what happened to the weaver, I could waggle my finger at the children and say, "Be careful what you wish for," or "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush," or "Keep your nose to the grindstone," or "God helps those who help themselves."
