If Not Now, When?

It is lovely to see Pete Seeger quoting Rabbi Hillel's famous words.  There have been so many posts all week about Pete.  He was a giant.  I was grateful to have said to him directly:  "Thank you."


 

Thanks Pete Seeger.  We'll be seein' ya.

Pete Seeger at the Strawberry Festival in Beacon, NY June 2010  Photo by yours truly

I Must inquire, Mr. Salinger, can you still have fun?

Today is the 4th anniversary of J.D Salinger's death.  Us Jews call it a yahrtzeit.  Even though he wasn't Jewish, Salinger's father was.  Close enough.

You should watch the documentary about him.   You really should. I liked it.  Then again, I am no film critic.  I told a friend that I watched it; she said she heard it got bad reviews.  I don't care.  I liked seeing all the interviews.   I liked envisioning eating popcorn made with brewer's yeast with Jerry, which is what he did with one of his young girlfriends.  That would've been fun.  But then again that never would've happened cuz I wasn't a good writer.  As such, Salinger wouldn't have been terribly interested in me. 

Here is my own sweetness at the library last week.  I hope he and all of my kinderlach will love Salinger's many works.  And that they will read more than just Salinger (which is what I basically did in high school.  That and Cliff's Notes for the rest of the stuff).  And that they will be better writers than me.  

And why the blog title, you ask?  Cuz I was listening to Wilson from 12/31/91 today, a show I should have been at in Worcester when I was a college sophomore, just after the prime of my wannabe Salingeresque youth, but wasn't.  And boy is that Wilson so much fun.  The blog title comes from Wilson.  A lot of modern-day Holdens have enjoyed that one.  Please me have no regrets that one comes straight from my baby Levi's mouth.

Which leads me to the whole Wilson-Seattle football team thing that Trey got going.  I love these guys.

Here's a look at Wilson from last summer.  The very day when Levi, the sweetness above, was born.  Not like Trey knew that.  But hey, it's all connected.

Salinger's 4th Yahrtzeit Approaching

On January 27th to be exact.

Which is 1/27.

For those of you who have followed my antics here, you might recall my fondness for the number 127.

Here's one time I mention it.

Here's another, earlier, time I mention it.

It's a lucky number for my mother.
Her first name is Sarah.
127 is the age when our biblical matriarch Sarah passed away.
It's the number when you add up its digits gets to 10.
And who doesn't love a perfect 10.

So, why is it that I missed that Salinger passed away on 1/27?
Read about my fascination with Salinger books.

J.D. Salinger drawing that appeared on the cover of Time Magazine

I just finished watching the Salinger documentary from last year
All Americans should see this.
We all loved and love Catcher in the Rye.
You may think I am biased, since my college advisor and favorite professor, Stephen J. Whitfield, appears as a commentator in the film.
But I loved this movie even before I saw him in it.
No, I didn't know he was in it.

I do believe strongly that the sporadic release of Salinger's remaining works from 2015-2020, as noted by the film, will play a strong role in creating positive energy in the world.

It is a good thing!

There is no doubt in my mind that larger questions of religion and God existed for Salinger.  His Glass family practices a religion, after all.  Seymour commits suicide.  Salinger's father was Jewish and he helped to liberate the camps.  He served as a counterintelligence officer soon after the war.  He tried catching Nazis.  He married a former Nazi and soon divorced her.  I wish I could have had Jerry Salinger over for a shabbes dinner at our house.  I think he would have liked my challah.  I hope he would have had fun.  I just had some popcorn with brewer's yeast on it.  Good stuff.  But what about warm chocolate babka?  That would be good, too.

Forget about the music I love affecting so many Americans for the good.  (for the moment, at least!)

J.D. Salinger's books affected so many Americans for the good.

And, disturbingly, as noted in the film, they affected not just one but 3 Americans for the bad in their assassinations or attempted assassinations of famous people.   That concerns me but as Salinger said to his fans, he isn't a therapist.  He did good for the world by writing what he wrote.  And it will be so exciting to read the rest of his goods in the next decade.  The Glass and Caulfield families will finally rise to their fullest potentials in American literature.

