Unable to find a stamp that was issued today or one that honored someone who was born or died today, I went rummaging in the detritus of my late father’s collection and turned up a wonderful gem: a leather postcard from Mohonk Lake, NY mailed on September 20,1907.
On its own, the postcard – with its picture of a small boy giving a young girl a heart with the phrase “It’s All For You” – is a gem. But it’s particularly special to me because of a few wonderful trips both sides of my extended family took to Mohonk Mountain House, a wonderful old-style resort hotel, in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Several memories stand out. In the mid 1990s, when my sister and her family were living in New Zealand, they came to the US for a visit and we all met at Mohonk for a late summer weekend, just before our twin daughters were about to start school (probably kindergarden). I remember being amused and delighted by the fact that all of three my sister’s children had pronounced New Zealand accents and mannerisms. I remember a talent show that all the kids put on one night. I can’t recall what anyone performed but I remember it was quite delightful. I believe that’s also the night I officially gave my niece Tova the wonderful old Alexander French Horn that my parents had (for some odds reason) gotten me and then kept in their house for over a decade, even though I almost never practiced. Tova, who practiced and who was (and still is) much better than I ever was, graciously accepted the horn but gave me back the mouthpiece, since she had one of her own. And I remember that my sister gave us a cassette tape of children’s songs recorded by a New Zealand musician that was a staple in our family for some time (probably until the tape finally broke).
But my favorite Mohonk memory involves my wife’s family, which gathered at Mohonk in the late 1980s (a trip that may have been the last time I ever played golf, a sport I never really took up and certainly one that I certainly never mastered). Being an old-fashioned resort, Mohonk had (and perhaps still has) a bulletin board where the next day’s activities – such as “a hike with Bill” or “water color painting with Sheila” were posted on index cards. This, of course, was an invitation to my still-present juvenile side. So I added another activity (inspired by the great Monty Python argument sketch), that said something like: “Getting hit on the head with a big stick with Chuck.” That night at dinner, one of my wife’s siblings (who will be unnamed here), said something like, “I saw the weirdest activity on the bulletin board….” I think I confessed that it was my doing, but I can’t say for sure. Even today that memory makes me smile.
It’s striking that my writeup of today’s #stampoftheday focuses on memories because the verb “remember” appears in many places in the High Holy Day services. It’s in an extra passage added to the Amidah, (a prayer that is at the heart of almost every Jewish observance) in which we ask: “remember us to life, Adonai, who delights in life.” And a key part of Yom Kippur observances is Yizkor (a Hebrew word that means “may G-d remember). This is the service, when we remember important people in our lives who have passed. (When I was growing up, all children had to leave the sanctuary when we got to Yizkor, which made it seem much more mysterious and scary than it really is.)
In yesterday’s Rosh Hashana service, our rabbi asked us what came to mind when we heard the word, “remember.” Perhaps because I had recently shared photos of my parents and late brother (all of them smiling) for a slideshow that will be part of our virtual Yizkor service next week, those images immediately came to mind; followed by images from pictures we took of my daughters on vacation many years ago; followed by memories of being with Jody, my wife, before we had kids. As I sat with these memories, I felt some of the great love that I have been fortunate to experience as a child, as a partner, and as a parent. In these uncertain times, that love helps sustain me. And as I wrote this, I wonder if the great sages Paul, John, George and Ringo had it right when they sang, “love is all we need.” And even if it’s not all we need, it may be “all we have.”
I hope you have sources of great love in your life and, as always, I hope you are well, staying safe, fighting for justice and working for peace.
Shana Tova. May everyone have a good and sweet year. Lord knows we all could use one.