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Heavenly Postcards
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* * * * * HANNUKAH GIFT * * * * *
Screenwriter stays interconnected
with loved ones — even after death.
P
OSTCARDS
Suzanne Chessler
Special to the Jewish News
(7)
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C18
December 18 • 2008
D
an Gordon's long-held reli-
gious beliefs have given rise
to his daily messages to God.
In more recent times, faith has led
him to interpret certain experiences as
positive messages from departed loved
ones.
The sighting of an unusual jackrab-
bit, for instance, was connected to a
long-ago episode and then understood
as upbeat tidings regarding his oldest
son, Zaki, who died in a car accident
on the first day of Chanukah 1998,
when he was 22.
Gordon, a writer for stage and
screen, describes what he considers
otherworldly communications and
explains his reasoning in Postcards
from Heaven: Messages of Love from
the Other Side (Free Press; $19.95).
"The book explores the notion that
what we call life doesn't end with what
we call death:' explains Gordon, 61,
who was head writer for the Highway
to Heaven TV series. "I truly believe
there are messages sent to us con-
stantly from those who have crossed
over to the other side.
"They're not great, weighty tomes or
long letters. They're really postcards.
They're lovely, sweet, gentle messages,
often at times when we need them the
most.
"That is a very hopeful notion. It
defines the soul as eternal and presup-
poses all kinds of wonderful possibili-
ties."
Gordon's book, originally written
just for close family and friends, was
completed in three weeks and finished
last year during Chanukah. It is meant
to be read in one sitting. Gordon want-
ed to express deep feelings about loss,
beyond his son, that he had not been
able to say face to face.
"After I had a chance to let the man-
uscript cool down and began talking
to people about it, I heard comments
that others had similar experiences:'
Gordon says. "I sent the manuscript
to my manager and asked what he
thought. He said he knew an agent
who would be right for this as a book,
and the agent went ahead with it."
-
Gordon — currently working on a
play set for Broadway and an indepen-
dent film, both with Jewish themes
— compares Postcards to a family
scrapbook that also has universal
qualities.
"It tells a lot of the immigrant expe-
rience and the creation of Israel: he
explains. "Through our family's his-
tory, it tells the history of the Jewish
experience over the past 100 or so
years."
Gordon, not someone merely linger-
ing in the past, is keeping his son's
memory alive by establishing and
steering the Zaki Gordon Institute for
Independent Filmmaking in Arizona.
The instruction is patterned on Zaki's
ideas during his college years, and
there are film festivals and awards.
"I think the idea of postcards is
completely embedded in Jewish phi-
losophy, stories and literature says
Gordon. "The notion of reincarnation
of souls is not foreign to Chasidic
thought nor is the notion that the soul
is eternal.
"I hope the book gets readers think-
ing about the times when loved ones
on the other side seemed to reach out
with messages of love. I hope that has
a healing and quietly joyous effect." ❑
Gordon maintains a Web site,
www.postcardsfromheavenonline.
corn, inviting people to share
their own personal "postcards"
for a second book on the same
theme.