What is the right way to think about this movie?

Sorry I have been a bit lax in my writing. I do not know if it is the cold weather, the preponderance of bad news at every turn, or the fact that I am (yet again) on an antibiotic for a respiratory infection, which fortunately does seem to be kicking in.

We went with Eliana and Maya last week to see “Ralph Breaks the Internet,” the second animated film with voicework by John C. Reilly, Sarah Silverman, Jack McBrayer, Jane Lynch, and Ed O'Neill reprising their roles from “Wreck-It Ralph.” I was stunned just now to realize that the first film came out back in 2012 when I was still blogging on Caring Bridge! I did not really say too much about it other than to note that it was a film Barry and I might never have gone to see on our own, but had gone with the children.

But this second film of the series definitely generated a lot of discussion. The film begins six years after the first ends, during which Wreck-It Ralph (voice of John C. Reilly) and Vanellope Von Schweetz (voice of Sarah Silverman) have been best friends, hanging out together after work in an arcade. While Vanellope is becoming bored with her life and looking for something new, Ralph is going to great lengths to try to ensure the longevity of their current game. In the end, Vanellope finds her way into a new game. In a sense, they each achieved their goals, but the trouble was that Ralph’s goal could not be met if Vanellope’s was.

What is the message we are giving to children? Are there times when our own personal desires need to give way to those of the people around us? And how would these questions perhaps be answered differently if the genders had been switched? Are we more accepting of the idea that a woman would compromise her own desires than a man would?

A lot to think about as we begin this new year.

Love,

Rebecca

So much love

One of our Chanukah presents for Julia was a set of tickets to see “Disney on Ice: Worlds of Enchantment” at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center in Providence. It was longer than we expected – two hours with only a 15-minute break, but she was completely engrossed in every minute of it.

To prepare for the day, we had also bought her a complete Elsa costume which she wore to the show, along with hundreds of other little girls who were there. Eliana came along with us to help out and enjoyed the show as well.

Have a wonderful week!

Love,

Rebecca

Sad day

I first wrote about our friend Mark Weiner on July 31^st of 2012. Shortly after my diagnosis with primary CNS lymphoma, Mark, a neurologist, had been diagnosed with a glioblastoma, a rare and difficult to treat tumor in his brain. He had over six years of ups and downs, supported by a loving family and community of devoted friends through countless treatments, but in the end, it was just not meant to be, and we received the sad news on Sunday morning that Mark had died.

We have known Mark and his wife Hedy Wald Weiner since living in Sharon from 1986-1991. Their children were somewhat younger than ours and we never became close friends back then, but over these past few years we have obviously been drawn together by our common experiences with health issues. Hedy is now a Clinical Professor of Family Medicine at Brown University who has published a number of insightful pieces about dealing with Mark’s illness over these past few years.

The funeral was held in Sharon this morning. We could not be there because I have a treatment on Wednesday. I did use the link to the live broadcast, but due to technical problems those of us trying to watch from afar missed the first half.

I am proud to count Hedy as one of my most avid blog readers who has, despite all the personal challenges, frequently sent me encouraging notes to keep up my writing. I have to be honest, I am really having a hard time with this one. I only wish I could do or could have done even a small fraction for her of all she has done for me.

Love,

Rebecca

Four days/four games/four wins

What a wild past few days this has been!!! We headed up to Sharon on Thursday for the first game of the four-day Maimonides School Invitational Basketball Tournament in Memory of Leland Gelman, a Maimonides School alum (Class of 1982), to whom sports meant a great deal. You can read more about him here:

http://www.maimohoops.org/tribute-to-leland-gelman/

This year’s line-up featured four boys’ teams:

Maimonides School (Brookline, MA)

Farber Hebrew Day School (Southfield, MI)

Hillel Yeshiva High School (Ocean, NJ)

North Shore Hebrew Academy (Great Neck, NY)

There were also four girls’ teams competing: Maimonides School, Farber Hebrew Day School, Ma’ayanot Yeshiva High School for Girls (Teaneck, NJ), and North Shore Hebrew Academy, but the gymnasium is not sufficiently large to accommodate all the guests for all the games, so we only watched “our” team.

