Skip to main content

A Time To Live

When I spoke to Dana this morning, she told me that a young man I knew of, had tragically succumbed to the brain tumour that had plagued him for the last year-and-a-half.

He was not yet 25 years old.

Later on, she told me that one of my oldest friends has finally become engaged to a Canadian girl. I couldn't be happier for him...despite the fact that he's totally written me out of his life (for no reason that I can comprehend) .

So one man dies and the other finds true happiness whilst I find out about both events on the very same day.

How can one reconcile oneself with such opposing pieces of news?

Does my joy at the engagement mean that I am negating the tragedy of the death? Alternatively, if I mourn the death of the young man, can I really celebrate my friend's engagement?

At this juncture in the Hebrew Calendar, we are about to read the Book of Kohelet - Ecclesiastes. King Solomon tells us that...

"Everything has an appointed season, and there is a time for every matter under the heaven.

A time to give birth and a time to die;
a time to plant and a time to uproot that which is planted."

Maybe, this wisest of men holds the answer to my quandary, for today, I witnessed both the "time to die" and the "time to plant".

I guess that I need these "times" to make me appreciate what really matters in the overall scheme of things.

So I will mourn the death of the lad, but keep in mind the belief that this young man, were he alive would no doubt share in the joy of another human being finally finding his soul mate - and I guess that this is the only way to deal with this very human quandary.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ten Jewberry Muds

To get the full effect, this message should be read out loud. You will understand what 'tenjewberrymuds' means by the end of the conversation. This has been nominated for the best email of 2005. The following is a telephone exchange between a hotel guest and room-service at a hotel in Asia, which was recorded and published in the FarEast Economic Review: Room Service (RS): "Morrin. Roon sirbees." Guest (G): "Sorry, I thought I dialed room-service." RS: "Rye..Roon sirbees..morrin! Jewish to oddor sunteen??" G: "Uh..yes..I'd like some bacon and eggs." RS: "Ow July den?" G: "What??" RS: "Ow July den?...pryed, boyud, poochd?" G: "Oh, the eggs! How do I like them? Sorry, scrambled please." RS: "Ow July dee baykem? Crease?" G: "Crisp will be fine." RS: "Hokay. An Sahn toes?" G: "What?" RS: "An toes. July Sahn toes?" G: "I don't think so."...
3 comments
Read more

Magic Moments

At the end of a sunny day, Dana decided to start a water fight. She sprinkled a bit of tap water in my direction. Then her eyes lit up and she ran out of the room. I of course thought nothing of it, until she returned with a filled water pistol! That was it - The race was on to remember where I'd hidden the other three unopened packets. With pistols at the ready, the kids got in on the act and what could have been a ginormous water fight was almost immediately curtailed as Shira did not appreciate being spritzed in the face. The sheer impulsiveness of the moment was Dana all over and it's one of the things that I love so much about her. The pistols have been seized and are ready, waiting for another day when I predict we are all seriously going to have the most amazing and floodworthy water-fight. I can't wait (and neither can the kids).
Post a Comment
Read more

A Breed Apart

I'll start with that rarest of things (at least for me), namely an apology. A number of people who read this blog have approached me and asked me how the new job is panning out. I know I should have followed the original posts with updates, but honestly, I came back so tired from work, that I didn't have the will to compose any reports. In short, I am really happy in my new school. The students line up outside the door to my classroom (yes, my classroom) quietly instead of rushing in like a pack of deranged beasts and then, to my utter delight, stand , yes STAND(!!) behind their chairs and wait until I tell them to be seated. These students are actually listening to my instructions. When I tell them to switch their monitors off, they do what I ask. I don't find myself having to wait for fifteen minutes until they can be bothered to be quiet, they do something that I've been longing to experience for two years - they show an interest, in fact, a very keen interest, in w...
2 comments
Read more