Here Comes the Sun King

I just learned about a holiday that Orthodox Jews celebrate, which comes along each 28 years. It's a celebration thanking God for creating the sun, and comes about each time the sun occupies the exact spot the Talmudic scholars decided the sun was in at the beginning. This occurs each 28 years. Tomorrow am marks the latest date.

According to the article about this event in the NY Times, many observers use the holiday as a time of reflection about their lives over the past nearly 3 decades. I decided to do the same.

In April, 1981 I was still a pre med student at UM, struggling mightily with Organic Chemistry, Calculus, and Physics, while breezing through and enjoying my Humanities classes. I was clearly reading the writing on the wall about my future.

I was dating a South American student, convinced she would become my life partner. Ha! As soon as I decided to drop pre med, she dropped me like a hot laboratory experiment.

Two of my best friends today, Eric and Barry, were my best friends then. Barry and I were roommates and already sharing a love for the study of human nature that continues today. Both Barry and Eric were NOT struggling with Organic Chemistry, Physics, and Calculus, and they were reading their wall writings as well. (Eric DID struggle with some Humanities classes, but it seemed easier to edit a literature paper than it was to drum Calculus into my math challenged head).

Most significantly in my life, my father was alive and well and enjoying his retirement. We spoke twice a week, and I saw him each month. He reveled in my college stories, as if he were living the experience through me. He always seemed so wise.

I miscalculated one thing about him, though. I truly thought he would be disappointed when I told him over the Summer of 1981 that he wasn't ever going to say "My son the doctor." He laughed, said he knew I was meant to study English, and was frankly surprised I kept up the pre med thing as long as I did. Disappointed? "My son the English Professor or Writer or Anything" is fine with me, he said, as long as I was happy.

I miss him terribly to this day.

I think it was in April of 1981 that UM had Spring Break, and a bunch of us took a beer fueled trip to Disney. Barry's sister recently found a photo of the two of us posing with a chipmunk. I'm easily 70 lbs lighter in the photo than today --Barry even more changed.

You can't coach 19, as the football coordinators would say.

So, April 1981 to April 2009. My mother seemed to be an old lady to me then. After all, she was retired, and lived in a seniors village. She was 61! She's still here, about to turn 89, and still living in the same seniors village, though most of her contemporaries have died. She's afraid these days to get "too much sun."

I'll probably be up tomorrow to greet the sunrise , as I almost always rise well before the sun does.

April, 2037? Who will be here then to greet the sun, and who won't? Mom would be 117. I'd be 75. Ds 1and 2, close to my age now.

I guess God and the sun will see...