M is for Mensch

So I only got through L before you were born, baby girl. So much for two letters a week for 13 weeks. But it is fitting that Love was the last thing we talked about before you were born. You have taught me a new level of love. A new meaning.

You are now 3 months, 2 weeks, and 1 day old. I cannot believe how time has flown by!! Those three months have passed in a blur of squeals of laughter and gummy smiles, of kicking legs and sweet baby snuggles. But now I'm back to work, which means I have time on my hands again to sit and think of you, to think of all the things we want for you. Which brings me back to our alphabet. To the letter M.

M, baby girl, is for mensch. There were a lot of things I considered M standing for. Important things like money, men, motivation. But the more I thought about it, the more mensch really sums up all of my hopes and dreams for the woman you will become.

Mensch comes from the Yiddish language. It's one of those rich, amorphous words that doesn't have a single, clear-cut definition, but rather encapsulates an idea, a feeling. It comes from the German word for "human being." Often times it's used to describe a man but, like all language, has evolved to describe something more than what it was originally used for. Mensch means good. It means upstanding. Honorable. It means acting based on a sense of moral worth. Doing what is right. What is responsible. Behaving with dignity.

On one of your dad's trips abroad, he found a man's wallet at the airport that had almost $1,000 in it. It also had the man's business card. Your dad kept the wallet until he was back in the states (rather than turning it into the airport security, where he was unsure whether the money would actually make it back to the man) and sent an email to the man letting him know he found the wallet and wanted to return it. Imagine the man's surprise. A stranger found his wallet with almost $1,000 in cash in it (here's another lesson baby: don't travel with that much cash on you!!), and rather than just pocketing the money and not looking back, he was actually returning it! That, baby girl, is mensch.

In Pinocchio, Pinocchio and his new friends get lured onto Pleasure Island, a seemingly benign playground of leisure. The world is a lot like Pleasure Island, baby girl. There will be a million ways to go astray. Fun ways. Ways that seem innocent. Ways that seem easier than doing what you know deep down to be right. There will be countless times it's just easier to do the "wrong" thing. To cheat somehow. To ignore something. To get away with something.

But remember, what is easy isn't always right, and what is right isn't always easy. In fact, what is right is typically hard. Really hard. And the more right something is, the more valuable, the harder it seems to be.

That's why it's so important for you to be a mensch. You will likely grow up in a time of increasing moral turpitude. (I know every generation says that the next generation is morally degenerative, but I guess in some ways it's true.) At times it will feel like everyone around you is taking the easy way out of one thing or another. Being a mensch, doing the right thing, being upstanding, will be one of the most important ways you can set yourself apart from your peers, one of the ways you can most impressively stand out.

Even today's world needs more mensches, more people who practice random acts of kindness, who do the right thing even when no one is watching.

Who do the right thing just because it is the right thing.

Of all the things your dad and I have to teach you, of all the things talked about in this alphabet of lessons, this is the one I feel the most weight of responsibility for. I pray that we can find a way to raise a beautiful, intelligent mensch.