A Soulful Journey

Two Polish Jews were arrested for begging. “Where do you live?" one of them was asked. “Where can a poor Jew live?" came the reply. “And you?” the other was asked. “We are neighbors.” Times change.   We grow, learn, and with the help of God are offered new opportunities.   Yet, it is wise to remember that but for God’s goodness we would not enjoy such prosperity.

Albert Einstein was in residence at the Institute for Advanced Studies at Princeton University. A guest asked to be shown his laboratory. Einstein smiled, held up his pen, and pointed to his head. The gift is already there .

"Some of my best friends are fantasies -- my own."  ~ Rabbi David Wolf Silverman Being true with one's self is no easy task.  We face some pretty adamant foes when we attempt to look at ourselves in an objective light. Voices well up from deep inside that object to the harsh self-evaluation.  That is why it is so hard to take criticism: the internal defenses are much too strong...and too vulnerable. Real strength resides in the ability to listen to critics without quickly rejecting them.  At the same time, it takes fierce honesty to acknowledge when we are creating fantasies in our own minds.

“As long as the brain is a mystery, the universe, the reflection of the structure of the brain, will also be a mystery.”  ~ Santiago Ramon y Cajal Lurking inside us is an unfathomable powerhouse of God-given hope. It is a vast reservoir, not yet filled and never to be entirely filled.  It is like a massive pot waiting for us to place the right kind of ingredients inside. What we put in the pot is what ultimately comes out of the pot. Learn, pray and place only what is most necessary inside.

Shakespeare called the brain, “The soul’s frail dwelling house.” We do not live forever. Our temporary lives are guided by our thoughts, feelings, and memories. Inside this great, almost limitless mind, is what guides our every action.  God gifted us with the most powerful computer humanity could never conceive, our minds. We are what we place into it.  Therefore, we must always be vigilant to care for what we put into it.

"A fan club is a group of people who remind an actor he's not alone in the way he feels about himself." ~ Unknown Jewish tradition demands validation from us.  That is to say, we are always supposed to question our words and actions to determine if they are in consonance with what God wants.  Believing that we are right is not good enough.

"If my theory is proven correct, Germany will claim me as a German and France will declare that I am a citizen of the world.  Should my theory prove untrue, France will say that I am a German and Germany will declare that I am a Jew."   ~ Albert Einstein This statement says a lot about Antisemitism but it also says something powerful about success and failure. People tend to attach themselves to people who are famous while distancing themselves from those who are infamous or viewed as meaningless. Perhaps we would do better if we applauded attempts rather than just those who cross the finish line.  To have made an effort implies a desire to be innovate, creative.  Think of all the successes that never would have been if people were too intimidated to try.

"The Fates lead him who will; him who won't, they drag."   ~ old Roman saying While there are no such things as "Fates" there is a wisdom found in this old axiom.  Acceptance of life is important.  There are some things we have the power to change and others that we may howl and moan about but no amount of tears will alter what has happened. In the latter instance, the most wholesome thing we can do is accept what has occurred.  The alternative is to allow nightmares to litter our slumber and day mental wanderings that incessantly replay events and reliving the pain.  And you are too important to let that happen.

"A falsehood once received from a famed writer becomes traditional to posterity." ~John Dryden All that is written is not true simply because it is in print.  All that is spoken is not absolute no matter how reliable the source.  In your heart of hearts you have all you need to detect truth from falsehood.  It is the portion that God has planted in us that always knows the right thing to do, even if we choose to ignore it.

At the World’s Fair in 1939 in San Francisco there was a pile of money that totaled $1,000,000 as an exhibit. People lined up to pay twenty-five cents to see and touch it. Why? Why would people pay just to touch a lot of money? Were they richer or poorer because of it? How do people gauge the meaning in their lives? Is it because of what they accumulate or the experiences they have? Or something else?

Only four players in the history of professional baseball have made four errors in a single inning. Bob Brenly of the Giants was one. He was playing at third base when he missed four hits in the fourth inning. What did he feel about his failure in front of his teammates, wife and the thousands in the stands? Fear? Embarrassment? “All of those,” Brenly said. “After the fourth one [error], I never wanted to see the ball again. I tried to hide behind the third base umpire a couple of times, but he kept moving.” Then when it was Brenly’s turn at bat he hit first a home run then an RBI. At the bottom of the ninth inning he hit another home run and clinched the game. What a wonderful ending for a man who was trying to bury himself in a hole! When the day is dark and little light filters through remember Brenly. There is always redemption.

A reporter who interviewed Thomas Edison asked, “Well, Mr. Edison, what do you make of your failures?” Edison replied, “Now I know 999 ways that won’t work.” He went on to the one thousandth experiment and it produced the electric light. Do not give up.

Shabbat is a day akin to the messianic era. It is a taste of something yet-to-come; something more powerful than words can convey. Shabbat is an inkling of what lies ahead of us. As Franz Rosenzweig said, Shabbat is like its description in the Birkat HaMazon , Grace After Meals, where it states that the Afterlife will be as if every day were Shabbat. And we get to sample it now….

In Erma Bombeck’s I Want to Grow Hair, I Want to Grow Up, I Want to go to Boise: Children Surviving Cancer she tells powerful tales of children’s abilities to cut through “what might have been” and go directly to “what is now.” Bert was a five-year-old suffering from neuroblastoma. His favorite thing to do was draw. When Bert was asked, “Are you going to be an artist when you grow up?” he answered, “I am an artist.” Elsewhere, Bombeck poses the question to us all, “What good does it do if they cure the body but the person inside dies?”