Holiday Prep

“Deck the halls…”

It is once again that time of the year.  I am not sure why, but this is the time of year we are supposed to be jolly, put on a happy face, and celebrate.  For 11 months, we work hard for this time of year.  Everyone goes on vacation, runs to various parties and wear those crazy sweaters.  Black Friday, Cyber Monday and other selling catch phrases invented for this time of year have the mothballs dusted off of them and are paraded in front of the masses hungry with excitement for this time of year.

I look at my calendar and my time is pretty full for the rest of this year.  Work still has to be done, the synagogue where I am president still has activities and meetings, food still has to be put on the table…you get the picture.  Believe me, I get the enjoyment of holidays, days off and extra family time – those days are listed on the calendar as well as everything else.  From my point of view, I would rather maintain that happy spirit throughout the year instead of saving for a single month.

“…gonna find out if your naughty or nice…”

Pretend it is January 1^st and the entire year lies before you.  You close your eyes, take a deep breath and let your mind drift off into the year ahead.  The images begin to come to you in a flash – you see the things that you want to accomplish, you have a vague understanding of how you are going to get there, and then you open your eyes.  I am pretty sure that at this point, you know if you will be naughty or nice.  15 or 20 days before a jolly being descends with a bag of gifts, the ledgers of life have already recorded you a naughty or nice quotient for the year.

“I’m dreaming of a White Christmas…”                                                          

I am 57 and believe it or not, I do not look forward to having inches of snow dumped on me in December or any other time of the month.  Many years ago, we had the fortunate of taking a family trip to Australia.  We landed in Brisbane on Boxer Day – it was 110 degrees, the thought of dressing up in a beard and a heavy red winter outfit was far from the minds where we landed.  The person that wrote the classic song, White Christmas (Irving Berlin), definitely lived in the northern hemisphere.  I realize that the image of Santa Claus as a large, jolly person coming to every house from the North Pole wearing heavy winter red has become global.   While flying over the equator I hope he has a good A/C onboard his sled.

OK, so there are plenty of contradictions when it comes to the Holiday season.  And, yes, it is fun to have various celebrations for various reasons.  Of course, everyone is nice (it would be even better if this was year-round).  I plan to enjoy the holidays as much as the next person.  Be safe, be smart in your decision, remember that the world does not stop at this time of year (as some might think) and enjoy.  “Christmas comes but once a year,” sang the great B.B. King.  As he continues later in the song, “Let the good times roll.”  Enjoy your Holidays, however you celebrate!

Sunrise Day Camp, It’s the Best Camp!

Hi everyone!   For a little change, I am writing this week’s blog!  I hope you enjoy it! 

-Gabrielle

The Sunrise Association is the first company to have a day camp that is free of charge for kids with cancer and their siblings.  Throughout the east coast and Israel, there are currently 8 campgrounds. During the year, The Sunrise Association does Sunrise on Wheels, which is when people from Sunrise go into hospitals to hang out and play with kids who are cancer patients.  There are also fundraisers throughout the year to raise money for the association. 

The main jobs of the counselors are to make sure that the kids are safe and that they have fun. Staff members make sure that everything is wiped down and that campers always use hand sanitizer in-between and during activities. Without the amazing staff members, the camp would not be as great.  They always make sure that campers are being included and are given the opportunity to be kids.  The biggest goal of camp is for it to be camp and to give the kids the chance for a normal experience.

For the past 3 summers, I have been fortunate enough to work as the Music Specialist at Sunrise Day Camp in Pearl River. We sing, play musical games, and play on the Music Garden that has been donated to the camp.  While at camp, there are many activities to do other than music.  Campers get to play sports, go rock climbing, go boating, play minigolf, dance, go swimming, do yoga, do drama, create art, and make lanyards.  While these are normal camp activities, these campers are special and would not be able to have this opportunity.  Our camp gives children with cancer and their siblings an opportunity to attend summer camp in a safe, caring environment.

I have met so many counselors and campers who have shown me to live each day to the fullest.  You never know where life will take you, so it is important to live every day as best as you can.  Don’t take anything for granted and enjoy everyone and everything.

On October 20, I am lucky enough to be leading a team at Sunrise Walks, where “We Walk So They Can Soar”. For the past few weeks, my team members have been raising money to give to the Pearl River camp. Please find the website below for more information about the camp and everything that this amazing organization does. 

https://www.sunrise-walks.org/PR/Team/View/113113/Team-Z

Independence 2019

As the second half of the year begins, as Americans, we take one day, July 4^th, to step back and celebrate the birth of our great nation.  In many nations across the globe, there are many countries where the population is nationalistic, proud of their place of birth / origin and celebrate similarly every year.  For me, this is a day to celebrate the birth of our nation, parades take place and we spend time together as a family.  OK, in truth, this is really more than just a one-day celebration – there are celebrations on the weekends and fireworks presented by the neighboring towns over a bunch of nights.

