Hail,Hail, The Gang’s All Here!

A  “new year” sounds pretty arbitrary to me---is it really a “new year” for each one of us?

 

What if we are in the middle of writing a book or translating an important document from a foreign language?  Of course it is only a “foreign” one for those who do not understand it!

What if we are just in the middle of a mind boggling project, and cannot foresee the conclusion?

I find birthdays easier to handle than “new years”. The latter sounds so major in the pronouncement of a portion of universal time ending. Will I be part of the “new” even though I am pronounced “older”?

I am in a time of life when each day is t be celebrated as a major event.

There is a quiet uncertainty that follows bedtime.

Sam Harris has been my life guide. His podcasts are brilliantly constructed with brilliant thinkers and educators who speak to our futures and remind us of why we are living!

Our daily Yoga  practice  throws out a  new lifeline for my husband and me. We are devoted to an early morning meditation practice on a daily basis which has been evolving into a happily anticipated event. Who would have thunk it??

There is little “culture” here in Eilat, of the Tel Aviv/New York variety, that is.

There is but human culture which allows us to survive as we embrace the simple aspects of daily life-----many smiles and “hellos” in various languages.

Life is not to be fooled with, nor wasted on absent mindedness! So say I, the Eilat

guru. I continue to teach private students whatever language they desire, and regale in their appreciation of new words or word order or sounds.

My approaching   new year may not be just another year. I can no longer take them for granted. Actually no one of us can.

I adore living. All of the small details, pleasures, turmoil, sudden delights, mishaps, encounters, are mine if I choose to make them mine.

What I will miss most as I think of what in my life has given me the greatest pleasure , is traveling to a new place. I have always looked forward to new encounters-----the not knowing---I do not try to find what I will be seeing in a guide book or on the internet before arriving. Once I am there, I may inquire such from a local, or allow myself to stumble upon it. I do not look forward to leaving.

What has become the most odious to me is the notion of taking a religion, any religion as a serious truth. A fable, yes, but a serious steadfast belief, NO!!

I know that life has an end. It has to be so. 

It is both sad and   frightening   to know the forecast. I urge all of you to hasten your daily enjoyment in whatever suits your fancy without deliberate self destruction .The latter will ultimately destroy your pleasure .I allow myself to proclaim because there is no shortcut ---no “program”; there is only “Do it now, and make it good!”

Bury your cell phones for a while and take back life in the raw! I do not have a smart phone, and do not want to enter that graveyard of spontaneity!

I take photos in my head. They never turn out to show all I want to show!

I am so grateful to be able to send you these thoughts and ideas, none of them innovative, I know! I only want to record my experience of life at his age---very similar to what it has been all along---minus the self destruction!

I hope you will welcome my future blogs with all of their simplicity!

Politics are a drag, yeah—here as well as there.
Much love from Miss Rheingold