God, you guys are good. I know I’ve said that before, but I’ll be saying it again, many times. Compliments are like prayers or “I love you”. You don’t just say them once in life, you say them again and again; at least you should.
Heck, I’ve probably said that before, too, and just can’t remember. (Memory, though, is over-rated.)
I just sat down to write, Wednesday morning, garbage pickup day (or Garbage Pickup Day, to give it its full respect), but the things I’m working on will have to wait until I can say a few things about the comments on the “No Politics at the Dinner Table” question.
Exactly, exactly right, all of you. Like most larger questions, it’s situational. Maybe there’s a middle ground for others concerning political “discussions”, and a good discussion has value, but I’ve just left the building, so to speak. I see too much anger over the last few years, and little or no listening, and I’m done, and like the Fiddler on the Roof joke where the whole village is screaming at the same time, and the rabbi stands to give his great “pronouncement” on the moment, and everyone shouts and points at him to stop the fight for a moment to hear what he has to say…
And he finally holds a hand up, stretches and calls out, “Everybody… sit down.”
And that’s it. He sits down again and resumes eating, and there’s a long, puzzled silence from the townspeople, until Tevye shrugs and says, “Let’s all listen to the wise words of the the rabbi.”
I may not have much wisdom, but I’m at the “Everybody sit down” stage of life. I might change, and change is good, but for now, I’m done with trying to sift through paralle lines of truth. Next year, and next Thanksgiving, and next barbeque, and next anything, I’m going to insist that everybody just… sit down.
But some of your thoughts are bulls-eyes: “If you lose your temper, you’ve already lost the argument.” “The recently converted are always the most passionate.”
But I just had to, had to, HAD TO tell Liman that his comment, “The second seder just ended like a Clan-na-Gael football rally,” coming after a reflection on the pros and cons of spirited family wrangling, may be the funniest sentence I’ve read in the last four-and-a-half years. Good Lord, that’s a funny sentence.
There are lots of things in life that make me stop and say, “Wow, that was good.” The first breath of air on the porch when going out to get the paper, the first sip of cold water (water, gin, you know, whatever; each at its proper time), the first kid-hug in the morning (even though the kid isn’t quite as thrilled as you are)…
Really, though, a well-wrought handful of words makes me speak out loud, and I laughed once and again, and yet again, at that. Holy mackerel, that’s a heck of a sentence, like a perfectly cobbled shoe.
It may seem like I’m going on a tiny bit much, but I’m not. As I’ve said before, there is no macro, only micro. The little things are the big things, like each life. That’s why the Jewish image and thinking has always been, “He who saves one life has saved the universe, and he who murders one life has murdered the universe.”
Anyway, YIKES that line was funny.
As long as this has continued the political argument reflection of the last clog, let me just mention this. If I’ve learned anything in life (and I might not have, but if I have), it’s this: No matter what I think about something in life, a hundred and fifty million people disagree with me. Are they stupid? No. Are they wrong? I don’t know. And I stupid? Sometimes, but only when tipsy. Okay, other times, too.
It doesn’t mean I don’t have my rigid passions and inflexible viewpoints; I have many. But it just means that sometimes it’s okay to pull people apart and tell them to go back to talking about which movie stars they find sexy.
There’s an old joke I find not only humorous in this regard, but edifying. Maybe I’ve written it here before, but as I said before, memory is over-rated.
A rabbi is know as a great mediator, and two men bring him a dispute. The first man tells his side of the story, and the rabbi says, “You know, you’re right.” And the second man says, “But Rabbi, you haven’t heard my side yet.”
And he tells his side of the story, and the rabbi says, “You know, you’re right.” And the rabbi’s assistant says, “But Rabbi, they can’t both be right.”
And the rabbi says, “You know? You’re right.”
REMEMBER: IF YOU WALKED OUT OF BED TODAY AND HAD ENOUGH WISE COMMENTS FROM INTERNET FRIENDS TO MAKE YOU LAUGH AND THINK… FOLKS, THE GAME MAY BE OVER, BUT NOW IT’S TIME TO GET DOWN TO WORK.
