remembering pearls of music

this week Daniel Pearl would turn 46

Daniel Pearl was born on Shab­bat Noah: Octo­ber 10, 1964 = 4 Chesh­van 5725.

If, metaphor­i­cal­ly speak­ing, all those ani­mals (car­ni­vores and her­bi­vores) were able to coex­ist on the Ark why can’t we? And this week, when we learn that a new lan­guage has been found among a tiny group of peo­ple in the Himalayas, per­haps it is the lat­ter part of the por­tion on which we need to focus. Can we learn how to coop­er­ate more than compete?

How might we respond to Daniel Pearl’s life?

proverbs 26:4

Do not answer a fool accord­ing to his fol­ly, or you will be like him your­self.
…or as reworked lat­er by Matthew (7:6):
Nether caste ye youre pearles before swyne.

Var­i­ous ver­sions of his griz­zly exe­cu­tion videos remain on YouTube where, to date (Octo­ber 2010, 8 years after his behead­ing), they have received more than 800,000 views. I will not link to them here. I respond differently.

Rather, there are ways we can think and act pos­i­tive­ly, not in response to Daniel’s death, but in con­tin­u­ing his life’s work.

pearls of music

Many pages on the Web sug­gest that music is a uni­ver­sal lan­guage. Daniel Pearl knew and loved this lan­guage. He com­mu­ni­cat­ed in music wher­ev­er he went.
Per­haps we can each find some way to par­tic­i­pate in the 9th Annu­al Daniel Pearl World Music Days — Octo­ber 1st — 31st, 2010.

This page is dedicated to Harmony for Humanity

This week I wear a but­ton call­ing atten­tion to Daniel Pearl. The cashier at my mar­ket read the text and asked what it was about. I had the oppor­tu­ni­ty to share with her some­thing about a good man whose life was too short. She paused, thought about Daniel Pearl for a moment, a man she had nev­er known of before, and thank me. I was able to make his mem­o­ry a blessing.

The but­ton was made in 2002 by But­ton Bro­kers of Rochester, N. Y. and was dis­trib­uted dur­ing the Israeli Oper­a­tion Defen­sive Shield encour­ag­ing Pres­i­dent George W. Bush’s sup­port for Israel.

daniel pearl

Daniel Pearl’s final words

Date: 2002
Size: 5.5
Pin Form: clasp
Print Method: cel­lu­loid
Text “I AM
JEW,
MY
MOTHER
ISJEW
Daniel Pearl 1963–2002

your lapel buttons

Many peo­ple have lapel but­tons. They may be attached to a favorite hat or jack­et you no longer wear, or poked into a cork-board on your wall. If you have any lay­ing around that you do not feel emo­tion­al­ly attached to, please let me know. I pre­serve these for the Jew­ish peo­ple. At some point they will all go to an appro­pri­ate muse­um. You can see all the but­tons shared to date.

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