My brother, Dr Jim, reminded me that our Father graduated from Columbia’s Pharmacy School back in the 1930s. I knew that Jim was a Columbia alum before heading to Vietnam, and found out that Bob’s cousin was set to graduate from its School of Social Work! We first met Zoe when she was born in Rumson, and now she’s a beautiful young woman about to embark on her career. Only she asked her parents not to come to her graduation, beause she didn’t think it would be safe.
This is what it’s like to be Jewish today.
Graduations across the country are being rescheduled and cancelled all together. Why? Well, it’s complicated and quite simple, a contradiction to be sure. Israel is fighting a deadly enemy at its border… and Palestinians deserve to live freely. We are all adult enough to hold these two constructs in our minds. But there are biblical grudges and terrorist power plays. The extremists on both sides are destroying the dream of two states.
What if a terrorist group took over Mexico? What would we do? Never mind: “Organized crime groups are turning Mexico’s elections into a literal battleground, making the campaign this year one of the deadliest in the country’s modern history. More than two dozen candidates have been killed leading up to the June 2 vote; hundreds have dropped out of the race. More than 400 have asked the federal government for security details. The campaign of intimidation and assassination is putting democracy itself at risk.” https://wapo.st/4bCae1Y
MORE THAN 24 CANDIDATES ARE DEAD? I had no idea; and yet here, right here in these United States, we have a candidate who rambles on about a serial killer at a rally, postulated he could get away with murder on Park Avenue, and most likely considered hanging his vice-president if it meant he could stay in office. I Just. Don’t. Get It. And granted, i’m not watching the Manhattan trial of Mr T, I’d rather watch paint dry. Because right on schedule, our robin babies graduated to the backyard!
It was the day after a night of tornado warnings – a beautiful, cool sunshiny morning.
There was mild whooping and clapping as our birds flew the nest. Bob and I watched the first baby robin, perching on the edge, take off right into our maple tree! I was expecting a gentle flapping of wings with a soft landing in my begonias. But it was a flawless finish for the alpha robin. I immediately called the Bride and listened to the whole family ohhh and ahhh. And as we were busy kvelling, the second baby flew all the way out to our back fence, landed on the grass and promptly hopped up into Bob’s raised bed of vegetables.
It was 7 am and I hadn’t even had a cup of coffee. And I really needed that first cup because I’d been sleeping with one eye open. The last, smallest robin was still sitting in the corner, crying for his mama. We watched her return with a worm, or maybe it was a cicada, and she must have had ‘the talk’ with him because she didn’t come back. Over the course of the morning, we noticed the baby move closer to the far edge, but we gave up our post by the back door and went on with our day. We noticed our empty nest around lunchtime, and we vowed to keep the Little Emperor away for awhile.
I thought to myself, “Now we are empty-nesters again.” The week before the flash flood warnings and tornado sightings, I’d been waking almost every night to check on the robin’s nest. One night I thought i heard an owl. Another night, gigantic squirrels were bowling on the patio’s tin roof! I was returning to that sleep-deprived delirium of bringing home a newborn.
I read that Jerry Seinfeld spoke at Duke’s graduation on Sunday, Bob and the Bride’s alma mater. The comedian who joked about ‘nothing’ seems to have found his voice. Only a couple dozen students walked out of the stadium when he appeared, out of 7,000. They rose and left peacefully, because Jerry has the audacity to support Israel, to proudly declare his Jewishness. This is part of what he said to the Duke Class of 2024:
“Whatever you’re doing, I don’t care if it’s your job, your hobby, a relationship, getting a reservation at M Sushi,” he said. “Make an effort. Just pure, stupid, no-real-idea-what-I’m-doing-here effort. Effort always yields a positive value, even if the outcome of the effort is absolute failure of the desired result. This is a rule of life. Just swing the bat and pray is not a bad approach to a lot of things… also fall in love, not just with people, but anything and everything.”
MountainMornings 