Slow return to regular life

This has been a stubborn upper respiratory tract infection. I took ten days of antibiotics but my strong suspicion is that it was viral, so I am still just waiting for it to pass. The main consequence was a very quiet Passover holiday at home for Barry and me.

But little by little I am trying to get out. This past weekend we finally went back to Sharon. We had dinner Friday evening with Dina and family and lunch on Sabbath day with Simmie. Maya had her closest friend over for lunch and it was fun watching the girls giggling all afternoon.

We had bought tickets for “Sesame Street Live” on Sunday afternoon at a lovely classic theater, the Providence Performing Arts Center (https://www.ppacri.org).

PPAC is a 3100-seat, world class venue located in the heart of Providence’s arts and entertainment district; it is the second largest theatre of its kind in the country.  PPAC is listed on the National Register of Historic Places; it has also been ranked by Pollstar as one of the Top Venues in the world. The theatre became known as the “Jewel of Weybosset Street” after its doors opened as Loew’s State Movie Palace in 1928.

The beauty of the Theatre combined with the excellence of the productions makes every event at the Providence Performing Arts Center a work of art!

The lighting was dim so pictures were difficult but here are a couple we managed to take. Julia was totally engrossed in the show! Ella had gone to a friend’s birthday party but Eliana was thrilled when we asked her to join us, and she was a big help with Julia.

When we returned to Sharon, with our two little ladies soundly asleep in the back seat, we took off with Ella, Joshua, and Aaron to buy Ella a new bicycle. She is tall enough now to justify buying her a somewhat better bicycle which should last a few years. We headed over to Landry’s Bicycles, a wonderful shop near Sharon, where we are rather certain that we had bought Simmie and Dina their first “real” bicycles back in the late 1980s. The current location is quite a bit larger than it was back then, and they still have a great selection of bicycles and helpful staff. After trying a number of bicycles Ella settled on this one:

http://www.landrys.com/product/trek-skye-womens-277537-1.htm

The Sunday during Passover was a beautiful day and we headed for a while to the Botanical Gardens, where a new exhibit of works by artist Dale Chihuly was about to open. There are programs planned around the exhibit throughout the coming months and we hope to return to it when our grandchildren visit this summer. Here are a few pictures to give you an idea of the artwork on display.

We had bought tickets for the Mets’ opening day game on April 3^rd but I was not up to going. Fortunately, we were able to sell them quite quickly. Unfortunately, after a very good start to the season, the Mets have not been doing very well. But we are still hopeful, and the weather is supposed to be good on Thursday so we now have tickets for the afternoon game they are playing at Citi Field. Let’s hope the weather holds out.

As I end these words, I heard an interesting piece on NPR’s “Fresh Air” about a new book by Kory Stamper, Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries. One of the topics Terry Gross discussed with the author was the appropriateness of ending a sentence with a preposition. Apparently, the thinking on this topic has changed, so I guess it is no longer something of which I need to be afraid. But clearly, I still am.

Have a good week!

Love,

Rebecca

A very quiet holiday

This Passover was already going to mark a major difference for us: for the first time since they were married in 2000, Dina and Aaron planned to spend the first part of the week-long holiday in Baltimore. But we were happy to be planning to spend the first days in Sharon with Simmie and Ronen and the girls.

The first days of this holiday are the major part, the time when families gather for the at-home service known as a Seder (say-dare). It is full of song and ritual foods and can be quite an enjoyable evening if you are not under the weather or not too exhausted from the extensive preparations.

As they say, people plan and Gd laughs….and, unfortunately, I have had a rather stubborn respiratory infection that forced us to rethink those plans and opt for a very quiet holiday here in New York. We had prepared our house because we had planned all along to come back here for the second half of the holiday. But it was a bit lower key than we would have liked. Simmie and Ronen had, fortunately, invited other company so they were still able to have a more joyous couple of days.

Of course, even this disappointment is much better than the level of “excitement” we had five years ago or forty years ago. But it was the right decision to make, because I am still not completely back up to speed.

