January 6, 2017 – Sarasota, FL
Sharing buttery raisin Publix challah, Ravens Wood Cabernet Sauvignon (2012) and Trader Joe’s Russian River Valley Pinot Noir (2014) red wine, Israeli decorative Shabbat candles, and a delicious homemade meal with the salad from our garden on a clothed table with colorful bright Shabbat iconic dishes, and fresh backyard flowers sets the the moment of pause or the observance of the weekly Shabbat into motion.
As we completed our shopping and preparations for the evening, the dreadful breaking news broadcast reported that there was a lone shooter at the Ft. Lauderdale airport. The full NPR news report is here which was filed Saturday night at 8 pm. I just could not get my mind off of the fact that for those who observe the Sabbath and for those who do not that this moment was their armageddon which compelled me to want to continue to observe this weekly ritual even more. Clearly, this was not the first shooting event that shook me to the bone. Since 2017 has begun there have been seven reported mass shootings in Ft. Lauderdale and Miami, Florida, Pasadena and Fontana, California, Allen and Dallas, Texas, and Winstonville, Mississippi. Eleven people have died and and 28 have been injured according to http://www.gunviolencearchive.org/reports/mass-shooting. All of these lives and those of other families are upside down. Interestingly, these incidents did not make it into our dinner conversation, but we were all clearly mindful of it.
Instead, conversation focused on our kids, our aging mothers, our businesses, our flourishing garden, the newly installed compost pile, the hot flashes of menopause, music, the inclement weather, Jake’s knife making and recently read books. After dinner, the guys migrated to the barn for some good ole Tim Allen man bonding while we women discussed more intellectual topics! I carry a leather bound journal with me so that I can write down recommendations that others offer so that I can remember. On this night, my girlfriend, Sarah, shared the titles of some recent Holocaust novels and I grabbed my pen: Ronald Balson’s Once We Were Brothers and Karolina’s Twins, Martha Hall Kelly’s The Lilac Girls, Kristin Hannah’s The Nightengale, and Erik Larson’s Devil in the White City. I contributed Ann Kirshner’s Sala’s Gift: My Mother’s Holocaust Story and a non-Holocaust themed book Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger.
Ten o’clock rolled around and we “old” people were ready to turn into pumpkins. We warmly embraced and felt grateful for being able to pause, celebrate and enjoy. Steve and I call it dashing. Maybe you know of the 1996 poem by Linda Ellis called The Dash. It is about how you fill the short dash that exists between your birthdate and death date that will eventually appear on your tombstone. As Steve and I enter our 30th year of coupling, we keep filling up that dash.
Good Shabbat.