Hope And Inspiration In Face Of Adversity

Driving to work one day, I heard
a book review on NPR of a
collection of true-life stories and
poetry called I Will Sing Life:

Voices from the Hole in the Wall
Gang Camp. The kids at this camp

have all confronted life-threatening
illnesses, and the collection is their
feelings written by them and edited
by Larry Berger and Dalhia
Lithwick.
"I Will Sing Life is a book of
extraordinary hope and inspiration.
It is a book of life, reverberating
with voices that are wise, funny,
poignant, always triumphant." This
quotation is from the flyleaf of the
book. It is totally accurate.
— Harlene W. Appelman

My family is really great.
Sometimes they can act like a giant
battery, too. A lot of times we fight.
Beth and I don't seem to get along.
We have an older-younger sister
thing. I don't mean to pick on her,
but I do. I really hate it because I
love my sister so much and I really

think she doesn't think I love her.
But sometimes we just can't get
along. Lately it's so hard because
she feels like everyone's paying
attention to me and I feel like
everyone's paying attention to her.
But a lot of times that happens with
siblings. Hopefully, when I'm off
treatment we'll get through this. I
know we will.

Mom

Sitting up late talking,
Telling you my dreams and
ambitions
To grow up and live.
Sometimes wanting to cry or
wanting to laugh.
Hoping that by all my hints
You would find out all my
misdoings.
Then forgive
Me without saying a word.
Knowing that at times I had lost
your trust.
Thinking all the things I had done
and never got caught.

Noah's Drunkenness

Continued from Page 59

With great sadness we read of men
and women, artists and athletes,
college students and teens, who
turn to drugs and alcohol after great
accomplishments, and we wonder
why they do this.

In Goethe's dramatic poem

Faust, we read of the story of a man

who sells his soul to the devil. Dr.
Faust, the hero of the poem, is a
middle-aged scholar and scientist
who has just about given up hope
that he will ever learn the true
meaning of life. He has begun to
fear that he will come to the end of
life, honored and well educated but
without ever having experienced
what it means to be truly alive.
And so, Faust makes a bargain
with the devil, promising the devil
his soul in the hereafter in
exchange for just one moment on
earth so fulfilling that he will be
moved to say, "Let this moment
linger, it is so good."

eel/WM

THE JEWISH NEWS

27676 Franklin Road
Southfield, Michigan 48034

October 30, 1992
Associate Publisher: Arthur M. Horwitz
Consultant: Harlene W Appelman

The problem with wanting and
searching for ecstatic experiences
as the key to the meaning of life is
that it is an unrealistic expectation.

If every moment is a high than no
moment is a high. Life has its peaks

and its valleys, its moments of
intense exhilaration and its common-
placeness.
A novelist said it well: "The
only way to live is by accepting
each minute as an unrepeatable
miracle." To the Jew, life is a series
of miracles and each moment must
be made sacred by the way in
which we use our time in this world.
Noah was unable to find meaning in
his life after the ark because he
was looking for it only in the
fantastic and extraordinary. He, like
so many of us, lacked the insight to
recognize that each day is another
gift from God, an occasion for joy
and gladness. It is by recognizing

the beauty of life and the sublimity
of the ordinary that ordinary people
are able to find meaning in life. It is

the little things in life that make a
difference: seeing your child walk
for the first time, spending a quiet
moment of intimacy with your
spouse, sharing simple pleasures
with a good friend, witnessing the
magnificence of nature.

Rabbi Gershon is associate rabbi of
Congregation Shaarey Zedek and
president of the Michigan Region of
the Rabbinical Assembly and
Conservative Rabbis of Metropolitan
Detroit.

Wanting to tell you my whole life but
Wondering if you would never
forgive or just not understand.
No matter what I thought I love you
till the end
Because you're my mother.
When I first got diagnosed, I
didn't have time to think about
myself; I helped my parents. My
mom and dad are very different
about it. My mom cries and yells
and is always there.
My dad worries all the time but he
tries not to show it. He had to get a
second job to make enough money
to pay all the medical bills.

I'm not home a lot when I'm
out of the hospital, and that drives
my parents crazy. It's real important
for me to go out and party a lot
because the whole time I was
supposed to be going through all
that teen-age stuff I was in the
hospital. I like spending a lot of time
with my friends because I miss
them and I'm afraid that
everything's going to happen when
I'm not there. I don't want them to
forget me when I'm away for the
week. I go out every night of the
weekend, even though my parents

try to stop me. Weeknights, too.
Sometimes I go out even when I'm
exhausted, so I won't miss anything.
I worry what my friends will think if I
leave early, so sometimes when I'm
really tired, I'll call home and start
yelling at my dad that I don't want
to bring the car home NOW, and
he'll play along and start yelling
back that I have to or I'm grounded.
It's not really lying, it's just a safe
way that I can go home and rest.

To the People Who Care,
The ones who are there
through the needles, surgery, and
chemo.
I thank you. You are the ones
who keep me going. You are my
shoulder to cry on and my punching
bag to let my aggressions out on.
You are the reason I put up with the
pain.
I give a second thanks to the
people who look past my shining
head and into my heart, past the
scars to the friendship inside. I
know these people inside are
staring but don't let it out because
they know that I am not just a
cancer patient. Thank you again for
letting me be me.
Love, Tina

From Peaks To Valleys ... Gradually

At this time of year, we have
concluded a peak experience in
time — the High Holiday Season.
Our sages felt the need to create
a passage from these peak
experiences back to ordinary life;
they sought to teach us to see
meaning beyond the high of the
holiday season. And so, built into
the rituals for this time of year is
a means of easing the transition
from the climax of this season to
ordinary life.
Our transition back to the
ordinary begins long before the
end of the special experience of
the holidays. In fact, it begins on
the first day of Sukkot. A midrash
connected with this day points
out that it is the first occasion
since the beginning of the new
year on which there is nothing
more to anticipate or prepare for.
Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur
have been observed; the sukkah
has been built, and the etrog and
Iulav have been purchased. While
still enjoying the rituals of Sukkot,
we, nevertheless, become aware
that the excitement of anticipation
and preparation are gone.
Indeed, according to the Torah,
with each passing day of Sukkot,
one less bull is to be sacrificed
by the community. This suggests
that the transition from the peak
experience to ordinary life is

accomplished gradually.

We have now entered the
month Mar Heshvan, and we
come to the last stop in our
transition back to the realm of the
ordinary. We are like Noah,
standing on the threshold of the
ark, just before leaving. Receding
is the peak experience of High
Holidays and Sukkot. Looming
ahead of us is the realm of
everyday. In this month, whose
very name has come to be
associated with emptiness, there
are no festivals to anticipate or
holidays to prepare for or
celebrate.
The challenge Judaism
poses to each of us is to take the
energy of the High Holiday
season and apply it to the days
that follow. Not every day can be
Rosh Hashanah or Simchat
Torah. But every day can burst
forth with meaning and fulfillment
if we only allow ourselves to
celebrate the simple, yet profound
glory of being alive and of being
Jewish. And if we can know this
truth, then we will be able to
declare with the psalmist: Zeh

hayom asa Hashem, naggila
v'nismicha vo — this is the day

that the Lord has made; Let us
rejoice and be glad in it.

—Rabbi William Gershon