Here are the outcomes of the four games the M-Cats played:

Game	Maimonides M-Cats vs.	Score
1	North Shore	60 to 37
2	Farber	83 to 40
3	Hillel	52 to 40
Championship	North Shore	59 to 48

As I had mentioned earlier, Joshua is the sole freshman on the M-Cats, and was also the sole freshman on any of the four teams in the tournament! Hence Joshua does not spend a lot of time actually playing, but he has clearly become a part of the team, and the coach works hard to put the new kids in play whenever he can. So, we did get to see him play a bit, scoring one basket and a bunch of rebounds. A number of people told us they see a very bright future for this talented young man, and we certainly could not disagree!

 (final game)

(Joshua is third from the left in this picture) 

Joshua and Ella were away over Sabbath, so we had lunch with the rest of the family at Dina’s house. On Sunday, Barry and I picked up dinner at Rami’s in Brookline and we all gathered at Simmie and Ronen’s house for a quick bite. Everyone was exhausted from the very busy weekend!

The one regret we have is that Maya played in a small recital on Sunday afternoon that we were not able to attend. It is a wonderful blessing to have so many things going on that we just cannot be present at all of them! Ella has also started piano lessons so there will undoubtedly be more happy scheduling conflicts to resolve!

Have a wonderful week.

Love,

Rebecca

Addendum to last post

Addendum

Barry and I were already a “couple” by the summer of 1971, travelling as frequently as we could between our parents’ homes in New York and West Hartford. So I wondered why we had not gone to Carnegie Hall to see Carole King. Barry just reminded me: that same evening (coincidentally, the night after his birthday), he had bought tickets for us to see B.B. King at The Filmore East, one of the last shows performed there before its June 27^th closing. So we were so close and yet so far….

How did they miss this one?

In the Double Jeopardy round yesterday, there was a category called “A Pop-Up Category,” and the $2000 answer was:

“And if this old world starts getting you down, there’s room enough for two” here.

None of the three contestants got it – maybe they were just too young. But for us boomers, this is a very familiar line from the song “Up on the Roof” written by  Gerry Goffin (lyrics) and Carole King (tune) and originally recorded in 1962 by The Drifters. Ms. King would later record the song on her 1970 Writer album. James Taylor played guitar and sang it with Ms. King at her Carnegie Hall concert on June 18, 1971, and later recorded his own version of “Up on the Roof” on his 1979 album, Flag.

A fun walk down memory lane thanks to Jeopardy!

Love,

Rebecca

A busy week

It has been over a week since my last post, and I barely know where to begin, so I will just try to go in chronological order.

We had a wonderful Shabbat up in Sharon last weekend. Rabba Sara Hurwitz, a member of the rabbinic team at the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale (HIR), was in Sharon as a scholar in residence at Kol Shira (translates as the voice of song), a traditional Jewish “partnership minyan” which provides opportunities for women to lead parts of the service and take other roles not usually done in the more traditional, orthodox Jewish setting. Rabba Sara has been at HIR for many years but this was a unique opportunity to spend time with and learn with her in a smaller setting, and was thoroughly enjoyable and uplifting.

Chanukah began on Sunday evening, and we were fortunate to be able to stay for the first two nights. We celebrated with Dina and family on the first night. Dina made delicious latkes (potato pancakes, the Eastern European tradition) and sufganiot (jelly doughnuts, the Israeli tradition), along with, of course, some healthier selections to round out the meal. 

Aaron figured out how to inject some jelly into the doughnuts!

A month or so ago I had seen the perfect gift for Noah in a catalogue from the Metropolitan Museum gift shop, and could not resist. Hopefully he will not lose too many of the 62 pieces!

On the second night we joined Simmie and family for dinner and candle lighting.

Both nights included gifts for the children. Eliana is always the easiest because she provides us a long list of things she would like to have, and we bought her a number of items on that list. For the other children, we tried to emphasize “experiences,” so there were a lot of tickets to upcoming shows and sporting events.

We drove back to New York on Tuesday, leaving early so Barry could attend meetings all afternoon. I spent Wednesday at MSKCC, having a CT scan and then my regular treatment, so it was a long and exhausting day.

Thursday evening, we went to Carnegie Hall to see a taping of the NPR radio show, “Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me.” We had done this at Tanglewood a couple of times, and the host Peter Sagal mentioned that the show had not been done at Carnegie Hall in 10 years. Candace Bergen was the guest. It was, as always, a terrifically fun evening, but we’re both a little tired today! We have a quiet Shabbat planned.

Stay warm, and for those who are observing this week, Happy Chanukah!

Love,

Rebecca