For this year, as for the past many years, one of the ways that I look forward to celebrating our Independence Day is as clown in a local parade.  For about an hour and a half, I had one simple goal, spread happiness!  The group that I work with, Miles of Smiles, takes an interactive approach to parades – we do not march in the parade down the middle of the street, but walk along the sides, interacting with the people and high-fiving children of all ages.  It is about making them feel good, giving them a memory and adding to a positive experience.  For me, it is really a chance to live in the moment - I was able to not have to worry about making decisions, no thoughts regarding the issues of the day and no crises to avert.  That time in the parade was a series of small slices of time and watching a smile appear on someone else’s face.  Needless to say, by the end of the parade, I was tired.  Onto the next two events, in costume, of course. 

As we celebrated the 4^th, it really was a celebration about a nation that broke away from being a colony.  A country striking forward with new thoughts and new ideas for that time period.  We were to be a country without a king, but representative leadership selected by the population.  In a relatively small amount of time, aside from becoming a world power, we were able to lead in multiple areas of development, technology and thought.  We have many good, positive reasons to celebrate.  I hope that you all had a great 4^th of July.

Passover Thoughts

“Mah Nishtana halilah ha-zeh? (מה נשתנה הלילה הזה)” is the opening to one of the first things we recite at Passover.  This is the phrase that asks the question, “Why is this night different” and sets out the tone and reason for celebrating the Passover Seder.  This is generally recited by the youngest person in the room, as it is the children that should ask the questions and the adults that recount the story towards becoming the Jewish People.  I remember those many long years ago when it was my turn to recite the questions and my father working with me to help me memorize the words and melody.  This is a tradition that has been passed down from generation to generation.  Even this year, as the “Mah Nishtana” came up, my nephew declared himself the youngest and went right into it.  As we age, these words seem to take on different meanings and each year, new family memories are made.

Even now, as an adult, I have great memories of Passover Seders long gone.  This year, my first cousin spent Passover with my father in Florida.  I remember being at my Grandfathers house with her and her brothers and the entire Zeiler clan (classic family patriarch running the Seder), and sitting at the end of the table being goofy, imitating our favorite cartoon characters and laughing.  Sometimes, my brothers and I would pull together some schtick.  I remember singing “Do You Love Me?” from Fiddler on the Roof, where I was singing the Goldie part and my brother did Tevye.  Then there was the time at my other grandparent’s house, in front of the entire family we did the Cheech and Chong routine “Cheborneck.”  This classic bit, if you have not heard before, is worth a listen.  By the time we finished, the elderly folk at the table had to pick their jaws up from the table.  We always finished the Haggadah (the book used during the Seder), but always managed to have lots of fun.

This year, when I looked up at our Seder (which I lead), as always, it is great to have new people experience our version of this tradition.  Done correctly, it is an event to remember and any first timers to a Seder, will never experience it again.  This year, most importantly, after a hectic year, with everyone in our family seemingly running all over the place, my traveling to Michigan and prepping for the holiday, it was great to have our family all in one room.  We prepared for the holiday as a family, we each add our own goofiness to the Seder and, best thing of all, we do it together as a family.  I know I have reflected on this in the past, but it is true that family time all together like this starts to be less frequent as the girls grow up.  I know, it is inevitable that they will “grow up”, move out and one day have their own families.  NO RUSH!  As long, as we continue to get together as a family for events like this, all is good.  This is where the memories that we carry with us come from and we hope to continue to make new ones for generations to come.

Commuters Can Be Rude

I think that with the more that cell phones can do, people have become ruder.  What do I mean?  We have become so attached to our mobile devices. I believe that some people believe that the entire universe is wrapped up in that small device that they can hold in their hand, where they can look up anything and video call anybody anywhere at any time.  Basically, we see the world through a tiny screen.  When the woman’s soccer team won the World Cup in 2015, the parade of champions route went right by the building I was working in.  Here was the moment glory, here was the moment few people get to experience, here was the masses coming out to cheer you on.  As I watched the parade, there were some of the heroes of the day, busy with their selfie sticks instead of enjoying and living in that precious moment.

