I’ve known Leslie for a long time, and - before this episode - knew a bit about the passion she had for her work as a teacher and counselor in the Cincinnati Public School system.
But when she survived a near-fatal heart attack after being technically dead for about 20 minutes, the impact she had on so many young lives came into full focus. Today, she credits the power of prayer with helping her make a full recovery, renewing her commitment to kids in need and driving her to insure that her own memory will someday be a blessing (as the beautiful Jewish saying goes) to those whose paths she crosses along the way.
In this episode we discuss how she became an educator in the first place, some of the kids she has had the privilege of working with, why she felt called to convert to Judaism as an adult and how her relationship with God and prayer have changed since surviving that brush with death.
Note for literature / Father Jacob fans: Father Jacob and I will be discussing Flannery O’Connor’s short story Everything That Rises Must Converge the first Thursday in October. We’ll talk about how O’Connor’s Catholic faith influenced every story she wrote but we will also discus the story itself, which, in typical O’Connor fashion, starts out entertaining but ends up in a dark place fast. If you’d like to read ahead of time and submit questions for Father Jacob to answer about the story, feel free to post them in the comments in either this week’s episode or next week’s episode.
And - a second call for Ask Alex questions! Alex and I will be recording a new episode sometime in September and need at least one more physics or engineering-related question to cover. Please also post those in the comments if you have any!
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