Sunday, January 23, 2011

Lord I Was Born a Ramblin' Man

So I guess you will all permit me to ramble just a little bit...or a lot.

I am watching "The Big Chill" right now. I first saw the movie when I was 19 while spending the year in Israel. In Israel, the title of the movie is "Haverim shel Alex" - Friends of Alex. It was badly cut. The opening scene was missing. I had no clue what the movie was about. Since then, I have seen the full, uncut version. It is remarkably different at age 21 (that's how old I am now) from what it was more than two decades ago at age 19. As I get older, the movie gains a certain amount of poignancy.

On a different note, when I saw the scene when William Hurt, Meg Tilley, Kevin Kline, and Michael Goldblum were looking at the house that Alex and Chloe were renovating, the first thing that went through my mind was that Jennifer would love to have a house to renovate like that.

Did you know that Alex was played by Kevin Costner? All of his live scenes were cut. You only see him being dressed prior to the funeral.

I took a walk to the beach on Shabbat. I had been there a few weeks ago. It was high tide. Beaches at high tide are wonderful places. The waves are strong against the rocks. There are places it is impossible to walk.

When I got there on Shabbat, it was low tide. All of those rocks that were the crashing points for all of those waves were exposed. Some of them were HUGE. It was amazing to see how different the shoreline was with so much visible.

I have read now two chapters of Anita Diamant's "The Red Tent." The writing is captivating. Despite the writing, I must tell you that I am going to have to force myself to finish the book. The reason is that I have never felt less like the target audience for a book than I have for this one. It is a gender issue.

The list of things that have been nutty in my life since getting out here is really long and annoying. I will be happy to tell the story, after several shots of tequila. In the meantime, several things have gone exactly right. I would like to mention them. First, as you remember, we were involved in the prevention of a suicide in Korea. Second, we got a kitchen kashered, and another one is in progress. Third, I am down about 2.5 kilos. Fourth, the congregation here met every other Friday evening prior to my arrival. Now, there is a contingent that wants to meet every Friday evening. Last, the mother of one of the owners of the kitchen we kashered has decided she should start looking at her Hebrew again. Her son-in-law (owns the kashered kitchen) is in process of converting, and she does not want want to be outdone by him. Ripples in the pond are wonderful. This one ripples all the way out to South Bend.

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