When commuting to the city, I will sometimes take the Spanish Bus (Official - The Spanish Transportation Service Corporation) from Paramus, down route 4 to the Port Authority over the George Washington Bridge.  This is a slightly cheaper way to travel, and there is always another jitney passing by within 5 minutes.  Recently, when I took the jitney home, I was the second person on the bus, so I had my choice of seat in the 10 row mini-bus.  I sat down, getting ready to enjoy some time to decompress from the day.  People were talking as they entered the bus and sat down.  After taking their seats, everyone was still talking loudly, seemingly at the same time.  “What the…” came immediately to mind.  The guy behind me was talking away in Spanish on his phone.  The guy two rows up was talking so everyone could hear his conversation and the lady next to me was on a video call, with no head phones so that I could hear both sides of her conversation.  Looking around, there were at least four other people engaged in talking on their phones.  Then the lady next to me finished her call, and started to watch YouTube videos with the volume on high (again, still no headphones in sight) so that she could hear over all of the other phone conversations happening.

Did I miss the announcement?  Did our governor issue a decree?  When did people decide that it is OK to have loud public phone calls, in a small space?  Is it alright for me to participate in the rude lady next to me if I know the answer to a question I hear coming from her phone?  In that moment, I realized that the rudeness factor had taken a jump.  While silently texting my daughter about this bizarre behavior, her words of consolation were “things have changed since you last commuted.”  All this in the past month?!?

As we got closer to my destination, the cacophony of yacking phone calls decreased due to people leaving the bus (while still talking on their cell phones).  The guy behind me was still happily talking away, barely giving the person on the other side a chance to talk.  The one person I passed on my way out of the bus was still engaged in their conversation, oblivious to the world around him.  What should have been a chance to unwind before getting home made me more tense than relaxed.  As I stepped off the bus, I reached for my cell phone…maybe I am no different, but at least my conversation was out of everyone else’s earshot.

Out with the Old, In with the New

“Radio is theater of the mind…”  ~ Steve Allen

After World War 1, a new household item was taking hold – the radio.  Here was a cabinet (had to be large enough for vacuum tube technology) that a family could sit around to find out the news and to be entertained.  There were serial stories, music from ballrooms, sketch comedies…the key was you had to listen and use your imagination to fill in the blanks.  By the time World War II broke out, a majority of households had radios and radios were also available in cars.  By the mid-50’s, transistor technology came into play and the portable radio came into existence.  However, time and technology does not stand still and the Television started to become popular.  My parents told the stories how everything seemed to stop when Milton Berle’s weekly television show came on the air.  Radio stars were starting to make the jump to television (like Jack Benny, Ozzy and Harriett) as well as radio shows (like the Lone Ranger, Dragnet).

Technology changed (“Who Moved My Cheese?”) and people went from radio to television.  The full quote by Steve Allen is, “Radio is the theater of the mind; television is the theater of the mindless.”  The creative aspect of radio was now replaced by the visual aspect of the newer medium.  Fortunately, radio became the source of music, news and talk radio and continues to exist.  This is a great example of accepting change, changing the focus and finding a way to still be relevant.  I remember, a number of years ago, my brother-in-law walking around with a portable radio just so that he could listen to sporting events.  That was before the boom of internet and the existence of smartphones.

So why write about the radio?  As I get older, I have had the opportunity to see enough technology changes to where new “things” have overtaken those items we grew up with.  Home-hard wired phones, the typewriter, rabbit-ears, mimeographs (loved the smell), a Polaroid, 45’s, Spirograph, etc.  have all marched off into the sunset.  Or, to be more exact, have been replaced by mobile phones, computers, satellite / cable, copiers, digital cameras, streaming music / YouTube, the iPad, etc.  In the world of on-demand, I can always listen to my favorite radio shows (streaming, podcasts, etc.) and my favorite television shows (computer, Netflix, etc.).  As a group of my friends were sitting around talking recently, we realized that radio still matters to many of us.  It still exists and we will always need to have audio transmissions send us things we can hear.  Like many other advancements, we may not recognize initially where they came from, nor will our progeny know the terms, what we know today might still exist tomorrow.  In the question of “Does radio still matter?” – Radio might not be the way it once was, nor how we remembered it, but it will transform into the way it will become.  We might be in with the new, but if we lift up the cover, we might find the old is still there.

I Feel Like a Child

At what point in our life do we lose our childhood wonderment and curiosity about the things that happen around us?