I imagine little Suzy Greenberg, a girl who said she wants to be a sociologist but it was suggested she should get checked by a neurologist, must've read Catcher and related to Holden just as much as the next girl.


I loved reading about the Glass children (was it Franny or Zooey?) when we lived in New Haven, envisioning myself on the very platform I used to ascend when I commuted to Manhattan from there in 2003.

Thanks, Mr. Salinger.
This blog post comes from a good place and the best of intentions.
I only claim to be an ideas person who wants good in the world.

Bar Mitzvah Standard Stuff and Jam Cruise 13

Next year, Jam Cruise will celebrate 13 years.  They just came back from their 12th voyage, and I am looking at all the fun photos from this music festival on a boat.  I doubt I will be able to make it to next year's voyage, but I am calling it here and now that "Celebration" by Kool & the Gang, which was the go - to Bar Mitzvah song of the 80s when I was attending those parties, should be played.

I just read about some dude in the New Yorker who runs some really successful marketing company and he just had a Bar Mitzvah party for his company.  So it's not like I'm the only one who thinks up these good ideas.  Difference is that guy is a gazillionairre with marketing finesse and I'm not.

The happy memories of dancing away to Celebration are making me smile...and that's what important!

Nursing my Baby is a Real Privilege

Not only have all of my babies nursed successfully, but I love to nurse.  I am really fortunate in this regard.

I missed it during the 6 year break between Ezra and Levi, but time allows you to forget and the memory got hazier with each passing year.  

So it was like seeing a really good old friend again when I had Levi.  All the warm fuzzy feelings came rushing back with nursing baby #4.  Going back to La Leche League meetings is so enjoyable!  Chatting with my sister Reba about how much we love nursing our babies is a real happy thing.  

And now Levi is nearly 6 months.  Gd willing I will have many more months to nurse my baby.  I like nursing this size baby.  A newborn is more challenging.  Time is flying and I hope I can ride this wave for as long as possible.  

The skin that you think you might see and think is my naked body is definitely not a breast.  And even if it were, what you see in a typical fashion magazine is a lot more risque.  But still, if you know me you know I strive for modesty and that doesn't look like breast to me.

School Notes Purge: Both Sides Now...It's Life's Illusions I Recall

"Moons and dunes and ferris wheels." - Joni Mitchell

Here's a bunch of stuff I recently purged from my elementary school files.

From my first summer at camp, summer 1981.  I loved this stationary so much!

This stationary is still blank.  Nistar will use it this summer.  

This was from a friend who had a boyfriend in 5th grade.  I stopped getting letters from her after a while.  Years later I found out my mother had intercepted.  She saw that this might have been a bad influence.  

More boyfriend talk but my mom didn't intercept Lauren's letters.  I wonder why. 

And from the school year around this time. 

Looking back I know I was sheltered, innocent, and good-natured.  I was scared of anything too sketchy and trouble-making.  When I heard of public high school and that it was like a "jungle" where people forced you to do drugs, I was pretty scared.  I am glad I was the way I was.  I did ok in school and I had nice friends.  I'm pretty happy about that.

I saved so many notes and papers from my childhood.  Over the years I have been whittling them down.  I keep thinking I should save them for my children and grandchildren. Um... Seriously, Rach?

Now that I have memorialized these items in perpetuity (or, for as long as Blogger exists) I feel sortof ok with trashing my stuff. 

And even if these pages are deleted, I really don't think I benefited from saving all they stuff.

As is often the case when I purge of stuff I have zero use for, I feel lighter and  freer.  New energy can flow in.  Speaking of which it is time to get to the gym and do some sun salutations.  Namaste to the recycling guys for picking up all my extra paper this week!

My Baby Keeps Waking Up

It's so sad.  He can't seem to sleep.  He threw up all over me.  He's making silly noises with his mouth.  Will he go to sleep any time soon?  It's almost 1 in the morning.

