OK...So we FOUND WALDO......(a Metaphor)

BIG WHOOOOP.....

What now ???

We spent SO much of our time, energy, and resources looking for that Freaking WALDO,

that we lost site of all the OTHERS who still needed FINDING ....

And they are out there my friends...

fully and deeply LOST....

in their own maze of happenstance and recreational hazing...

Should we TRY to find them too ??

Or are they just casualties of the "BIGGER PICTURE" ??

And WHAT, prey tell, IS the Bigger Picture ?

We seem to be moving from one exercise in futility to yet ANOTHER of the same....

And if we stop this madness, what then ?
What will be left for us REALLY,,,,,
after a lifetime of LOOKING FOR WALDO ???

The lady in Elizabeth...

"Fake it 'til ya make it...", said the Lady Wizard .....
"Be THAT girl.......not THAT girl..."
Wise and profound words....
Not even words really...
Just an obstinate, nonnegotiable stance ....
hurled at me from atop her magical perch.....
resonating LOUDLY.... CLEARLY.....
I felt in that moment .......
as if someone had just removed a thick, debilitating, vinyl covering...
which had been suffocating me beneath its full-blown density...
for FAR too long....
FARRRR too long...
"Don't be THAT girl...."
DAMN...Why hadn't I thought of that ???
And just like that, the lights in the dark, damp room
WENT BACK ON....
in a blaze of DEFIANT, LEONINE glory...
And the rest of the story...
Well.....
That has yet to reveal itself...
All I know for sure is that
 "It's gonna have some serious SWAG...."

Over and Over...

What do they say about the "definition of insanity" ?
Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results ?
Uh....Ya think ???
WHY do we ALL do this ?
We go around and around in circles made of "fluff and turpentine"...
We are the HAMSTERS of the Millennium....
Making the wheel turn and turn and...
 reaching ONLY and forever....
the result of EXHAUSTION and BATTERED FEET...
Perhaps we need a new pair of velveteen slippers with which to try the wheel again ....in comfort ???
Or would that just be another "exercise in futility" ....
lending credence, yet again,
 to the hypothesis  of the "INSANITY thing" ???
So...
What REAL alternative does one have when faced with essential HUMAN FOIBLE ???

Fear and Trust...

We experience FEAR perpetually...
Perhaps not the "conspicuous" kind of fear...
(Although there is certainly an ample stage set for that at the moment!)
But also the insidious kind of fear...
Fear of not being "loved"....
Fear of not being "attractive" enough...
Fear of potential betrayals....
Fear of crowds..
Fear of heights...
Fear even of the "unknowing" future....

How does TRUST enter into this equation ?
Can Trust help us in eschewing and eradicating our fears ?
Trust in WHAT ?
Trust in WHOM ?
Trust in Humanity ?
Trust in GOD ?
Can we trust ONLY on the basis of our faith ?
without empirical evidence to support that trust ?
Can we trust so ardently , so all-encompassingly ,
 that the fear simply dissolves and melts away under the HEAT of that TRUST ?

Fear and Trust....
Mutually exclusive ?

Waiting...

There is nothing quite as disconcerting .....as FORCED....as "WAITING"....
For waiting is only and always just a state of LIMBO...of UN-KNOWING....
And here's the thing....We can NEVER circumvent it....
There's no way around it...
For God's sake, they've created WHOLE ROOMS,,,
 designed SPECIFICALLY for WAITING....
And so....
We wait...
for RESULTS....
for VISITORS...
for DECISIONS...
for PROPOSALS...
for BIRTHS...
for DEATHS...
for COOK TIMES...
for HEALING....
When you think about it ....
WE SPEND OUR ENTIRE LIVES.....................WAITING !!!
And what happens during these blocks of "inevitable segue " time ?
Do our expectations GROW INORDINATELY ??
Unrealistically ??
or....
Do we lose ENTIRE site of the essential goal we had set BEFORE the wait began ?
For that matter, how does PATIENCE, or lack thereof,
actually factor into the WAITING EQUATION ??
Is it a GOOD thing to be patient ?
or...
Is it only a mechanism designed to usurp the process from the get-go ?

Explosions.....

FIRE and TORN LIMBS and HYSTERIA
continue to make their unrelenting marks upon innocent people....
Today it was the MARATHON RUNNERS....
Running for their Health...Running for their Liberty ....Running for their Country...
People who had prepared for months and years actually
to participate in the ultimate challenge
of COMPLETION ....of SATIATION....of HUMAN CAPABILITY...
And let's not forget the Spectators...
Those glorious friends and relatives who stood at the FINISH LINE,,,
cheering the runners on....APPLAUDING....PRAISING.....
holding water bottles and blankets with which to greet their exhausted heroes....
But alas....
there was no cheering today...
There was CARNAGE....
BLOOD,,,, TEARS,,,FEAR,,,,AGONY,,,,,SHOCK....
And guess what ???
SOMEONE out there was PLANNING this CATASTROPHIC EVENT....
Some heinous animal out there is running FREE tonight....
probably celebrating the SHEER TERROR he's created,,,,
Do you think he knows that it's Israel's Birthday TONIGHT ????
Ya think ?

The Dreamer...a Metaphor...

