So Little Man is having "the best days of his (nearly 6 year old) life" in NYC with his Dad -- skating at Rockefeller Center, visiting the "Statue of Liverty," seeing the "biggest dinosaur bones ever!" and we were going to visit Baby Man and D1, but got bumped for a dinner with her friend Marissa. That's ok -- we'll head up today, but Mike called -- did I wish to go with him to Mai Kai, his favorite venue in South Florida, to meet Jim and young Josh for drinks and apps, since Loni was out of town? I did.
I kind of expected young Josh to dip, as he often does, and he did, but we met Jim and had an awesome time. Jim has a stepdaughter D2's age, who is truly his daughter, and she's doing well, and Jim and Sandra had a later in life boy, Jacob, who is loving UF -- junior now, with a paid internship coming up this Summer in Chicago. Mike, Jim, and I have more than 4 decades of memories, and we tore through many of them -- with belly hurting laughter about all of the good times and riches and son of a bitches, to quote Jimmy Buffet.
Mai Kai, apparently the only original tiki restaurant, recently had a massive renovation -- Mike LOVES tiki culture -- he has a small replica bar built onto the back of his house, and visits tiki bars wherever he goes. The place was buzzing last night -- packed with locals and tourists, and the same show as always -- I made a mental note to take the grandsons there -- they'll love it.
As Mike and I drove home, I read about the shooting at Brown University -- at least 2 students killed by a loser who slinked away. Oh boy -- darkness in that Ivy League school. Worse, I read an anecdote about a student who was 12 and at Parkland -- this is her SECOND school shooting. What have we wrought in our time?
Mike came in, and we had a coffee and tea, and then he headed home -- Loni is due home today, and Mike, far more energetic than I, is headed to College Station to watch the Canes, a day later to Quebec City for a Christmas trip with his whole family, then a day home before we all fly to Puerto Rico for our NYE trip. I told him just going to Ft. Lauderdale 2 weeks before the cruise was plenty for me!
Anyway, I got up early, and checked the news, and saw an even huger tragedy -- a terrorist attack on a Chabad Chanukah festival in Sydney -- at Bondi Beach. Apparently 2 gunman stood on a bridge and killed 9 people, one of the pigs got killed, and the other is in critical condition. I've been to many Chanukah parties sponsored by Chabad -- tonight there's a menorah lighting nearby, and D1 may attend one in Miami Shores. This sickening act hit VERY close.
And yet, tonight begins the Festival of Light -- Chanukah. I'll fetch the electric menorah and place it in the window -- this is a holiday Jews are COMMANDED to show everyone who we are -- not celebrate privately in shuls or homes.
My sage rabbi friends have taught me that our tradition is that darkness must be overcome only with light -- they symbolic one of the menorah candles, and moreso, by Jews being a "light unto the world."
Seems a tough order on the heels of so much tragedy, but so it must be. From the ashes of the Holocaust Israel was born -- a tiny nation that has given the world SO much -- like medical advances, cell phones, desalinization -- you name it. For me, it's given us Wifey, who gave me the Ds and the family The Big Man has blessed me with.
So I will do as commanded, and celebrate the light, beginning tonight. I'll keep the families of those lost in my head -- this transcends politics. US school shootings bring calls for gun control, of course -- but Australia has some of the toughest, and fewer shootings, but the victims in Sydney still...
Baby Man will be happy with the new dinosaur we're giving him -- and we'll see Little Man later in the week to hear, I am sure, ALL about his adventures. He knows I'm the only one in the family born in NYC -- he LOVES that fact -- we brought it up during a FaceTime the other morning.
His ebullience is a light onto my family. We have to focus on that, especially on this holiday.
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