Yesterday, it was Earth Day, the first day of Passover and Sid Sambur's birthday. He would have turned 97. May he RIP with Clara.
So as I strolled around the Hoodoos of Bryce Canyon National Park, I gave thought to two out of three of those days.
I'm not a practicing Jew. Even as a youth while fidgeting in the Young Israel of Ester Gardens Temple I didn't get it. The Rabbis droning their Rabbi-speak, the Congregation murmuring back their reply. The sermons that made no impressions on me and the uncomfortable wool suits I had to don. It wasn't me.
That being said, I'm very Jewish in a cultural manner. I'm proud to be a member of a this very determined and hardheaded Tribe.
What do you get when you put ten Jews in a room? Eleven opinions! We challenge, we question and we can be a real pain in the tuchas. We are lovers of animated conservations, and the characters who express them. We can be passionate in our beliefs.
We are the underdogs who somehow managed to survive a Pharaoh, the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, the Pogroms and worst of all-the Holocaust. It was the last episode that brought Sid and Clara together on a blind date in the safety of the Bronx. The US granted them entry and escape from Hitler's Final Solution. For this, I will be forever thankful for.
So Happy Passover to Jews and non-Jews alike. It's a celebration of Freedom and who doesn't love being free?
Back to Bryce: While being exfoliated by the wind, I also thought about my father. I often wonder what Sid would think about my present living situation.
He probably would have used his classic query to no one in particular. "How can a man have three sons and each one be so different?"
I'm sure he would think I'm strange, meshuggah (crazy) but figure I'm not bothering anyone. I'm staying out of trouble, and I'm paying my bills and taxes. In other words, he'd be OK with it.
Jews love our Freedoms in whatever form it comes in, including being homeless by choice.
http://jeffsambur.blogspot.com/2016/03/three-years-of-homelessness.html
http://jeffsambur.blogspot.com/2016/03/three-years-of-homelessness.html
In the last photo, that's really a matzoh PB&J. I spilled my Nalgene bottle of water on the cardboard carbohydrate and it swelled up to look just like bread! Like I said, I'm not a practicing Jew.
Happy Passover to all and Happy Birthday to you Sid.
L'chiam (To Life!)
Jeff
There's more on Bryce from last year's post.
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