Just Seventeen?

The purpose of this blog is to count to seventeen at the Shabbat table... please print and share..

Thanks for the random funny comments to last week's message about clowns.

That was mostly for children, I suppose. Anyone in their first seventeen years of life are particularly vulnerable, right?

What about the last seventeen years of their life?

We obviously don't know when we're in the last seventeen, but we can guess, right?

The cliché question is, What would you do if you knew you only had one year to live.

I have no problem with that question but I don't think it fully captures the intent. The intent is to get us to focus on what matters most in life.

The problem I have with the "only one year" question is that no one who doesn't have a terminal illness actually lives that way. We all have plans – even vague ones – beyond a year. 

But it seems to me that the other extreme - not contemplating your mortality at all - is equally unwise, for it doesn't focus us enough on what matters most.

So my suggestion is you try this one at your table tonight: What would you do if you knew you had exactly seventeen years to live?

What would you want to do? To build or tear down? To see? To learn? To master?

Someone told me this week that he feels like he spends a lot of his time dabbling or puttering and not really building himself.

It's a common problem. Sometimes, sadly, the lack of focus continues for years until... it's too late.

It seems to me that there are two things that can solve it and put us on the path toward greatness:

1. The Jewish teaching: They say you can't take it with you, but there are two things that you can take with you - the wisdom that you achieved and the pleasure of all the good deeds that you performed.

2. The question: What would you do if you knew you had exactly seventeen years to live? Serious question - what would you do?


Shabbat Shalom

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