The birthday of the world

Here we go, into the new (Jewish) year--5775.  Rosh HaShannah at the local synagogue was good--a smaller turn-out than last year when the holiday fell during Labor Day week and we appear to have had a number of "summer" people who stayed over and attended services.  But services were good and I found them meaningful.  On the second day, David and I were invited to lunch at the home of the former treasurer and her husband, whom we've begun to get to know and already like very much.  It was a big crowd, probably 75% of those who attended services on the second day, but hamish and much delicious food.  Now we turn toward Yom Kippur, which this year comes on a Saturday.  Perhaps that will bring out a larger crowd; who knows.  The synagogue will have a Break Fast, but I don't think I'll attend.  I find I need to go home and revive privately.

Two weeks ago the visiting rabbi came for Shabbat and on Friday night suggested we use poetry to dig into the meaning of the holidays.  He invited us to bring favorite poems or our own poems, and I brought a poem I wrote many, many years ago when I lived in New York.  Since I left New York in 1992, the poem must be at least 25 years old, probably more.  It arose from my surprise at finding that although during the year, synagogue Shabbat services would be attended by some number of people - perhaps 75-100, depending on what was going on - for the High Holidays (Rosh HaShannah and Yom Kippur), Jews would seem to come out of the woodwork and we might have 1,500 people attending services.  Here is the poem:

The Year Yom Kippur Came on Wednesday
 
we tumble from our beds our bellies growling
feet tramping through the halls and down
the stairs in canvas shoes so odd a match with

our best suits and bright skirts we dribble out to

sidewalks join in rivulets and merge in streams to

rush and pour into our sanctuaries where we stand

and sit and stand and fast as fast as hours pass in

prayer and penitence we beat our breasts confessing

lists of sins when we're not slipping out and in and

out again to catch the latest word on who's been

born and who passed on this year still finding time

to stir the lost sweet ache to weep to watch the

chazzan throw himself upon the floor become

a waterfall a woman's sobs white shredded clouds

in steeped blue skies each note a shard that

tears our hearts above our bended knees

at last the shofar blast we bow we leave to drink to eat
to laugh to weep to live and die again as
one by one each of us a single sheep passes by Him
unaware of what a miracle the Shepherd sees this Wednesday

October 12th will be the second anniversary of our move to Maine.  Every day I am happy we made that decision, my morning walks with Ella are a gift.  One recent morning:

May each person and every living thing on our world be sealed in the book of life for peace, for health, for prosperity in the year to come.  I have a feeling that would be okay with God--it's just us human beings that are likely to have an issue with it.  Still hope will not let go.  Stubbornly it sinks its frail roots into dry worn-out soil and hangs on, even in the face of the coming winter.  (300,000 people marched in New York City to warn of the perils of climate change.  When is the last time 300,000 people marched in this country for anything?) 

So, Happy Birthday, World.
If not us, who?  If not now, when?
Peace, peace, far and near.

So...

So ... I haven't posted lately because my computer is having troubles... again.  Same issue that came up around July 4th holiday weekend, being locked out and being told the password I enter isn't right.  Last time I called Apple Support and they walked me through sort of re-booting the system.  I haven't had time, or energy, to go through my personal desk to see if I (hopefully) took notes on the steps they walked me through.  If I didn't, my choices will be 1) calling Apple again (which means waiting on the phone 20-30 minutes and then, likely this time, paying money) or 2) taking the laptop to a local computer place, which also means money (and probably time).  There's a place around the corner from us that says it is an authorized Mac service place.  I just have been too demoralized to deal with it.  Since my iPod still works, I can see my personal email there; listen to music (at least the music already on the iPod) and listen to podcasts (which still automatically download).

Then this morning, I used David's computer to log on to my personal email (needed to use his computer just so I could capture a URL from eBay to send it to someone) and after I did that, he had problems logging in to eBay, so now I'm stressed that I somehow screwed up his computer.

But the bottom line is - f**king technology is taking over our lives, we come to "need" it and depend on it and get stressed and strung out if we can't use it when we want it.  Yesterday I got a marketing call from Time Warner, our internet, home phone and cable TV provider.  The woman wanted to tell me about a new "package" that would deliver "hundreds of movies" to me for just another $8 or $10 a month.  "I don't watch movies" I told the woman.  "Well, the package includes other entertainment options..." "I don't much care for 'entertainment,' I told her, "I barely care for Time Warner Cable."  So she gave up. 

That's the goal for next year, I think, when our "discounted" (if you can call it that) price for Time Warner's "triple play" package (internet, phone and cable tv---which was actually "cheaper" than buying only internet and phone) expires - get rid of cable TV, get rid of home phone (get MagicJack) and keep only internet from Time Warner (unless a better option comes along).

My next door neighbor doesn't have a computer.  She doesn't have internet.  She doesn't have cable TV.  She reads a lot.  She gardens.  She's not technologically illiterate.  At work she uses a computer, the Internet.  She watches movies on DVDs from the library.  She is a civilized person and, perhaps, my role model.

So that's what's going on.  I'm squeezing in this posting using another computer.  My next post may not be until my own laptop is repaired.  I am off to Connecticut next week for work and a check-up with my oncologist.  So I may not have time to deal with the computer until I return.

But don't worry.  I am here.  Ella and I continue to enjoy morning walks.  Fall is coming.  It makes Ella frisky. There is crispness in the air.  Northern and interior Maine have frost warnings in the evening.  Yesterday morning I forgot to bring Ella's ball with us on our walk. Down by the water where we stop and I usually throw the ball for her to chase, there's a pear tree. So I threw pears that had fallen on the ground, and Ella chased and returned them to me. What I found interesting was that she barely scratched the skin of the pear. A soft mouth. 

Rosh HaShannah - the Jewish New Year - approaches - the birthday of the world.  The day on which our tradition says that each of us, in fact, each living thing, the whole world, is judged for life... or for... 

I hope God is in a good mood, feeling lenient and more optimistic about humanity that I feel these days.  Otherwise, we may be in trouble...

Peace.