We Pray....and Pray....

We beg the Lord to HELP us....
We beseech His Merciful  Stewardship...
in order to LEAD us out of the Deeply Troubled Waters that we've been treading...
Tumultuous Waters indeed...
We Cry and Beg and Mourn...
with Regret and Self Recrimination....
with Promises and Resolutions...
with Self examination...with more than just a Modicum of Authenticity...
with Grit even....
We float, albeit HEAVILY.... among the Graphic waves of Atonement and Guilt....
And then.....
We Sleep.....

And in the morning....
just a glimmer of sunlight crossing over our sleepy eyes...
holding out some kind of prophetic sign......
YES...a sign....
of a BETTER DAY emerging...
And on this particular morning, we notice immediately...
that the heaviness and the gray color of yesterday has virtually disappeared from view...
And in its place..... ORANGE and YELLOW and FUCHSIA....
and the smell of lemons and sugar....and lavender waft through the air...
The "Transformed" Air...
And we KNOW, beyond a shadow of doubt, that God has listened to our lamentations...
to our somewhat befuddled diatribe even...
and that He has Saved us....
We KNOW that GOD has SAVED us....yet again...

One guy calls out for our destruction...en masse//////

from a HIGHLY PUBLICIZED PLATFORM....
from the PULPIT of the WORLD really...
Another martyrs himself in order to "clear the air" of "us"....en masse.....
in order to find his rightful place in heaven...virgins and all...
Our PRESIDENT publicly SNUBS the Prime Minister...
Swastikas are emblazoned on our front lawns...
Our temples are vandalized....our lives our are LITERALLY THREATENED....every day...
And yet...
And yet...
There are those of us who CHOOSE to "turn the other cheek"...
CLEARLY not just somebody else's doctorine after all....

WHAT'S WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE ??

May our hopes and aspirations be realistic and pure of heart....

May our extreme contemplation and inner examination be FUEL for our ultimate transformation....
May our desire and our promise to be "BETTER"
 only then become DWARFED by our ACTUAL GROWTH in this MOST prioritized arena....
May our families be joyous and healthy and SATED....
May our feelings of being "less than" or "invisible altogether"
be replaced magnanimously by feelings of WORTH and WHOLENESS....
May we learn to FORGIVE...to TOLERATE...to LOVE...
without caveat...all-encompassingly....
May God , in His most merciful way,
grant us life and peace and the ability to "get it right"....

Wishing You An Easy and Meaningful Fast...
Toby Gotesman Schneier

And then it happens...

A moment...
A nuance...
A REASON to call......to reach out...
And just like that.....you are awakened...uplifted even....
And in this transcendental state of HEIGHTENED POSSIBILITY....
of TRULY ELITE air space....
you feel GOOD...SATED...
because you realize, full well, that you are not alone in your esoteric meanderings......
That there are "others", albeit few and far between,
who have experienced those kinds of visions....
those platforms of PURE, UNADULTERATED  SIMPATICO.....
And suddenly, amid delirium and fantastic precognition,
you KNOW that the coming chapter is THERE for the taking...
uncharted...expansive....
and that a TRUE FRIEND has re-entered your universe...
The possibilities at this 'soon-to-be-memorable' moment seem endless...

Steady......Steady....

Don't lose that renowned and coveted confidence
 over a couple of teetering rooks, for Gods sake!
Say what you gotta say, Woman !!
The truth will, INDEED, set you free...
Hell, it might even get you KICKED OUT !!!
But you'll know full well....
as your'e lying face down in the gutter outside the "dioses"...
that you GAVE IT YOUR BEST SHOT.....
And make NO mistake...
You pack a MEAN right hook......Yup....You do.....
You might just get NOTICED !!!!

The New Year.... a Blank Tablet ??

So...
What does it all mean ?
This beginning of a New Year...
What does it entail ?
Whose fault WAS IT anyway ?
Is it a chance for...mmm...
"ABSOLUTION" perhaps ?

Forgiveness,,,,,
Resolve.....
Aspirations...
PROMISES....
BIG CONCEPTS....
Are they HOLLOW CONCEPTS ??
DO WE MEAN IT ??

or...
Are we simply filibustering to get through these prayer-filled days
with relatively low incidence of collision ?
What of the past ?
Do we expunge it ?
Eradicate it from our memory banks ?
or..
Do we CHERISH it ??
Do we invite the past BACK into our homes ....feed it APPLES with HONEY...
tuck it right in next to us in our beds ?

WHO ARE WE ?
HAVE WE GROWN ?
DO WE 'LOVE' ?

Is God holding our heads while we bow in humility ?
Is wearing a designer dress fluffing up our possibilies of ACCEPTANCE ?
of MERCY ???

On this eve of Rosh Hashanah...
are we READY to be BETTER ???
Are our resolutions RESOLUTE ?

Antisemitism and Coconuts...

Does PEDDLING 'pure' goods make one, in point of fact, GOOD ?

How well do we know this mysterious, COCONUT MAN after all ?

Sure...Sure....

He waxes and wanes poetic...

singing the praises of the 'almighty coconut'....

enumerating the myriad attributes of its conspicuous consumption...

the ultimate PERFECT food...

Milk's got nuthin' on it....

And yet....And yet....

There is a sense of...mmm...What to call it ?

HIDDEN AGENDA...

Yes !  That's it...

Not only hidden agenda, but SWARMINESS....IN-authenticity...

OK....

So we had the automotive supplies all ready to go...

OK....No use cryin'....Right ?

For ultimately......indubitably.....

we CANNOT forget our ROOTS...

I'm not talking about the GRAYING ROOTS OF OUR HAIR, mind you.....

I'm speaking of our deep and profound Judaic roots...

our blood...our DNA....even our Virtue....

And so.....we move forward....

knowing full well, yet again,  that EVIL DOES EXIST....

but that WE continued to remain TRUE to our history...

The Past Arrives....

There are,
 most decidedly,
times in life when one's PAST can simply show up at the front door...
UNANNOUNCED....
with BAGS !!
TRUNKS even !!
signaling to us that they may wish to STAY for awhile....
They MAY even wish to MOVE IN...
or to simply SQUAT in our living room....
In any case,
 one can never be too CAREFUL when opening the door to the PAST....
For, notwithstanding the added, sanctimonious brouhaha of the moment,
messages can indeed be embedded in the fine, silken thread of our Past's overcoat...

Evolution.....lack thereof....

As much as we'd like to believe that EVERYTHING evolves..
the sad truth is that 'genetic matter' simply follows a cycle....ALWAYS....
(By 'genetic matter' I mean the PURE ENERGIZED DNA in the atmosphere)
Things move relentlessly forward...frequently at lightening speed...
only then to come plummeting backward,
catching the "hopeful victim" of said cycle in a DEVASTATING juncture.....
of fatalistic existentialism....
I'm just saying that life as we know it....
is unpredictable, to say the least...