The Amherst Court Jester: It's a Mystery

Each year is unique, and each year brings it surprises. Last year, in the days preceding Rosh Hashanah, we held the infant Bina Mazel in our arms and celebrated her Simchat Bat (Baby Naming). A year later, in the days following her first birthday, we sat in Nomi and Keith’s living room together watching her scoot around the room. I was reminded of days long ago when we struggled to keep up with her mother as a non-stop toddler. Bina wants to explore everything; toys, books and dolls; but also paper cups, pieces of lint, and Milo’s (the dog) eyes and inner ears. Like both of her parents, she is drawn to music and shakes her hands and tush to the same Raffi songs we shared with our children. Like her Zayde (grandfather) she is a two-fisted eater, and, for instance, armed with an avocado slice in one hand and a sliver of pizza in the other she relishes her meals. She is a great blessing, and her grandparents, aunts and uncles are smitten. We are all in her orbit.

5778 ended with a bit of crash…literally. On July 23, as all slept, and a heavy rain pelted Atlanta, the earth that held the roots of the large oak tree loosen and physics took over. At 11:00 pm a large crack reverberated, and the house shuttered. From the back deck, the flashlight beam revealed a tree forming a perfect hypotonus across the backyard onto our roof. Bina lay sleeping perhaps 10 feet below where the tree trunk had fallen and was lodged among the broken rafters of our roof.

Life’s blessings so often lay hidden right before our eyes – a child sleeps. undisturbed by a raging storm and damaged home; this was a miracle of an inconvenience that could have been far worse.

Five weeks later, we are being kept dry by a beautiful new roof, but the damage inside the house has yet to be fully repaired. It is a useful metaphor; things become damaged and break. We can patch them up in a matter of hours or days but a return to full equilibrium can take far longer. So it is with life and its challenges. There is often a half-life of repair and renewal. As the New Year approaches I am thinking about the storms I have weathered and the days, months and years it often took to recover. But most of all, I am thinking of all the blessings I have been given; such as a sleeping baby beneath a shattered roof.

As above, Bina recently turned one year old. Words are emerging, most notably “Hi!” said with the same happy inflection we say it to her. Somewhere in there is also something that sounds like “Zayde” but that may be wishful thinking. I like these words I wrote in a recent essay: “From my limited perspective as a new grandfather, there is a deep and perhaps ineffable quality of love that we feel for our grandchildren. Perhaps it is our primal brain rewarding us deep within our limbic center for an evolutionary job well done. Presented in within a spiritual framework, perhaps our grandchildren link us to the eternal. In some measure, this is my contribution to the world to come.”

Fifteen months ago I left the salaried world and began a new life as a self-employed consultant. When I deposited the last of 30 years of salary checks from Hillel I had no idea how things would work out. Since that day, I have been guided by these words from “Shakespeare in Love”:

HENSLOWE: The natural condition is one of unsurmountable obstacles on the road to imminent disaster.

FENNYMAN: So, what do we do?

HENSLOWE: Nothing. Strangely enough, it all turns out well.

FENNYMAN: How?

HENSLOWE: I don't know. It's a mystery.

We are thankful for the mysteries of life and grateful for all the blessings that have been given us. We wish you a “Shanah Tovah U’mitukah” – a Happy, Health and Sweet New Year.