I do not know why, but as I stood there, with the Lulav (made up of palm, myrtle and willow leaves) in my right hand and the Etrog in my left, I looked over at the leader (cantor) and was in complete fascination with what was going on.  I felt like a little boy, mimicking the moves of the older gentleman saying the ancient words and shaking the symbolic objects in his hands.  It felt so…mystical.  I felt like I had been transported back through time and had the special pleasure of holding some relic that contained special powers, my mind filled with wonder (could have been the strong Etrog smell).  I felt like…a child, in that there was a sense of wonder, a sense of curiosity and a sense of imagination that were simultaneously running through my mind.  

I cannot remember the last time where I had the feeling where time (my age), a sense of control, and an attachment to reality seemed to fade away.  When we were younger, the ability to create an imaginary moment or moments were part of how we played and, in some case, discovered the world around us.  When Gab and Bec were little, we used to watch them play with their dolls, stuffed animals and toys, creating a universe where, to them, everything they touched seemed alive.  I remember sitting on the floor trying to join in the worlds they were creating, but by that time, I was an adult, had an adult job and had family responsibilities.  I remember a feeling of sadness that I had trouble letting my imagination go to fully involve myself in their play.

When we were kids, my brothers and I always played pretend.  Things we saw, people we observed, all became weaved together as we would “act out” our own fantasy world.  As we got a little older, and had mobility with our bikes, the imaginary play world grew as our world expanded.  There is no one point in time where I can place my finger when the world of imagination receded into the world of hard facts.  I miss the opportunity to let my mind go and meld into the world of make believe.  The closest I get today is through vivid dreams, where sometimes, the laws of reality seem to be suspended (different topic for a different day).

So, as I stood there, during the Sukkot service, waving the Lulav and Etrog along with the cantor, I did let myself go and soak in the images and feelings of the moment.  And maybe, that is the key to living in the moment.  There were no thoughts about what came next, what happened yesterday or how the rest of my day would unfold.  I was in that one moment, holding objects tied to our distant past, waving them about with some magical thoughts in my head, feeling like a little child.  Once I realized all of that, the moment was over.  Maybe it is time to search for our inner child, embrace our more imaginative side and let the stress and strain of daily life melt away.  For those moments of calm and bewilderment help us to put things in perspective, realize that we can let go for a little while and enjoy the wonders of life.

Clowning Around

I love the 4^th of July - a day to celebrate the birth of our great country, a day of fireworks and a day to feel patriotic.  And for me, most importantly, it means that my annual gig as a clown has come again! 

That is right – you read that correctly, my annual clown gig!  You see, I have two friends, Juggles and Glitter (yes, that is their names) who several years ago asked if I would be interested in marching in a 4^th of July parade as a clown.  No, they were not just clowning around with me.  It was something that I had never done before, so I said yes (I am generally open to trying new experiences). 

This was not just slap on some makeup and go.  THIS WAS SERIOUS BUSINESS.  I had to learn how to be a clown.  I had to learn how to put on clown-face makeup.  I had to learn the clown garb, most of which I borrowed from Juggles.  And, I had to learn how to act like a clown.  A good clown is fun, exciting and can make you smile.  For me to join Miles of Smiles, I had to be worthy!  Since then, I have marched in cold weather, extreme heat and humidity (this year) and torrential downpours.  To use the words of Agent 86, Maxwell Smart, “And loving it!”

The best part, is making children smile.  Some of them sit along the parade route, obvious in their bored expressions as their parents have dragged them out to watch a long parade in hot weather.  However, when they see me, as the clown, coming up to them to give them some attention, the big smiles appear.  Now, this is true of children of all ages, young and old alike.  Not everyone, however, is excited to see me coming.  I walked up to a brother and sister that were all smiles and excited I was coming up to them.  The boy saw his mother stand up and said to me, “My mother is going to take our picture.”  The mom finished standing up, turn to her right (away from us) and proceeded to walk down the block into a crowd and out of sight.  “Oh, yeah,” said the boy, “she’s afraid of clowns.”  Yes, coulrophobia (fear of clowns) is real. 

After the long parade in the extremely hot weather was over, I had one more stop to make.  At my synagogue, they were having a 4^th of July BBQ.  In I walked, arms waving overhead, yelling happy 4^th of July.  The smiles were just as big when I went from table to table.  These people know me and were thrilled.  Many had fun (at my expense).  Someone even said, “I have a serious question to ask you, but I can’t because you are a clown!”

In both cases, being a clown is about giving a moment of joy and happiness to someone else.  I guess the old adage is true, happiness did come from making others happy.

Photo by Glitter