He sits right there in plain view...
 atop that enormous mountain...
(his own, personal, Ivory Tower)..
in
   Sukhasana
(simple, cross legged, yoga pose)
His open palms face Heaven....as if they are awaiting God's bountiful gifts somehow...
His eyes are closed delicately....loosely.....
His heart is wide open....or so he THINKS...
And he has decided...FINALLY... to let go....
to capitulate...
For the real value he seeks can never be found in a Cemented Position...
in HIS cemented position...
And so...
He sits.....cemented, as it were...
perched to receive...
a RECEIVER....
And into this quiet and seemingly "innocuous" scenario comes a SNAKE...
A RED SNAKE....
with teeth....gleaming in the Indian sun....
The snake hisses as it approaches...
a LOUD sound...
a WARNING sound....
Yet the man is so deeply committed to his "Emptiness",
that he is completely unaware of the dangerous creature lurking so closely....
He gives it NO ENERGY whatsoever...
The RED SNAKE is dumbfounded by the man's nonplussed demeanor...
so much so that it loses interest in this potential victim....
For if there exists NO FEAR,,,,,there exists NO DANGER....
It slithers away to find a REAL VICTIM....

The ONLY REAL way to eradicate PAIN is to EMBRACE it...

This is not to say that one should WELCOME pain in some sort of masochistic way...
No,,not at all...
Nor should one REVEL in the potential MARTYRDOM inherent therein....

It's more like this:
Think of the metaphor of the GREAT WAVE ON THE OCEAN....
There are only two choices when faced with a HUGE, CRUSHING WAVE...
One can TRY and jump over it, which can ONLY result in calamity and/or fatality...
or...
One can simply DIVE DIRECTLY INTO IT....and safely and CERTAINLY come out the other side... unscathed...

Pain is a a mandatory component of a well-rounded life....
Without it, there would be no sense of WELL-BEING or SATISFACTION....
For life is a series of constant comparisons....
We judge and emote and reason
ONLY as a result of "tapping into our empirical dossier"...

Is this making sense ??

Opportunities Are Never Packaged Quite the Way We'd Anticipated....

We think that we are longing for the scent of Fresh Roses...
but somehow we find the heady aroma of a Man's Sweat  infinitely more intoxicating...
We have a sudden urge for a Burger and Fries...
but at the last moment, we opt for an Ice Cream Sundae....
And it Exponentially Satisfies our hunger...
We are Moved to Tears by Gospel Music....
But Our Hearts are REALLY Awakened ONLY by Klezmer....

We THINK that we want ONE THING...
But all the while, we REALLY want something else....
The package that is wrapped so magnificently in Golden Cellophane...
well....
it holds essentially NOTHING for us....
But the PLAIN, CARDBOARD BOX in the corner....
THAT, my friends,
hold the KEYS to the KINGDOM just inside of its UNASSUMING FACADE....

Don't be so sure....
 that that which you THINK you want...
 is REALLY that which you WANT AT ALL...
Don't be so sure...
That's all I'm sayin'....

Never Forget....

Holocaust Remembrance Day....
We remember the plague of German Reach to exterminate and annihilate  our people...
The unimaginable reality that this Evil Force had such power...such legs beneath it...
We remember that MILLIONS of  innocents were heaped in piles as though they were old, stained burlap...
ready to be burnt as a result of only their uselessness...
We remember that our simple ability to "trust" was forever lost during these calamitous years...
We became something MORE than a "PEOPLE"...
We became a "CAUSE" somehow...
Indignant...Defiant....
Our innocence was buried along with our families beneath the rubble of bodies there in the
notorious "Camps"....
We now are forever saddled with the almost insurmountable MISSION of
 "moving on"....of "living well"....
of attaining success...happiness...even freedom ....
while all at once "putting history aside" and "NEVER FORGETTING"....
And we SHALL BE TRIUMPHANT ....
for ultimately...
This is our destiny....

And as the sun began to set on this particular Friday evening...

she was reminded of those Friday nights long ago...
in her parents' home...
Shabbos Proper...
Challah and Kiddush and Chicken and Z'mirot...
Laughing and kidding and sometimes crying too...
But ALWAYS...ALWAYS...
cognizant of that feeling
of being swaddled in the fine, soft blanket of Shabbos...
Talking around the table...
Reading the weekly Parsha with her Father, (Zichrono Livracha)...
Oh, my goodness, how he had LOVED SHABBOS....
when the world STOPPED just for a moment...
when there was stillness.....
and a STATUESQUE STILLNESS it was...
Higher and Loftier and More Elegant than anything 'worldly'....
Yes...
an "OTHER-WORLDLY" stillness....
A MANDATORY DAY OF REST...
Marvelous in its utter simplicity....
Sweet times they were....

She wore WHITE....

Not that "BRIDEY, GIRLY" kind of white ..

Not formal, evening white either...

Just a summery, care-free looking, white dress....

Yes, admitedly she was "pushing the season" a bit...

But honestly.....

Could you blame her ?

It had been QUITE the winter...inclement,,,cold,,,snowing,,,raining,,,miserable actually...

All she wanted in the world at this moment was a little warmth,,,,

sunshine,,,blue skies,,,marigolds....

Was that too much to ask for?....
given the opulence that continued to exist just outside of her atmospheric milieu ?
I mean, she WAS HUMAN, after all...
And yes,
she would trade DIAMONDS and GUCCI BAGS
for sandy beaches and coconut lotion ANY DAY...
And so...on this chilly, yet sunny morning....
she found herself sitting on a stoop in front of a Chase Bank...
(The bank had been destroyed during Hurricane Sandy...)
Oddly, this particular bank had been the ONLY thing on the block that had been hit....
and HIT HARD...
So as they were rebuilding it,,,,there was a makeshift stoop....
for the construction workers, she supposed...
And there she sat, remembering yesterday....
They had gone to the movies...TYLER PERRY....
She and "The Italian"...
She had felt like a teenager as he hugged and kissed and cuddled her...
It occurred to her now that the mandatory abstinence from CARBS over Passover had
REALLY PAID OFF....
She laughed out loud at the thought...
She laid her head back on the cold, sunny stoop...there in front of the Chase Bank...
and she fell asleep.....