Alternate reality

Last week went by so quickly! We had a nice Purim with friends, although we really missed seeing the children in their costumes. One of our Riverdale friends invited a few couples for the festive meal. They also had one of their sons and his family, who now live in Riverdale and are members of the same synagogue as we are. Because of their four year old twins they are not able to stay in synagogue all that often, and this may have been the first time I had a chance to really chat with their son’s wife. I enjoyed getting to know her a bit better.

But before we knew it we were back listening to the news, which only seems to get worse rather than better, between the current political climate and the violence around the world. So thanks to my friend Randy who shared a recent communication with one of his friends that expressed so eloquently (with humor, of course) what so many of us have been feeling:

Randy wrote:

 I thought I’d passed into an alternate (bad or at least worse) reality when George Bush got elected over Gore.
Of course, he (and his brother) cheated. But, the thought of Trump as even a possibility in the oval office, fairly elected by the people, makes me expect to walk back into the living room and see Rod Serling sitting on the couch smoking a Chesterfield.

His friend responded:

About Trump - I think that he will go to the convention and when it's his turn to speak he'll say "Live from New York, it's Saturday Night!"

I know that the convention is scheduled to be in Philadelphia, but I would not put it past Donald Trump to have it moved!

We saw the new Sally Field film, “Hello, My Name is Doris.” This is the story of a 60-something woman who took on responsibility for her mother years ago. The movie starts with her mother’s death, and little by little discloses how she got to where she is, alone by herself, unable to part from even the smallest trinket she has ever owned. There is also a clever technique used to share the version of her life story that she wishes she could live which can be a bit confusing at times. It was not a “cute” role for Sally Field (no Gidget or Flying Nun here), but she handled it quite well, and it reminds us that there are relatively few gracefully aging older actresses.

Our granddaughter continues to amaze us with her creativity. She showed us a scroll with a brief synopsis of the story of Purim neatly printed in Hebrew. We assumed she had done this at school but in fact she simply took it on herself to make her own Megillat Esther, asking her parents to help her with Hebrew words she did not know! And she has continued to paint; her latest is the still life shown here.

 

Love,

Rebecca