Hopefully things will look brighter a week from now. We do plan to be in Sharon because we have tickets to take Julia and Ella to “Sesame Street Live” up in Providence on the 23^rd.  

Enjoy the warm weather!

Love,

Rebecca

Forty blessed years

April the 4^th of 1977 was a Monday, the second day of Passover. I was 28 weeks into what had been a mostly uneventful pregnancy. About two weeks earlier I felt what I’ve always called, using parlance stolen from a popular movie released later that year, a “tremor in the Force.” I called my obstetrician who suggested I come in, and by then my blood pressure, which had been normal, was quite elevated. Within one week I was admitted to the hospital with epigastric pain, a rather dire symptom of severe pre-eclampsia. In these cases, the outlook is not great for either the baby or the mother, but after a few days with increasingly severe symptoms a decision was made to deliver the baby. This little girl came into the world weighing just 1090 grams, 2 lbs. 7 oz.

We were fortunate to be at an excellent medical facility, The University of Rochester Strong Memorial Hospital. Those early weeks were quite a roller coaster ride but little Simmie was a fighter. And here we are, a mere forty years later, still celebrating our little miracle.

In Simmie’s honor, we sponsored a surprise Kiddush (refreshments after Shabbat services) and I am proud of the girls for keeping the secret. Here is a picture of the sheet cake we served.

And here is a picture of a tee shirt I could not resist buying for our birthday girl. Leave it to Simmie to point out that, technically, she was “made” in 1976, not 1977! I just love that wry sense of humor.

In the Jewish tradition, Moses was said to have died at the ripe old age of 120, at which “his eye had not dimmed, and his vigor had not diminished.” For this reason, Jews commonly wish one another that they should live until 120. Simmie, you’re 1/3 of the way there!

Love,

Mom/Rebecca

Too much diffusion?

The pulmonary condition with which I was diagnosed following an open lung biopsy back in 2000 is known by the acronym DIPNECH: Diffuse Idiopathic Pulmonary NeuroEndocrine Cell Hyperplasia, thought to be a precursor to what are known as carcinoid tumors of the lung. The cancer with which I was diagnosed five years ago is Primary Central Nervous System Lymphoma. It was only this week for the first time that I realized a rather odd connection between these two completely unrelated conditions. Although both cancers and carcinoids can occur as solid lesions that can be surgically excised, in my case both presented in spread out, scattered, dispersed forms not treatable by excision.

This sudden insight came to me as I was chatting with Dr. Michelle Kim, the new physician who has taken over from the long-time carcinoid guru at Mount Sinai, Dr. Richard Warner, who retired last year in his late 80s. As far as Dr. Kim and I could tell, there is absolutely no medical significance to this observation, but as I have continued to think about it I cannot help but wonder whether therein lies some sort of cosmic or spiritual significance. Perhaps my life has not been sufficiently focused to achieve the things of which I might have been capable with more directed effort. Maybe I just needed to be a lot less scatter-brained, so to speak.

I may not have accomplished all I might have been able to do, but I can still enjoy the things I am able to do. And one of those that was quite a lovely surprise was the newly released movie version of “Beauty and the Beast.” Let me first say that despite large numbers of charming little girls in princess dresses at the late Sunday morning matinee, this is absolutely not, in my mind, a movie for young children. Although we all know it has a happy ending, there is a lot of violence along the way. The movie has a PG rating, but I think most parents just ignore that “P” and assume that since it is animated it must be just fine for young children. Our granddaughter Ella (10), saw it Saturday night with her Mom and a friend, and we took Eliana (11) to the early Sunday matinee. Maya, who is 8, did not want to go, and in retrospect we are glad she made that choice.

Having said that, it was really a very good film. I do not believe you have to have children to go and see this – it is even playing on the Luxe Level where patrons must be at least eighteen years old! The movie was done as a live action/digital hybrid, meaning that the human characters are all played by actual actors, while the various inanimate objects that “come to life” as part of the story were obviously done using digital animation. Emma Watson is absolutely charming as Belle, and her father Maurice is warmly played by Kevin Kline. There are quite a few other well-known actors, including Emma Thompson, Audra McDonald, and Stanley Tucci, as well as many unfamiliar names all of whom were superb. Eliana would have been quite happy to sit through a second screening if we could have done so.

