Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Wonderful and Horrible and Wonderful

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The President spoke to the UN today and something he said confused me.  He said, “Democracy cannot be imposed through military force.”  Which is true. But the word  “imposed” was disturbing. I thought that democracy was a choice that people or countries made by themselves... maybe in an election and maybe because of economics or technology.  But what is the alternative the President is suggesting.  And if he is saying it depends on what the people want, then why were we in Iraq or Afghanistan. Maybe I misunderstood.  But I am not going to waste my time on things that happen at the UN, although the NYPD has so screwed up the traffic that it is impossible to move anywhere on the East side-- even if you need to retrieve a car or get to your apartment.  Maybe it will be better when Obama leaves. Hopefully that will be tonight.

The staged reading of Gefilte Fish Chronicles, the Musical was fantastic both in Newburgh and in NYC. The cast and crew were at their best and the audiences were very receptive. They laughed and cried in all the right places.  So now, if anyone has a couple of millions, there is a show for you to produce.


Team Gefilte, Autumn 2013, New York

The most wonderful and the most horrible things happened to me yesterday.  In the wonderful category was the show and the reconnection with a dear friend. In the horrific category, I lost my phone.  It is important to note that I do not have a smart phone.  I have a relic of years gone by.  But it does have a keyboard, all my contacts and a keyboard that is big enough to type on.   When I realized it was gone, I was a bit panicked but happily, I did not have a melt down.  That didn’t happen until after we called the restaurant and the cab company.  Neither had any idea where it might have disappeared.  When something like this happens, you can not depend on the people who were not there, when you were there,  to be of any help.  It seemed to me that it made more sense to storm the eatery and look for myself.

When I was ready to go David suggested that I call my phone and see if anyone answered. As I mentioned, this is not a phone anyone would steal to use...except as a paperweight.  So that’s what I did. And someone did answer. And he was lovely. Unbeknown to us he found the phone in the cab this morning and called the first person on my contacts, Angie in LA. I did not know this because he called Angie at 6am LA time.  He was working in our neighborhood and we thanked him and told him we would be right over. 

When something like that happens you feel incredibly vulnerable.  And worse, since none of us know any important telephone numbers anymore, isolated.  I mean, family, friends and professional relationships -- no one.  You type their name, and the fone calls them for you.   It was only a few years ago, before I had a million contacts in my phone rather than my head, that I asked my cousin for her daughter’s phone number, and she didn’t know it.  This will never happen to me, I thought-- incorrectly.  Yes, it is convenient to press a button to connect with someone in your life. But connections should be much more important, shouldn’t they?

Anyway, it was terrific to have my phone and continue to press buttons all day. But I did start to memorize those numbers I want to keep in my head instead of in the cloud.  We’re just sayin’… Iris

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