Why not shluff to this...

Concert in Central Park.  Now that would've been fun.

This is from at least a month ago.  Levi's wearing helicopter BabyLegs.

Or this

Jews and Phish In the HuffPost

My favorite band and my lifestyle come together, from my vantage point, at every show I attend these days.  So I was pretty psyched to see coverage of this very topic - my thoughts validated - over the weekend in the Huffington Post in One. Epic. Article.

I'm glad, glad, glad that there are good writers out there like Josh Fleet, the author of the article (full disclosure:  we are friendly IRL).

I'm glad, glad, glad that there are good news blogs out there like the Huffington Post (full disclosure:  I have never met Arianna).

I'm glad, glad, glad that there are good bands out there like Phish (full disclosure:  I stood behind Trey and Fish once at a friend's wedding. I don't know them, but my friend does).

Phish plays great music.  They are remarkable musicians.  That goes without saying.  I have said that here before.  Jon Pareles has already noted this in the NY Times.  "Remarkable musicianship" was his exact phrase a few years ago.  I am not making this stuff up myself.  But they about more than good music.  They have a message and I hear it loud and clear (as per the aforementioned HuffPost article).  It is about so much:  the light, kindness, youth, human decency, silliness, folklore.  The 4 guys are a bit nebbishy in a good way.  They remind me of guys I know.  They seem like great, decent guys.  And their fans are great, decent people who happen to love great, decent music. 

Speaking of their fans and acquaintances, how awesome is it that I ran into Big Josh (who maybe people should call instead Mensch Josh.  Stango would call him Reb Josh) and Shmeeans at MSG last week?   (full disclosure:  I am friendly with this Josh, too, IRL  And Shmeeans, well, we've met but never really hung out)  Shmeeans is currently on Jam Cruise, something which sounds so fun and, incidentally, where Fish is right now with his band Pork Tornado (yeah yeah you like the treif stuff, I know).  I have heard Shmeeans' band Lettuce and all I gotta say is that dude knows how to rage it proper.

Josh said we should all smile in the picture.  I guess I should have smiled.  I look pretty ridiculous here.

Need a Smart Mama Head

It's a real skill to know how to manage your children's stuff.  And by stuff I mean the craft products, school projects and toys both big and small.  For years my friends have told me they just get rid of it when their kids are asleep.  And this is what I have done. Do you think they noticed the other day when their shrinky dinks were gone? 

But it's not easy and I continue to feel I am failing in this department. I don't want to get rid of the good stuff, but I don't think there is too much good stuff. But my children do. 

My kids seem to have a ridiculous amount of creations. More than the average suburban kids.   They dwell. They think a lot.  They value their junk. I can't stand it!  I want a clutter free home.  I don't like seeing nubby pencil stubs, pieces of yarn, scraps of paper, foam balls collecting lint balls.

And in true form of life mimicking art, when I look at my own possessions I see a lot of extra junk hanging around.  I have a whole box of photos from 2003. I have old journals, oodles of CDs that need to be burned, my high school and college papers I still haven't recycled.  

As I mentioned recently I try so hard to stay ontop of all this.  I am mindful of decluttering and have the right intentions.  I have been this way my whole life:  I recall being so proud of my clean desk drawers before Passover when I wax 9 or 10. I wanted my mom to see how good of a job I did.  

And yet it never seems to be enough.  I have friends who are much neater, tidier, on top of their stuff.  

Ever grateful for my own uniqueness I am grateful for what I have.  

I have friends who are huge slobs, packrats who can't part with a 20 year old sweater (or 5), leave their candy wrappers strewn about, don't use their garages because they are filled with their junk.  

I go through this exercise often:  at least I am not *that.*. I think the trick is to surrender to the flow and stop comparing.  Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans.  Be in the moment and still be mindful of your stuff. And remember to always take care of your shoes. 

(John Lennon wheels video)

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