A Soulful Journey

When my mother moved from Manhattan to a rural area in Connecticut, she missed the Yiddish newspaper,  The Forward , she had been reading for many years.  So my sisters and I decided to give her a subscription as a gift. I phoned  The Forward  and explained to the woman who answered that I wanted to buy a gift subscription for my mother. “We don’t do subscriptions,” she replied crisply. “We’ll set up and ordinary subscription for your mother and then  you  write her a nice letter and tell her it’s a gift.   She’ll love to hear from you.” – Sophie Glazer Call someone you love.

Some years ago, the lead coach of the University of Alabama, Bear Bryant, was asked to do a commercial for Southern Belle telephone. Coach Bryant's part in the commercial simple: he was to have only one line. At the conclusion of the text of the commercial, Bryant was supposed to say, as though barking orders to his players, “Call your momma!”  At the filming of the commercial, something unexpected happened. As Coach Bryant turned towards the camera, tears welled up in his eyes as he said, “Call your mama. I sure wish I could call mine.” The telephone company aired the commercial as found. The impact was overwhelming.  Television stations were flooded with calls by those who had been touched by the sensitivity and tenderness of Coach Bryant. Many were prompted to call their own mothers or another relative or friend that they had meaning to contact but never did. Do not wait until the moment has passed  for then it may be too late.

At the time of the Camp David accords, there was a joke making the rounds that then President Carter divulged to his partners at Camp David that he had had a special phone line installed, long distance, directly to God. They consulted with God throughout the deliberations, running up quite a bill. Despite the expense, President Sadat of Egypt immediately installed such a phone at his office in Cairo, and he, too, regularly used the connection. On one occasion, complaining to Israeli Prime Minister about the high cost of the service, Begin responded: "Oh, I just use my desk phone, and it doesnít cost me anything."  "How is that possible?," fumed Sadat. Said Begin, "From here it is a local call."  - Rabbi Avram Reisner