Party of One

Posted on June 29, 2014 by 40andover

Lunch with Dad today. As he declines, he looks so forward to an activity with family on each weekend day.

I decided that I would run to Dad’s house through in Central Park, and then all the way east to Dad’s house.

As I was running, things seemed a bit off. I didn’t know why. There were people all around doing usual Park things — running, skateboarding, picnicking — and East Side things — shopping and arguing and looking at maps to figure out their bearings.

All the usual sights and sounds . . .

EXCEPT

I was surrounded by straight people — couples, singles or with their families. Ok, maybe not all straight. Just not embracing their inner gay.

Where were the other gay people? WHERE WAS EVERYONE?

Did I not get the flyer?

Wait, ah . . .

They were downtown at the biggest NYC outdoor party of the year!!! Celebrating the revolution and evolution of gay rights, which feels a little like this photo:

In truth, I haven’t marched in a Gay Pride parade in many, many years. Because, to riff on the old ACT UP chant:

I am here, I am queer and I am soooo used to it.

I hope it was a fun party.

And don’t worry, I kept things integrated uptown.

Father’s Day 2014

Posted on June 15, 2014 by 40andover

Hallmark holidays suck. At least on Father’s Day. At least for this mother of a father-less son.

I block it every year. I can’t ever remember that it is Father’s Day until we trip over it. And then I think,

“Oh shit, will SOS be ok?”

Ok, I am not a good planner when it comes to this “holiday.” I block it because I cannot conjure up a facsimile dad. There is no vegan turkey for this thanksgiving holiday.

And then I fixate on our aging Dads. Because it is easier.

SOS was not in a great mood today. But, thank G-d, he spent some special time with Cousin Gentle.

The clan gathered for dinner. Still, SOS was in a whiny mood. I assumed it was the Father’s Day thing, but interestingly, he was very cuddly with me. I could not read the signals because usually when he is feeling different about having two moms, he is mean to me. I was bracing for that treatment all day.

At dinner, we toasted our fathers, brothers, uncles, cousins, sons and grandsons. Dad was disconnected and confused. FOPOB was surprisingly present and engaged. The world was upside down.

After the ganza mispocheh (the big family) left, I went into SOS’s room to talk.

“Dude, I want to talk about Father’s Day.”

“Why?”

“Because this is one of those days when I regret that you don’t have a dad, because it feels like everyone is celebrating having a dad and, so today, but really only today, I hate that you don’t.”

“Really, E-Mom? It is ok. It is like being Jewish at Christmas. Is that what you wanted to talk about?”

Ahhhhh. I made special note of the “OMG-you’re-so-lame-how-do-survive-a-day-in-the-world” tone.

I smiled to myself. (I couldn’t give SOS the satisfaction.) And I thought of Crosby, Still, Nash & Young:

And you, of the tender years can’t know the fears that your elders grew by,
And so please help them with your youth,
they seek the truth before they can die.
Teach your parents well, their children’s hell will slowly go by,
And feed them on your dreams, the one they fix, the one you’ll know by.
Don’t you ever ask them why, if they told you, you would cry,
So just look at them and sigh and know they love you.

SOS, my best and toughest teacher, in the subject of life. I learn these lessons because my happiness depends on it.

Happy father’s day to all, whether or not it applies.

The War that had to be fought

Posted on June 8, 2014 by 40andover

It was the war that America won.

It was about good versus evil.

It was about humanity versus genocide.

It was about right versus wrong.

And, G-d was our co-pilot.

And it started with D-Day, our shining hour.

Our Greatest Generation.

Those that did what had to be done and those that paid the ultimate price.

For freedom.

For liberation.

For the fate of peoples they didn’t know in a land they’d never been who were being conquered and killed for reasons they did not understand.

These were the sacrifices of our soldiers.

The soldiers fought the war we remember, commemorate and celebrate.

Our government fought the war, as governments did and continue to do. And, to win the War, the US:

made a pact with the murderous Stalin; and

dropped the Atomic Bomb. Twice.

Because “the enemy of our enemy is our friend.” True for dictators and explosives.

*************************************

This is still the cornerstone of our foreign policy. Only now, the calculations and murderous and duplicitous actions of our “allies” don’t take decades to come to light. They take mere hours.

And even the “good guys” in World War II were not always so good. Still, the monumental evil on the other side silenced even some pacifists.

Had we not carved up Europe and aided Stalin’s brutal rule, would we have won the War? And if we had won the War without an alliance with the USSR, would we have immediately had to fight Stalin?

Wars since then haven’t been so easily waged. And they haven’t been won. Not a one. Because World War II was the exception: war is so rarely about good versus evil. War is usually about politics, property and market share.

Recently, radical conclusions are bubbling to the surface: the enemy of our enemy is just as evil as our enemy. And, if we arm the enemy of our enemy, they may become our enemy, too. And we will have given them the tools of war.

And when that war comes, it will not be a cold one. It will be a nuclear one.

*************************************

G-d bless the Greatest Generation. May we learn war no more.

That Moment

Posted on June 5, 2014 by 40andover

That moment when you are bare, when you have nothing else to give, when the walls are closing around you. When everything you believe in, every milestone you marked, means nothing. When you are about to lose your foundation and you lie bare in all your awful and selfish thoughts and all that you would never were, but could have been.

All that you are, with all the lumps, with all of the triumphs and with all of the shortcomings. And it is not your time to answer for your life. But, almost. It is your mother’s reckoning, which is also in that weird mother-daughter/sister-woman way, a referendum on you. It is titled, “Mom’s day with G-d’ but it is the start of your days piecing together her legacy, to you, to your children and to the world. And, oh, yeah, to your siblings and your father.

But a mother’s death is principally a demarcation in the relationship with her mother and her daughters. And the dialogue doesn’t end with death. Not even the heated ones.

The joke that your arms are too short to box with G-d is all about how you can’t land a left hook, but your mother has arms so long she can reach your most tender places at will. Yes, Heaven (or Hell) has a huge advantage over us mortals. Take the punches, but wear boxing gear.

The judgments don’t end. They just have this $1.99 halo attached to it. Don’t be fooled.

But be humbled. A life, perhaps unfulfilled, has ended.

And it is not your job to fulfill that life. Each life must be lived by the owner.

But it is your job to pick up the part of the legacy that you can advance. Not fulfil. Don’t think about fulfilling. Just embody it forward.

It may be achieved in your child’s extended hand to a friend that evolved into her changing the world.

But every moment is not a success or failure. In fact, only with the passage of time, and the graying of your life, will you know whether you advanced your mother’s mission or, in fact, healed the world a little, in spite of your mother.

Life is a journey and death a destination and, if we are lucky enough, we leave a legacy of love, grace and healing.

And today, it is time to redouble our efforts, for our own mothers and for the mothers of our friends who have fallen recently.

May they rest in peace and their memories be blessings for us all.

Where have those 276 girls gone?

Posted on June 5, 2014 by 40andover

Where have all those Nigerian school girls gone?

Long time passing.

Where have all those young girls gone?

Long time ago.

Where have all those young girls gone?

Gone to death and slavery, ev’ry one.

When we will ever learn?

40 — oh wait, yikes!! 50 — andoverblog

Aging and living in urban US

Monthly Archives: June 2014