But Barry and I had three tickets for the Celtics vs. The Miami Heat: a Chanukah present we had gotten for Joshua. What a game that was! The Celtics had a rather weak first quarter, but sometime during the second quarter they woke up and it was truly neck and neck until the second half of the fourth quarter, when they finally managed to pull ahead by enough points to win the game. I am not much of a sports enthusiast but I have to say that was an exciting match.

We returned to New York on Monday morning, back to the regular grind of doctor appointments and such. We completed most of the Passover preparation in our Sharon apartment and now we are working on getting the house here ready, since we will be spending time in both places again this year.

Right now I will just be happy if the weather improves a bit. I am really tired of the cold!

Love,

Rebecca

New musical horizons

Whenever I meet a fellow respiratory patient the topic of oxygen providers inevitably comes up, and I have yet to find anyone who is completely happy with the service they have. I started with a company called American Oxygen and they were so unreliable that after a couple of years I decided to take my chances with another company. Lincare has provided my oxygen needs for the past five years or so, and I have a great relationship with Reuben, the fellow who is assigned to this area. However, the Lincare office is not very well organized, so they can only give me a fairly wide window for arrival, which means I am often stuck at home all day on Thursdays, the day they make deliveries in this area. Aggravating as this is for me, it is a source of great frustration to Reuben, who bears the brunt of clients who take out their annoyance with the office management on him. Lincare used to have a location not far from here where we could just drive and pick up oxygen ourselves, but they closed that office, leaving the nearest one in New Jersey. Unless we want to spend anywhere from 1-3 hours driving there,  I am completely at the mercy of their schedule.

For that reason, although there are two very interesting classes at Hebrew Institute on Thursday mornings, I only attend them sporadically. I had gotten oxygen last week so was free yesterday and went to both. The classes are generally attended by senior citizens, some well into their 80s, most of them women. They are an impressively knowledgeable and engaged group.

The first Thursday morning class is a text-based course taught by Senior Rabbi Steven Exler on The Book of Kings. Rav Steven is an enthusiastic teacher and has attracted quite a devoted group of regular attendees to his classes.

The second course, taught by Rabbi Ari Hart, is called “The Torah of Music: Exploring Jewish Musical Traditions, From the Tanach* to Today.” I have only learned with Rav Ari a couple of times but today was really special. I don’t know what he has covered over the past months since the course began, but this morning he covered two songs composed and recorded by contemporary Israeli artists.

The first is called “Tefillah HaChiloni,” “Prayer of the Secular,” written and performed by Kobi Oz, a man who has clearly struggled with his relationship to Jewish tradition. Mr. Oz is an equal opportunity critic, finding fault with both secular and all shades of religious (Haredi (Ultra Orthodox), modern (“National”) Orthodox, and Reform) Jews and offering hope that we can come together and focus on praying for peace. Some in the class found his words offensive, but I think that if we are honest with ourselves we must all own some of his criticism.

The second song, written and performed by Eviatar Banai, is called “Aba,” “Father.” This piece is as much a prayer as it is a song. “Father, I want to be sure with all my heart that this journey I’m taking has a happy end.” What more beautiful prayer can there possibly be?

Father, I want to stand here before you

And believe you’re a good Father

Father, I need to know that you love me

Just like this (for no reason), my good Father

Father, I want to be sure with all my heart

That this journey I am taking has a happy end

That whatever I encounter in the way

Will turn weakness into great strength

Father, I want to return to me

And find you here with me

In my origin I am purely good

And there, only there, I believe in myself

My dove in the clefts of the rock

Let me hear your voice

Sing me a song, a new song

That will light up my heart and my cords.

Have a safe and peaceful weekend.

Love,

Rebecca

*Torah (five books of Moses), Navi (prophets), and Chetuvim (writings)

A time for every experience

On Sunday we had hoped to go see the new 4K digital print of Woody Allen’s 1979 film, “Manhattan,” which was playing at The Film Forum in SOHO. But then we heard on the news that his beloved island was hosting a half marathon that day, and we have lived here long enough to know better than to venture into the City when such City-wide events are taking place. Even if the route does not go through the specific neighborhood you plan to visit, it throws off traffic all over the City and is just not fun.

