2023-01-29 | Sunday morning: A new page.

LIFE. My Hebrew birthday, 5 Shvat, fell last Friday, and on the civil calendar it's tomorrow: I'm turning 60 years old. This means that, even by the most optimistic estimates, I have already lived at least half the time allotted to me in this world. I find this fact a little sobering, but by no means depressing; rather, I feel energized. ("Concentrates the mind" and all that.)

HOUSING. The now-former roommate has cleared out the last of her belongings, and I now have the place - and the rent payment - all to myself. I've had a couple of responses to my posting that haven't quite worked out for one reason or another; here's hoping the coming week will bring success.

SCRIPTURE. In these troubled and uncertain times, I've found it helpful to renew my commitment to studying the Bible. This week's Torah reading includes the climactic moments of the Exodus from Egypt, with the pillar of fire and of smoke and the splitting of the sea. We've had pandemics, bugs in our food, blood diseases, and the destruction of livestock, crops, and progeny ... it all sounds eerily familiar.

In the broader Hebrew Scriptures, the 929 Project covers I Samuel 24, where King Saul takes a rest break in a cave, unknowingly coming within striking distance of David and his men who are hiding there. What I love about the Saul / David narrative is how carefully David walks the moral tightrope of asserting his claim against a monarch who has lost the mandate of Heaven - yet still respecting the person of Saul, and the office, and the nation, and ultimately G-d.

On the 929 web portal, the Spanish-language lesson (by Salomon Michan Mercado) following the English reading points to the inscription on men's restrooms - 'caballeros' - as a reminder that like a knight holding the reins of his horse, the human soul has the power to control our animal instincts.

Anyway, I'm going to grab the reins of my life and move ahead ... or go back to tilting at windmills, as the case may be.

LINKS
https://www.929.org.il/lang/en/today
https://soundcloud.com/929-bible/JPS_Audio_Bible_I_Samuel_Chapter_24_read_by_Jonathan_Roumie
https://soundcloud.com/salomon-michan/quien-lleva-las-riendas-en-tu

2023-01-29 | Sunday evening.

SOCIETY. The conservative meetup was fun and a success, as usual. The venue was busy and noisy (end of football season) but not unbearably so. I'm looking to pick up the tempo this year: I want to schedule a Sunday event every 3 weeks or so, and additionally have a weeknight event once a week.

POLITICS. The news that Ronna McDaniel had secured yet another term as RNC Chair was greeted without great enthusiasm by most of the folks in our chapter. Most of us would have preferred either Dhillon or Lindell, and view this as a symptom of the entrenched "establishment". Still, there's a lot of excitement about our numbers and participation, and this wave will no doubt work its way to the delegates in good time. One member commented: "The strategy is working but we are buried deep so it isn't going to magically be fixed in one or two cycles. Need to continue growing our grassroots America first army."