Weather It Is (Rational or Not)

Good Morning:

Men are rational beings.  And so it was I found myself mightily confused last night. First I dreamed that I bicycled north to Jerusalem and was so thrilled to be on my bicycle again that I signed up for a trip with an organized group.  However, this was sort of a contest.  The goal was to bicycle again to Jerusalem, but in the southerly direction. Along the way, I met people I knew from Israel, but (strangely) the way (roads) looked a lot like the way to New York City from my old home.  None of this made any sense.  On the other hand, leaving ones home and moving to Israel is not a rational decision, but a decision of belief.

Of course, Israel has a lot to recommend it (for an example, it is a country filled with people of different cultures, looks, and even religion, making for a very interesting place to live sociologically. There is thousands of years of history (mostly Jewish), and my favourite: (they say) 13 different climate zones.  It even has a thriving economy (although we need to recognize the contributions of diaspora Jewry).  But, when one realises that for two-thousand years we were in exile,  but no longer, one has to ask yourself: do you believe there's a reason for this and might now be a good time to take advantage of this opportunity!

Of course, living here is not always easy, although much easier than years ago when the economy was run like a social experiment, wealth was concentrated even more in the hands of the few, and wars were made with conventional armies, rather than missiles.  Life here can be a little bit like the weather, which can vary here from day to day quite extremely.  In fact, yesterday I closed the window because of a cold breeze, while a couple of days before I closed it because of the heat.

Yet, the next couple of weeks look to warm up a bit, but not too much, and then there is a greater chance than not that nothing will change at all. The cooler air will stay to our north, and the hot air will stay to our south and east. It's called stability, and it's something us rational men can appreciate.

And so we come to the climax of our story.  It is well known that the women-folk want their husbands to help around the house.  Rationally, one thinks this means to "help-me" with those things I need to do.  Yet, when I found myself in the kitchen putting away dishes, the second youngest daughter says to me: "what are you doing here, this is my kitchen!"  It is also well known that wives will ask (tell) their husbands to do things with the kids (take them out).  Yet, when I found myself headed out for the weekly baseball game, the question was: "where are you going and for how long?"

I asked my oldest daughter what I should do so that I can stay out of trouble.  Her response: "stand in one place until your told what to do!"

Now, you can see why I had this strange dream.  My poor rational self was trying to make sense of conflicting ideas/instructions -- something I could never do no matter how hard I tried to make it so.  Quite simply: you can't go north to Jerusalem and south to Jerusalem, unless you realise that all roads lead to Jerusalem eventually, and this is where we should be (and despite its complexities, we should all strive to be happily married, and take life in stride because its where we should be, too).

Barry Lynn