Home again

I must say we have been very fortunate from a timing perspective: we left New York just before a major winter storm, and returned literally hours before the start of another, having missed two similar storms in between. But on the bright side, my tan looks really terrific against that white background!

Our arrival on St. Thomas (there is no airport on St. John) was quite emotional for me. As we began the descent and that familiar island came into view, it was difficult not to cry. In those moments I realized just how much I had feared that St. John was a place to which I could never return.

For as long as I can remember, I have enjoyed making up lyrics to familiar songs. One of my personal favorites was written with a dear Dallas friend about politics in the local Jewish community, to the familiar show business tune. (Note that “shul” is the Yiddish word for synagogue, “gabbai” is a person who assists in running synagogue services, and Yankel is a Yiddish name that I’ve used in place of the actual name of a particular individual in the community at that time.)

It’s fool business, this shul business,

A cruel business, I know.

Everything about it is appalling,

Everything the Gabbai lets them do,

Yankel makes excuses why he’s stalling,

His plans are crawling, my flesh is, too.

They’ll fool people, those shul people,

They’ll smile and say they are cool.

Yankel makes excuses why he can’t behave,

Tonight they’ll come in and rant and rave,

Surely they will drive us to an early grave

Before they build a shul.

The fact that I remember these lyrics thirty years after they were first written (and never to my knowledge committed to paper) is testimony to a combination of factors, including the fact that I was a whole lot younger then, and that I have chuckled about this quite a few times over the years while watching similar arguments in a variety of communities in which we have lived.

You are probably wondering at this point why in the world I was thinking about this and why I wrote about it here. If you know me or have been reading this blog you must have noticed by now that I seldom tell a short story.

We have rented the same villa on our trips to St. John for some years now. There is a guest book at the villa, and early on I started penning songs that I would share in that guest book. This year I had actually written the song before we even went down there, to Carole King’s “Home Again.”

Sometimes I wondered if I’d ever make it back again,

Seemed so far and out of sight.

I really needed a place to come to

Away from the freeze,

Somewhere the sun is warm and bright.

Snow is cold, rain is wet,

Chills my soul right to the marrow.

I won’t be happy ‘til my toes are in the sand again,

‘Til I’m on St. John and feelin’right.

Back at Bella Villa and feelin’ right.

I want to be on St. John and feelin’ right.

We are back in hibernation mode. But I just look at my well-tanned hands and I simply cannot complain. I did use sunscreen, with an SPF of 50+; the sun is that strong!

I hope soon to stop ending with “stay warm and dry!”

Love,

Rebecca