A Soulful Journey

  Al Jolson used to tell the story about his father. He’d say, “I bought my dad a coat last week. It cost $200. A lovely coat. But I knew what my dad would say about that, so I persuaded the clerk to change the label for one that had a $12 price tag. Yesterday, I asked him how he liked the coat.”     “Fine,” he said. “It was wonderful coat for $12. So wonderful that I sold it to Uncle Moshe for $20. You didn’t know your father was a businessman, did you?” - Al Jolson , cited by Michael Friedland

“Little Aby’s parents were not religious and he was not in the habit of saying his prayers at night.  One day he went to spend a holiday with his grandfather, who was very frum and who insisted on prayers.  The night before his return home, Aby finished his evening devotions with the words, “…and goodbye, God, I’m, going home tomorrow.”  - Friday Nite Book   You have a task, a vital one.

A folk saying: "What the child says out in the street comes either from his father or his mother."  -T almud, Sukkah 56b Think then speak.

Once when Lyndon Johnson received a particularly complimentary introduction by the governor of Michigan he commented, “I wish my parents were here to hear that.  My father would be most proud and my mother would believe it.”

"To survive  I had to kill her inside me."  -Frank Bidart We all have demons, voices from the past that speak to us, shame us and keep us from personal growth.  Those are usually people from our past.  Bidart writes of needing to still the voice inside him that stopped him from becoming who he was meant to be. Are there voices inside you that need to be silenced?

In Moses' farewell speech, he stated, "Remember the days of old, consider the years of past generations. Ask your father and he will tell you, Your elders and they will tell you." "A person who has amnesia, who his lost his memory, is literally a non-entity."  -Rabbi Ralph Simon. Work for and pray that you always remember who you are, where you came from and you will know where you are going.

Mother: "Before I entrust my daughter to you I must find out if you are an honest man." Young man: "Please do, and tell me about it because I am anxious to know." What we think of ourselves and how others perceive may be entirely different.  A true friend will tell you in away you can hear it.

"When a young man marries he divorces his mother." -unknown

Robert Raines tells a beautiful story about a young man named David who left home for the first time. From the age of seven he had lived with his uncle and aunt, who sold fruit at a peddler’s stand. They loved and cared for him. He stood on the train platform getting ready to leave. He grabbed the rough hands of this peddler uncle and said, “How can I ever begin to repay you for what you’ve done for me!” His uncle spoke: “David, there’s a saying, ‘The love of parents goes to the children, but the love of these children goes to their children’.” ”But, David protested: “That’s not so.  I’ll always be trying to …” And then the aunt interrupted, “David, what your Uncle Asher means is that her parent’s love isn't to be paid back; it can only be passed on.”

An 11-year-old boy and his father went fishing the day before bass season started. At first the boy caught sunfish and perch, which were fine to keep. When his pole bent and doubled over, he knew something huge was on the other end. His father watched with admiration as the boy skillfully worked the fish in and finally lifted it, exhausted from the lake.   It was the largest fish he had ever seen, a bass. In the moonlight, the boy and his father looked at the hand some fish. Then the father lit a match and looked at his watch. It was 10 PM--two hours before the bass season officially opened. He looked at the fish, then at the boy. “You’ll have to put it back, son,” he said. “Dad,” the boy cried. “There will be other fish,” his father said. “Not as big as this one,” the boy protested. The boy looked around the lake… He looked again at his father. Even though no one had seen them, nor could anyone ever know what time he caught the fish, the boy could tell by his ...

If you have a smile for Mother, Give it now. If you have a kindly word, Speak it now. She'll not need it when the angels Greet her at the golden gate; Give the smiles while she is living. If you wait, 'twill be too late. If you pluck a flower for Mother, Pluck it now. Place it gently on her bosom, Print a kiss on her brow. What care she when life is over For the flowers that bloom below. She will have her share up yonder, Scattered at her fett galore.  - Akron Baptist Journal

Dr. Earl Loomis - one of the founders of the Academy of Religion and Mental Health, told a young eight-year-old who sat in a restaurant with his parents.  They said, “Give him a napkin.”  “He’ll take the fries.”  The mother and sister persistently ordered for him.  The waitress ignored them and took the boy's order.  After she left, he said, “Gee mom, she thinks I’m real.”

A station wagon puled up to the entrance of a Springfield, MO. mall and a gaggle of kids in their early teens spilled out of the back seat.   “Hey, you kids,” the woman behind the wheel called after the disappearing brood, “I’ll be waiting right here when the movie gets out.  If you are not here, I’ll come in and find you.” She turned to the adult friend in the seat beside her.  “That’ll get em,” she said.  “They’d rather die than have their friends see them in the company of their mom.” – Mike O’Brien, Springfield, MO News Leader When young we behave in ways that we would gladly pay a king’s ransom to do a “redo.”  Since that is not possible why not choose wisely today?

A seven year old approached his mother one evening and asked her what sex was.  He was rewarded with a nervous lecture on the birds, bees, cats, dogs and other faces of life.  The little boy shifted his weight from right foot to left foot and finally said, "Gee mom, how I going to put all this on the top line of that little index card the teacher gave me?" "Just the facts, ma'am.  Just the facts."

“The noise that a child makes on the street is as his father or mother.”   -Sukkah 56b C hildren repeat what they hear.   This is how they learn.   That is why when children talk they are mimicking only what they have heard at home.   In much the same way, as adults we are still reflection what we heard years before. “Who is that person in the mirror that looks like my mother?” “Oh.   It is only me.”

A youngster brought home a poor report card and was chided by his parents for the low grades.   “ Well, ” he tried, “ all the boys in the class got C ’ s and D ’ s too. ” “ All of them? ” his father asked.   “ How about your friend Charles? ” “ Oh, he got high grades all right, ” the boy conceded.   “ But, you see, he ’ s different.   He ’ s got smart parents. ”

"What young people need is not religious tranquilizers, religion as diversion, religious entertainment, but spiritual audacity.   It is wrong to reduce Hanukkah to latkes and dreidles.”   -Abraham Joshua Heschel

“How far will all of your generation flee to escape the shadows cast by the parents of your century?”   -Chaim Potok, The Book of Lights Each successive generation shucks off what they consider to be the yoke of the past.   Later on in life they learn it was not a yoke at all, but a life preserver.

“Do not cast me off in time of old age; when my strength fails, do not forsake me.”  - Psalm 71