So instead we went to see a movie at a small theater up in Westchester, “The Sense of an Ending.” The movie travels back and forth in time, emphasizing the stark contrast that can exist between the events we remember and the events that actually occurred. The life being examined is that of a fellow named Tony Webster, and you are never really quite sure which is the real version of the events that shaped much of his adult life. To be honest, I felt lost during much of it. I had a very hard time figuring out who was whom then and now.

In our music class this week we studied Mozart’s Piano Concerto #23 in A major. Barry and I had never heard this one, but the instructor, Louis Rosen, is quite fond of this particular concerto, particularly the second movement. This fact led to an interesting discussion about proper behavior at the symphony: to clap, or not to clap, between movements. Should applause be viewed as a dictum from Kohelet (Ecclesiastes), in which Solomon wrote

A season is set for everything, a time for every experience under the heaven:

Should we add to the list of experiences:

A time to applaud, a time to refrain from applauding

The rules of etiquette at concerts have long dictated that applause is reserved for the end of an entire piece, although there is much evidence this was not always the case. Louis said he never thought about this much until he took his teen-age son, not a particular fan of classical music, to a concert, and the young man began to applaud after the first movement. I have to admit that, before this discussion, when I would see someone clapping before the completion of a piece, I would just assume that the person had never been to a concert before. Perhaps it is a “rule” worth reconsidering. Or perhaps not. Call me old fashioned, but the rules of decorum at classical music concerts add a reverence that is a valuable part of the experience. For now, I choose to continue to value the tradition.

After a routine medical appointment in the City yesterday, we decided to head downtown to catch the final day of “Manhattan.” Woody Allen’s alter-ego in this movie is Isaac, a twice-divorced television writer. When the movie begins, Isaac, a man around 40 years old, is dating Tracy (Mariel Hemingway) a 17-year-old senior at the prestigious Dalton School. Then he meets Mary (Diane Keaton) and the two become romantically involved. Meryl Streep has a small role as Isaac’s ex-wife.  We have seen this movie a number of times but it is always a special experience to see Woody Allen movies in the neighborhoods so often featured in his New York films.

Take care, all.

Love,

Rebecca

About children but not for children

The winner of the Best Animated Film Oscar for this year was a movie we saw and I wrote about in March of last year, “Zootopia.” This week we saw another one of last year’s nominees, “My Life as a Zucchini,” a story told in Claymation. The original version featured a French cast, but the movie now showing here has an English-speaking cast that includes Will Forte, Nick Offerman, Ellen Page, and Amy Sedaris. Like “Zootopia,” it is a film worth seeing.

Do not be mistaken, this may be a movie about children but it is not a movie for children. The little boy at the center of the story is named Icarus, but he goes by the name Courgette (Zucchini). He is a lonely little guy whose father has long since abandoned the family and whose mother is a chronic alcoholic who ignores or abuses him. A freak accident causes her death and he is taken in as a ward of the state, where he is placed in an orphanage. But he continues to have a relationship with the social worker who handles his case (if you are familiar with Ron Swanson, Nick Offerman’s character from “Parks and Recreation,” you will agree that Mr. Offerman is perfectly cast here as the sweet heart under the somewhat gruff exterior) and also develops a kind friendship with a girl named Camille who comes to live at the orphanage when all she has is an aunt (voiced by Amy Sedaris) who is more interested in the girl’s inheritance than her wellbeing. Things start out rough but Zucchini eventually finds his voice and carves out a friendship with the bully of the group.

The story does end optimistically for Zucchini and Camille, but you are left saddened by the realization that they were just a couple of lucky ones in a cruel world that leaves far too many children in very sad situations. I recognize that these foreign language films are not widely distributed in the United States, but if you do have a chance to see it, you should. The care and patience that go into producing a full length movie with Claymation are awe-inspiring.

Have a great weekend.

Love,

Rebecca