Changes

Some changes coming to this blog.

Blogging can be very time and energy consuming as most of you know.
Although it's a wonderful outlet and forum for ideas, stories, poems and essays it also has a downside.

I've decided to disable commenting from now on.

If I have something to say I'll say it and you can read it and enjoy. The whole interracting business is just distracting and time consuming.

Thank you for your co-operation and for all your wonderful comments until now....

..bow journeys...

Like a looooong
ship
On a wave..
The bow glides
Magnetic..over
..the D string..
drawing out...
sound
like a genie..
emerges from warm wood..
..genie...genie..
My sole wish
on earth... is..
the next note..
..and it is granted..
and I’m on a magic carpet..
~and the next
floating
over tiny cities..
And traffic jams..

the music...enchances me..
Takes me
.....far away..
like a seductive smile..
for a little while..

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Hispa'alus

The more I observe the world the more I notice how fickle and impressionable people are.

In Mussar there's this idea called Hispa'alus.
Which is a little difficult to translate but means Impressionable or even Gullible...

This idea manifests itself in many ways.
One way is self-discipline.
To stay fully focused on the practical and not to be distracted by impressionable events that are irrelevent.
Not to be a prisoner of reaction.
In the Yeshiva of Kelm if there was a loud sudden noise in the back of the Beis Hamidrash no one turned around to look.
That would be a breach of this idea.
Today we've become such a curious breed.

But another manifestation of this idea is how truth is so colored by Impressions.
Example:
The cosmos are sooo vast and the center of the universe is so far from earth...we must therefore be irrelevent...and not as important as we once thought we were.

Would Christianity be taken seriously, debated and thought about if it were a small Middle Eastern sect numbering a few million?

Yet, the world spins on as it always has..

Spinning it's web of truths on the loom of impressionability.

The 7

Thanks Corner Point for this MeMe tag. I had done this once (actually twice..) before but I'll try to conjure up 7 more random things about me...

Here is the The 6 from last year..

1. I love to drive. I love to drive Fassssst. I get such a rush when taking turns at high speeds...

2. As a follow up to the first one. I never got a moving violation in my life. Talked my way out of 3 of them though..
:-)

3. When I envison numbers..they are always colored.
4 is always Blue.
3 is Red.
7 is green etc....

4. I avoid the telephone at all costs. I hate talking on the phone and at home I never answer it.

5. I am a prolific dreamer. I love my dreams.
It's like movie night..every night
I remember them so vividly when I wake..and promptly forget them..leaving a broad sketchy memory...
I never have bad dreams.

6. I swallow watermelon and cherry pits.

7. My favorite sport is Hockey. (spectator sport that is..) and I love winter....
I guess they go hand in hand.

Well there you have it..folks...

This post has been brought to you by the the Letter M...and the Letter E

And the number 7...naturally


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..do unto others.....

Here’s why I think all the latest newcomers that are crowding our neighborhoods should be sent back to where they came from.

1.They don’t assimilate. They don’t speak English. All the signs in their neighborhood are in their native tongue. They are culturally apart.

2. They are unhygienic. Their neighborhoods are dirty, smelly and breed disease.

3. They drive up criminal activity. From petty crimes to Organized Mobs. From prostitution to pickpocketing to murder, their neighborhoods and surrounding areas are dens of criminals.

We the upstanding citizens of the United States demand that the Government stop allowing this teeming problem into our midst. Stop taking away our jobs and stop shattering our way of life.




I apologoze..I was a little lazy to type out this whole post so I just copied and pasted a letter to the editor from the 1910s which reflected the prevalent sentiment at the time toward the Jews of the Lower East Side..


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bitter tips

If one can take some kind of metaphysical magnifying glass and direct it at the very tip of the tongue.
Oh, how many unspoken words cling to the edge there?
Unsent Letters...
missed opportunities
strewn about...
Haphazardly
Uncrossed Ts
Lying cross
.....tease
Is it any wonder then...
...that it’s the very tip that tastes..
everything bitter..
?


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Der Photo Komandant

As the Chanukah Party season winds down, I pay homage to one of those enduring characters that graces every party in every family.
She's our very own Phot Komandant.
She's my aunt.

She's my aunt..
Usually so sweet..
But whenever we get together
more than 20 family members gathered
She goes on a very serious and intense mission.
Her metamorphasis has to be seen to be believed.

It usually happens when everyone is finally settled and happy
The men have washed..and sueezed into their seats
the women are settling into their distracted conversations
the kids are finally getting along...

suddenly her voice..usually so sweet
takes on a shrill tone as she yells "Pictures!"
"Everyone into the next room for pictures!"
Her focus is unnatural as she herds us
into a semblance of unorder and chaotic composition
breaking up families..tearing screaming children apart
the sound reaches a crescendo....but her voice is heard
above all others loud and clear.."OK EVERYONE LOOK AT MEEE"..
"yanky...sruli..esti..hindy..over here...get that out of your mouth..
whats your name?....OVER HERE..ok One more...Look AGAIN
One more...OK...ONE MORE (groan)....That's it"

Somehow after that...we can never get back into that somewhat peaceful state we were in.
I'm already looking for my kids coats buried under 45 other similar looking coats that once inhabited that rack that once stood here.

Yet still I pay homage to you..
for....after all is shouted and done
It is your masterpiece that is proudly displayed
on my mantle year after year..

Thank you.

illuminating everywhere

Theres something so..
Etherealy unearthly..so
Luminescently
soothing..glow
In the orange, red, yellow
Flickering stillness..
I close the light..and in the dark
I let the light bathe my soul..my spark..
And suddenly the walls dissapear..
A warped sense of ..here
I’m nowhere
..and
I’m everywhere
I’m one.joined and fused
To countless tired souls, confused
hungry...tired and abused..
By others...or not
Rooted to this spot..
Somehow..drawn to the light..
Like drunken moths in the night..
I could be in Auschwitz..or Spain
I don’t know where I am anymore
..and I don’t care..
For you see..when God reveals his hidden light..
He doesn’t take it out to share it with his plight..
He lets us in..opens his space..
to that oh so private place..
Just don’t close your eyes..
Keep staring..
Keep staring...
Until you feel the ground give way..
Until you see the walls disappear..
Until you cease to hear..
The cossacks thundering stampede
The modern world’s dizzying need
And speed
Oh...
You’ll just know
When you’re there...


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life, fragile life

Could you believe it's just 5 months since those leaves were tiny leavelts..? The end of another lifecycle..

life..
all matter
no matter
how brilliant..
how ebulliant
it's all so fragile..
so fleeting and agile..
flutters into the world..
slowly..delicately unfurled
then..withers..downward age
slowly exits..this grand stage
we call earth...
and returns...to that earth..
it all...comes and goes...
and while.. we're in the throes
of just such a burst of existance..
we'd rather just sit back..and entranced..
observe...
the flowers..
and the leaves..
and sip our tea..

ahh how fragile..we are..


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This Little Piggy circa 2007

This Little Piggy went to Starbucks...
This Little Piggy stayed home and got wasted
This Little Piggy ate roast beast
and This Little Piggy vigorously protested..
and This Little Piggy cried oui! oui! oui! all the way to her apartment in The Riviera..



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