The Land of Chelm

Previously, in a blog entry, I told about the Land of Chelm where the people are very dear, yet are known for solutions that miss the point. Therefore, they are known for not being very bright. http://godwriting.org/a_terrible_traumatic_experience.html This is a very Chelmish blog!

I know about Chelm through this children's book I gave to my daughter so many years ago, Zlateh the Goat, by Isaac Bashevis Singer, illustrated by Maurice Sendak.

Chelm exists everywhere, and we all in our lives, at one time or another, demonstrate that we come from the Land of Chelm. In fact, I will go as far as to say that we are all Elders from Chelm. In fact, I will tell you what happened this morning that makes me a prize resident of Chelm! Indeed, I must live in Chelm wherever I am.

The Elders of Chelm are, of course, the wisest of all the people who live in Chelm. They are the Wise Ones you go to when you find an imponderable question. They always have a satisfying answer. Their solution makes everyone happy. Even if the Elders' reasoning is little off, their reasoning really is wise in the sense that taking the Elders' advice leaves everyone happy! That is wise, isn't it?

From one of my most favorite stories, The Mixed-Up Feet and the Silly Bridegroom, you can get a good idea of the supreme wisdom in Chelm:

Before the year was out, Yenta gave birth to a baby girl and Lemel went to tell the Elder of Chelm the good tidings that a child had been born to them.

"Is the child a boy?" the Elder asked.

"No."

"Is it a girl?"

"How did you guess?" Lemel asked in amazement.

And the Elder of Chelm replied, "For the wise men of Chelm there are no secrets."

The illustration below is from a story called The First Shlemiel. You have to love these stories!

From a story called The Snow in Chelm, we read:

Of all the fools of Chelm, the most famous were its seven Elders. Because they were the village's oldest and greatest fools, they ruled in Chelm.

As I keep reading these stories, after I smile at the Chelm's residents lack of reasoning, I begin to feel that maybe more important than being smart is being good-natured.

This morning, however, I wound up not being so good-natured.

As I spent an hour hunting for illustrations for this blog, I was thinking: "What am I doing spending all this time looking for illustrations? Oh, yes, of course, blogs are better with illustrations. But am I spending all this time because of vanity? Am I, who doesn't have time to do all I have to do? etc. etc."

Miraculously, I finally found illustrations and also text that I could copy -- Amazon, as wonderful as it is and how grateful I am for Amazon -- only allowed copying the book cover. The good thing is that I actually did find what I was looking for.

And, fortunately, working with MoFlow makes adding images to the blog as easy as pie.

I had spent another hour and a half writing the text for this blog this morning. It took longer than usual because I kept rearranging the order of things. I must have spent a good two hours or more on this blog. Then there are details like adding the blog tags, and, you know, stuff.

Unfortunately, I forgot to follow Heaven Admin's advice to save frequently.

So I had just completed the whole blog when, without thinking, I had the impulse to check email. In the process, I must have pressed something I shouldn't have, and when I got back from enjoying emails, THE WHOLE BLOG WAS GONE!

What you see is the blog reconstructed. Oh, gosh, please enjoy it, and Heaven help me!