And Old Wounds Fade.......

because, after all,
they weren't really SCARS whatsoever.....
They just SEEMED irrevocable....
In--expungable....
at the time......
But as all things do....
they melted directly and fortuitously.......
 into the past....
And so.....
Custer Rides Again....
Fully Armed.....somewhat cautious, perhaps......
Yet still....
 with a POWERFUL SENSE of ADVENTURE and WHIMSY......
and AUDACIOUS CALM.....
One could almost surmise.......
that it wasn't really his LAST STAND after all....
but rather......
just another KER PLOP in the PUDDLE of his LIQUEFIED REDEMPTION ....
Ahhh....
such profound and prosaic Hoo Haa.....

And the 'baby' becomes a man....

And there are banners and trumpets....
and a marching band....
And just as the parade ends....
he dons his new, blue overcoat....
and heads straight to the downtown, Soup Kitchen....
where he rolls up his designer , 'man' sleeves...
and begins to ladle out broth for those 'less fortunate'.....
And a young, Hispanic girl....no more than 6 years old....
holds out her bowl...shaking from hunger....and cold....
And the "Man"....a tear in his eyes....
 lifts her up in his arms and hugs her...
hoping to relay some warmth into her tired and hungry little body.....
And he takes her into the kitchen....to the refrigeration room....
and he pulls a loaf of bread from the large bags there....
and  a stick of butter from the freezer....
and he begins to feed the child these bread and butter sandwiches.....
And she is BESIDE HERSELF.....with relief......with ravenous rapture....
And the BOY surely has become a MAN on this day....
And so it goes.....

Do you think that they KNEW what they were doing ??

Isn't that just the APEX of all QUESTIONS ?
Did they do it to GET you ??
Or...
Does it have absolutely NOTHING to do with you ?
Are you just being PARANOID ??
or simply...
INTUITIVE ??
Furthermore....
WHEN DID ALL THIS SHIT START ROLLING OFF YOUR BACK ???
When, prey tell,
did you become IMMUNE to the slings and arrows of OUTRAGEOUS 'thus and such' ??
So...
Does it MATTER what the INTENT was ??
Isn't the RESULT the same in any case ??
How will you PLOD forward ?
Will you be PLODDING ??
PLOTTING ??
My STRONG suggestion here.....
is to take one CAVERNOUSLY DEEP BREATH....
and go about your sojourn.....
The answers will come...
They will show themselves...
as does the ABSOLUTE GESTALT of EVERYTHING in this life....
Patience, Compadre.....

I had a dream.....

There were people all around me......
Jews...
Huddled together...
forming some sort of human, safety net.....
There were missiles....explosions...
The sky was RED and ORANGE and BLACK....
with sulphur and fire and dynamite....
There were sirens.....
Children screaming and crying...
And in the midst of the calamitous huddle.....
there was a small boy....
He sat there without moving...
I could see his little, scratched skin trembling....
He couldn't have been more than 6 years old...
I tried to get to him....
But the crowd was DENSE....REPELLENT....like TEFLON...
impossible to move through,,,,
I had a sense of DOOM....like a SITTING DUCK.....
Noone could move, ironically, out of the danger zone......
We had known ALL ALONG that they hated us.....
But we had stayed......stupidly.....
in the quagmire of DENIAL....
And now......
here we were.......
about to be EXTINGUISHED.......ERADICATED....
And then......
I woke up !!
Wow.....
It had felt so REAL......
Strangely, there was the distinct smell of SULPHUR in the room...
Coffee.....
I needed coffee.....

How 'bout "NOT KILLING THE MESSENGER" ???

I mean...
Is it MY fault that you can't put 2+2 together ??
Did I CREATE your lack of intellect ?
Have I somehow CONTRIBUTED to the abundance of
vacuous, NEGATIVE space inside your frontal lobe ??
What do you WANT FROM ME ??
I'm just the FREAKIN' MESSENGER !!!
And...
FURTHERMORE.....
I HAVE TRIED...
(admittedly TRY is a weak word!)
Nonetheless, I HAVE !!!
I've dragged your clueless ass to libraries and theaters and BARNES AND NOBEL even !!
I've STUFFED you with BRAIN FOODS...
I've editorialized for your benefit.......
on everything from NUCLEAR PHYSICS to QUANTUM FINANCE......
from DICTION to POETRY to GOD only knows.....
And still....
NUTHIN'...
SQUAT....
So now......
I'm just gonna take a back seat...
and become a VOYEUR.....
And perhaps...
in the ABSENCE of my droning soliloquy....
you will finally be allowed to MAKE A SOUND OF YOUR OWN.....
to actually EXPRESS YOURSELF !!!
Is it possible that I've been standing "IN THE WAY" of your progress ??
WAIT !!!
Am I talking to MYSELF ???

