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Bridal
Gout

New Year's Revolutions
For The Determined

,esents

going to be selective in 1998, I am.
I am also going to revolt against the
tyranny of convenience.
I find that I keep settling for things
because they are handy. The nearest
gas station isn't the best. The closest
dry cleaner mangles shoulder pads.
The nearby hardware store has the
longest lines. The produce stocked as
an afterthought by the kosher shop is
not as good as the fruits and veggies at
the supermarket, but it sure is easy to
acquire. I fall for that when I'm pick-
ing up challah, and feel too pooped to
make a stop at the supermarket. I'm
going to get organized, buy kosher
stuff at the kosher store, and restock
my kitchen with general groceries
before I run out of stuff, save money
and be a better human being, too. I'm
sure I am.
Convenience is the escape hatch of
the chronically tardy, so I have to
revolt against getting behind. That
leads me to my last new year's revolt:
I'm rebelling against my "Things to
Do" list, my agenda book, my over-
committed, over-pleasing-everybody,
incipient collapsing superwoman
schedule. Enough.
I'm going to have a more positive
year by doing a negative thing: I'm
going to say "no."
When I'm asked to set up for the
shul party and vacuum after, I'm going
to do one, but not the other. When
those irresistible offers come up that
will sandbag my schedule for weeks,
I'm going to resist. I'm going to save
time for important things, and I'm
going to do a better job of deciding
what's important. I'm going to say
"yes" to messing around with my kids
and "no" to attending another meet-
ing. "Yes" to a movie with my mother
and "no" to serving on yet one more
committee. "Yes" to living at the pace
of my children and "no" to living at
warp speed.
I'm going to find time to pray, and
I'm going to pray for time. Maybe
that's the way to bring about a real rev-
olution. ❑

ERICA RAUZIN
Special to The Jewish News

R

esolutions are too faint-
hearted and never seem to
stick much past the end of
January. If I hope for real
change in the New Year, some revolu-
\ tions — not resolutions — will be
• required. The change in vocabulary is
apt, because I am fomenting revolt
(but not, I hope, revulsion).
I am going to revolt against the mail
before it takes over my house. Daily it
arrives, stacks and stacks and stacks of
it. Sometimes, rarely, there is an actual
letter,.a missive from a friend. This
doesn't occur much nowadays, when
\ _even Zayde e-mails, but it has been
known to happen. This is good mail.
Even more rarely, but often enough
to matter, there is a check; that is good
mail, too. That's about it, except for
the magazines I love. The rest is bills
(fair enough, I knew they would come
sooner or later) and junk.
Catalogues come at the rate of two
or
three
a day, accompanied by a half-
1
_clozen charity solicitations. I don't
/ -mind the local fund-raiser invitations;
those are from friends who also get
them from me. I don't even mind
hearing from every Jewish organization
in the known world. I am, in fact,
Jewish and I can read, which seem to
be the only qualifications for getting all
•
these mailers.
I do mind being bombarded by
\ _ charities who clearly are spending
more on mail than on saving the
world, or whatever their mission is.
The world should be saved, but with
, efficiency. My solution: I'm putting a
garbage can under the mailbox. I'm
going to sort on the front steps: solici-
:tion from strangers, catalogues for
,;,:d merchandise, coupons from
non-kosher pizza parlors 200 miles
away, all this effluvia, can be immedi-
ately dropped in the circular file. Some
days there won't be anything to carry
inside, alas. I hope Earl the Mailman
doesn't take this amiss, but if he isn't

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