I felt an immense personal unrest in Israel, until I very recently began working. The work I do is pure delight. And so, when in an email conversation with my father and my Uncle Larry, my father commented that I am the only one still working, I had to giggle.
Larry asked,"Still working? Still doing? Were we ever really working and doing? Treadmill, salt mines, opportunity, vision, repetition, circularity, spiral, arrow."
Shall I try,
this off time (perhaps)
to tell you
of my "work"?
Am I off, this moment,
4:31 a.m.,
we two on simple cots
in the basement apartment,
our guests in the Swiss System adjustable
luxury satin bed?
They will wake up to the view of the sea,
and we will change their sheets.
(to the song of the waves,
to the streaming of sun
bright from the open balcony).
> > And I own the place.
> >
> > We'll dance through the seavilla they've rented,
> > fluffing and shining,
> > tending the anemone, the clownfish,
> > (who works for whom,
> > in that finetuned
> > underwater contract?)
> > Anemone and clownfish,
> > the lover and the loved,
> > the loved and the lover.
> > A different equation
> > suggests itself.
> >
> > One of the services
> > our villa offers
> > is dinner at home.
> > Your hosts will prepare
> > a dinner to your specs
> > for you
> > and any number of guests.
> > We've served up to 61
> > (though that one was not "work")
> > Tonight was work
> > but just as fun.
> > Your hosts will prepare
> > the dinner you desire
> > or the dinner you don't have imagination to desire.
> > You may leave the dreaming
> > to us.
> > You may watch
> > at the cream coloured island,
> > some of you
> > may read bits aloud
> > from the books we set around
> > to delight and inspire. We'll talk of Israel
> > and of sushi rice.
> > The right balance
> > of vinegar and sugar.
> >
> > This week's guests chose
> > for tonight
> > the Japanese dinner.
> > I set the table
> > overlooking Mediterranean
> > this meal a ginger sorbet
> > between today's kibbutz tour
> > and tomorrow's Masada.
> >
> > While Beno prepared each exquisite course,
> > I sat with the guests
> > demonstrating the art of chopsticks,
> > this one stable, this one flexing,
> > a kabbala of eating utensils.
> > May we balance
> > the stable and the flexing
> > the chesed and gvurah
> > the working and the playing
> > the effort, the delight. I comically exaggerated
> > their choice of blessing,
> > a delicate Japanese "Itadakimas"
> > or a rowdy, "B'Tayavon"
> > and being in Israel
> > they chose B'Tayavon.
> >
> > Over yakitori salmon,
> > crisp, tender,
> > over sushi rolls,
> > a little sake,
> > I quietly guided the Israel talk
> > to hope and to knowing
> > (typically our guests
> > fall in love with the place.
> > Several have decided
> > to buy in Netanya)
> > (I do not take credit
> > for the weather,
> > or waves to beach,
> > the beauty of this place,
> > the story)
> >
> > Yes, by some formal definitions
> > tonight was work.
> > Or even this 5:03 a.m.
> > is part of our high season.
> >
> > While the guests are touring,
> > I sunlight as a Speech Therapist.
> > There was a leap moment.
> >> From "who would want me,
> > the immigrant who hardly speaks Hebrew,
> > fumbling, bumbling,
> > looking for words,
> > and saying them funny"
> > to "Here is an expert
> > from far across the sea
> > with a sparkle and a sense.
> > She studied in the new world.
> > Surely she has the elixir
> > that will heal our child". I am both.
> > I bumble and I search
> > and the children do well.
> > Let's see,
> > one little boy
> > ...........ah,
> > but suddenly,
> > this feels like work.
> > Someday, maybe tomorrow,
> > I'll feel like telling you
> > about the little one
> > who arranged the playhouse toys
> > equidistant
> > in perfect circles
> > a little kitchen sink
> > beside a toy daddy
> > both of equal meaning,
> > items to line up.
> > He used me to climb on
> > to reach a puzzle on the higher shelf.
> > And now when I arrive
> > he smiles
> > and meets my eyes
> > before he dives
> > for the toys I have brought.
> > And now the daddy toy
> > drives in the toy car
> > and pretending has dawned.
> > A story is forming,
> > and the little boy
> > is beginning to tell it.
> > But playhouse is fun
> > and it is not workhouse
> > for me.
> > There's my man
> > with a stroke at age 53,
> > too slowly recalling
> > his French and his Hebrew
> > but at least recovering
> > his family status
> > as man to be respected
> > the master of the house.
> > A little boy and his mom
> > come to me by train
> > to get his lips working:
> > they meet together over a kazoo
> > for the m sound.
> > His lips do the work
> > and I, the doula of sounds,
> > tell tongue tip
> > to touch palate
> > and birth
> > the letter t.
> > A woman needs to learn
> > samech which is s
> > and tsadik, a ts sound in Hebrew,
> > that phonetically is t plus s
> > and I know how to teach that
> > and besides,
> > she has chosen a time, her children grown,
> > to do this thing for herself,
> > to correct a skill
> > she's been waiting to work on. Okay,
> > time to sleep.
> > Tomorrow is Friday.
> > No work on Shabbat.
> > No treadmill, it's a creative, new act,
> > each day an invention,
> > or an opening to uncertainty.
> > No salt mines, I work to the rhythms
> > of wind and salty sea.
> > Opportunity? Who can know?
> > Vision, repetition, circularity, spiral, arrow.
> > Yes Uncle Larry,
> > the arrow spirals and circles and circles and spirals
> >
> > Nor arrow nor circle,
nor direction nor spiral,
our life, a heart
beats its steady song
our life, a heart,
beats:
"working for a living!"
> >
> >
> >
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