.

And Eve said to Adam...

"Take a freakin' bite already !!"
"What's the worst possible thing that can happen ??"
Eve, we hear,
 had never been long on patience...
PATIENCE was NOT her virtue,,,,

Adam considered the RED, JUICY APPLE which Eve held out to him so 'unabashedly'.....

***Interesting to note that EVE WAS BUCK NACKED at this point.....
Yet Adam was focused on the APPLE !!
Huh ??!

"Well....", he thought...
"Its not like some BIG, poisonous snake is gonna come outta the wilderness
 and SMITE me or something, right ?"

LOL

ADAM and EVE....
Metaphor ?
History Lesson ?
The Calm Before the Storm ??


You decide....

Color.....

It's EVERYWHERE !
undeniable....non negotiable COLOR...
SO VIBRANT that you can actually TOUCH it....
even SMELL it....
The challenge, my friends, is to RECOGNIZE it...
to see COLOR as the grouting which splices together the MOSAIC of your life...

It is neither GRAY...
nor simply UTILITARIAN....
It is the MATTER....
the SACRED SPACE....
the connective tissue....

Somewhat difficult for me to verbalize...
yet CRUCIAL in its significance....

And if, somehow, (GOD FORBID!),
you find....
that you have INDEED lived your life among the TONAL BROWNS AND NAVIES...
devoid of RED...GREEN....
I'm suggesting to you STRONGLY.....
that it is most certainly NOT TOO LATE !!

Hence.......
Go forward today.....
with your eyes and hearts open....
to the MYRIAD COLOR surrounding you.....
This simple task will gift you
with  DIMENSION...
with DEPTH of purpose....
perhaps even with ABSOLUTION...

And so the proclamations abound......

as per usual.....
"YOU CAN'T !"
"IT WON'T !!"
"THEY AREN'T"
....
And you wonder...yet again.....
Where ON EARTH they gathered their information on this issue ??
I mean...
WHAT BASIS did they have ??
None, right ?
And then.....
when faced with the impending,
PRACTICAL MATHEMATICS of the looming situation....
you begin to realize...
that THEY are just people....
entitled FULLY to their opinions....
(however wrong they may be !!)
and you kick that YOGA practice into high gear.....
and you take a DEEP, ALL CONSUMING breath....
and you RE VISIT the whole, freakin' scenario......
And guess what ???
They may have actually done you a favor !!

Can we CO EXIST with the "Enemy" ?

So...
Where EXACTLY does one draw the line ?
What constitutes "ENEMY" ?
Can we EVER put our cultural and ethnic beliefs ASIDE...
in order to CO EXIST ?
even for but a moment ?
In this MODERN world,
 do even BIBLICAL FOES continue to plague our sense of SECURITY ?
What does one DO when faced with a 'startlingly obvious'
'difference of opinion' ?
Let me put it very SIMPLY here....
an example that we are ALL familiar with....
GERMAN CARS....
SHOULD JEWS BUY GERMAN CARS TODAY ???
in 2012 ?
I don't need to go into the whys and why nots..
I'm sure everyone's wholly familiar with this decades old argument ....
I personally...
.......EVEN BEING THE DAUGHTER OF AUSCHWITZ SURVIVORS....
have never really had a problem, per se,  with German Cars...
(although I'm not a fan.....)
I mean...
mmm...
Well...let's put it this way....
The German Car issue is NOT what I'm writing about......
The cavorting with a 'known enemy' is.....
Thoughts ?

So the bearded sage posed the question:

"Do we spend our time
"WANTING the LIGHT" ?"
Or....
"HAVING the LIGHT?"
I must tell you......This is an EXCELLENT, PROVOCATIVE QUESTION !!
Disconcerting rather.....

What is it that we are in such HOT PURSUIT of ??
(I realize that I ended the question with a preposition!)...
(Chill out...OK ?   :}})....
You may actually LEARN something today !!

We spend veritable lifetimes ...
"making LISTS"....
lamenting our 'less-than-perfect' fortune...
SAYING....
We WANT this....
We WANT that....
But...
Do we REALLY EVEN WANT the things which we supposedly pine for ?
OR....
Do we simply WANT "THE LIGHT" ?
I took his interpretation of "THE LIGHT"as my own meaning for "GOD"....
Mui Complicato....
and yet.....
SO SIMPLE......
We want GOD....beginning and end of story....
I'm just beginning to contemplate these words which startled me so.....
startled me into an UNCOMFORTABLE state...
You will hear much more on this "eye opening" revelation moving forward...

Until then, My Sweets...
SHABBAT SHALOM....UM'VORACH