"I'd like to have money. And I'd like to be a good writer. These two can come together, and I hope they will, but if that's too adorable, I'd rather have money." - Dorothy Parker
// I saw this quote about a year ago and tried to feel offended, as a purist, roughly - - if one can be roughly a purist, which in itself sounds kind of ironically Parker-esque. But then I had an interesting year.
A world renowned physicist, a brilliant bio-tech founder, and a celebrated science biographer walk into a Hillel house… and raise the bar. The recent TEDx ‘Talpiot’ event in Jerusalem, in a word, made me feel late.
I know it’s autumn because the yearly Torah reading cycle is back at Genesis, with all of the complex internecine business – Betrayal! Sex! Murder! – that being human, even the kind that talks to God, seems to brings with it. It’s the time of year I like to bring out my biblical poetry (every girl needs some in her repertoire, no?) and post it for the four or six people who appreciate it. Specifically, I am fascinated by the world’s original love triangle, sparked, I think, by the world’s original overprotective mother…..
Bless me readers, for I have sinned. I’ve abandoned this post for way too long. My virtual disappearance does not point to an actual disappearance, however….only to falling down the well of September holidays / community life / motherhood / daughterhood / work (you know - the kind that pays me.)
I’ve always been a good juggler, but flying trapeze artist was beyond my set of talents. (Tightrope, I do better. But that’s for another post, on religion.) In any event, I guess I fell off.
Here’s what I’m hoping You can answer for me: Do You believe - given the current reality of our world rather than any idealized version You’d had in Mind - in democracy, critical prosperity for all levels of society, scientific advances, basic human rights, and broad personal freedoms for men and women alike? I ask this sincerely because it seems that many of those who don’t believe in these things (and here I refer to some of my own co-religionists, as well) are winning, at least demographically. And they say it’s all Your will.
Patient X, the Humans, presents to clinic disoriented, unable to agree on a future, and with significant retrograde amnesia.
...I was convinced that my enthusiasm for the subject matter, the brilliance of the ideas, and the undisputed high quality of the people I was dealing with somehow guaranteed a flawless product, even though I had totally lost focus. I think I’ve been there before. Oh, yeah. A decade ago. When I worked for an internet startup. (Still, irrationally, my favorite job ever.) The initial assignment, and the bottom line (in both fiscal and journalistic terms), had become less important than the buzz I was getting from the work. And make no mistake: Entrepreneurial creativity is suburban crack.
The thing about tragedy is that, almost by definition, it completely takes us by surprise. Life has very few rules we all feel apply both personally and globally, but one of them is, or should be, that people outlive their parents. And live long enough to perhaps become parents themselves. Tragedy takes these basic assumptions, assumptions we need to make in order to thrive, and in one awful moment tells us: Don’t bet on it.
For me, Summer is a strange mix of adrenaline and Zen.
Why, you wonder, do we not just dissolve our salty selves into the Great Sea of Man? Imagine – no countries! No religion! Why all the – oh, please let me savor this shaved-ice phrase again – “vicious tribal cartography” that deeply identified Jews so forcefully engrave upon the enlightened, blind-to-race world? Why, you ask, the ugly, Shylockian “we, we, we, we, we”? Why not join the collective, the universal, the mythic, theTimelessOriginalSpiritofHumanity? Breaaaaaaathe. Isn’t that better? Well, honestly…the buzz is not bad. (Pufff.) But there’s kind of a nasty edge to it, some toxicity. And I’ll tell you why...
The Social Well
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