Long on Oil

Happy 97th Birthday to Eleanor Rubinstein, my late grandparents’ mechutan (does that make her my grand-mechutan?) who could still beat most readers of this blog at tennis.

Get this: the very same day that we learned about BP springing a leak in the Gulf of Meh-hee-ko, we discovered that our kitchen faucet had a leak. Freaky or what??!!

(For those who have been flabbergasted by our stranger-than-fiction news of late, that last paragraph was said tongue firmly in cheek, or thumb in fist as it were.)

Raise your hand if you'd be willing to pay more to drive in order to avoid these mind-boggling spills.

So is there, you ask, a "Jewish" spin on the mega-disaster?

First of all, be prepared to defend Israel and the Jews for causing this catastrophe, along with the bankruptcy of Greece and the Iceland volcano.

Second of all, in proper rabbinic fashion, why don't I answer the question with a question...for your table of course:

What do the BP slick, the Goldman-Sachs affair, the China real estate bubble and John Lennon's lyrics for sale all have in common?

After you ponder that one for awhile, you might consider this take:

It's actually quite simple. These stories make worldwide headlines because they have worldwide impact. The common thread is that we are all connected to one another. Humanity is like a person with many cells, organs and limbs. To fight each other is like cutting off one's proverbial nose to spite one's proverbial face (to coin a proverbial phrase).

The only way to proverbial Mt. Sinai (or choose your own symbol of human spiritual quest) is by working together, or to quote the modern proverb...

You better recognize your brother
in everyone you meet.

You know I spend a lot of time talking to individuals about their stressed-out all-but-broken relationships. Everybody wants an uplifting, compassionate, loving, unifying relationship. We get stuck in these ruts of resentment and criticism.

What's the way out?

Put your thoughts (and those of your table) in the comments below. Anyone who gets the right answer will win a copy of the new edition of the Art of Amazement.

Shabbat Shalom

"I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat." - Churchill


PS - Two weeks ago, I posted this uplifting Jewish story. It's still uplifting. Don't read it if you don't want to be uplifted:

Soldier, survivor have emotional reunion | The Detroit News

In the fall of 1945, a Soviet soldier hoisted a 5-year-old boy aloft and paraded him through a Lithuanian synagogue that had been closed throughout a long Nazi occupation.

For 65 years, the boy and the soldier carried that moment in their heads and hearts. Unknown to each other, they told the story to family and friends. A Toronto songwriter memorialized it in song. The boy became a man and included the anecdote in his 2003 book.

On Thursday, they met and embraced for the first time since then in Rabbi Leo Goldman's Oak Park living room.

(click to read more)

Regenerative Break

Question for you...

What's the most memorable news you've heard recently?

Is it:

A. The devastation of Haiti, and the heroic efforts to help?
B. The world's biggest car maker, Toyota, has become the world's biggest lemonade maker?
C. The Saints are marching in?
D. Something else?

I vote for D - the announcement that functional MRI can be used to communicate with some people in vegetative state.

If you didn't see this, here is a link. This is a story you can share with the entire family.

The science is not being universally applauded. In fact, comments to the NYT health blog are running about 4 in favor, 3 against, and 10 skeptical about this development.

(FYI - Here is a story worth sharing about someone who was in a "permanent" vegetative state for 14 years, and now can communicate.)

So this gives us 2 questions for your table, one practical and one tangential:

1 - How do you react to this story? Amazed? Skeptical? Disappointed?
2 - If you were in a vegetative state, fully aware of what was going on around you but unable to communicate, would you want them to keep you on life support, or pull the plug?

As you know by now, I like to spin the news "Jewishly".

Remember The Matrix? In this film, the hero learns that everything we perceive as reality is really an artificial virtual reality. One of the best scenes in the movie is when one character who goes in and out of the matrix says,

"You know, I know that this steak doesn't really exist. I know that the Matrix is telling my brain that it's juicy and delicious. After nine years, you know I realize? Ignorance is bliss."

In other words, he'd rather live in a blissful illusion than a challenging reality.

What a Jewish metaphor.

(If you want to learn the three Jewish techniques for waking up from our rather permanent vegetative state, send me an email. If there is enough interest, we'll do an online class.)

Shabbat Shalom

PS - Here's the matrix scene.



It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations… The quotations, when engraved upon the memory, give you good thoughts. They also make you anxious to read the authors and look for more. - Churchill