Today is a perfect day in Florida, although a bit warm, just a perfect day. Not a cloud in the sky, not a calamity in the air. It seems people are even shedding their fears of economics they don’t understand, have stopped wondering where child killers have gone to start their lives over. It’s just a wonderful day to be alive.
I got up early to see something special this morning.
Something rather unique and, as life will have it, I found something
that was all that and amazingly, more…
I found Humanity at it’s best.
MITZVOT AS HUMAN BEHAVIOR
Humans are funny beings. In the last week, we watched as a major newspaper chain fumbles and prepares to fall because we humans are way too busy worrying about other peoples business. We pry, we lie, we deceive others so that we may be the “first to know”. The first to deliver what actually might be news to a public desperate to hear someone else has it worse then we do.
CASEY ANTHONY AND ME
I don’t know Casey Anthony, I’ve never sung with her or recorded with her. I’ve never prayed with her. However, in the last 3 months, I’ve spent a part of every day with her, wondering how this pixie-esque young woman could appear to be so heartless, so cruel, so uncaring about those around her. I don’t know if she’s guilty- it does sure look like a quacking duck though-and you know what they say about that….
I found the trial to be about the worst that humans can be. People’s frustration at their own lives has become so all encompassing that they’re very happy to take it out on the Anthony family (as if they need help to create a bigger mess!!).
I was overwhelmed by the family that traveled to Florida from Germany to “be there” and “be a part of it all”. GO HOME!!! Hug your own child- take them to Disneyland or the circus or the beach. Be a better human.
You have made a circus of murder and mayhem.
I was sad: Sad for the loss of a child. Sad that we were so drawn to this young woman’s attempts to be innocent when her behavior, at it’s best, was atrocious.
THE BEST HUMANS CAN BE
I went to the beach today to see God’s gifts on a glorious day to be alive. Almost no clouds to block the rays of a blazing sun on my face, as I smiled watching little children dart around in the sand with dotingly nervous mothers watching that they don’t step on a shell and cut their feet.
I also saw an orphan named RYKER. Ryker was going home due to the humanity of a number of people who helped bring about a complete reversal in health status. Over 500 people stood by as Ryker began his journey through the mystery of finding home when you are an orphan. 500 people, showering RYKER with their humanity, cheered with every move toward a bright and wonderful new future life.
RYKER was nursed to life and health by an amazing group of people who do this sort of thing all the time.
RYKER was quite weirded out by all the attention and those big black eyes looked around taking in all that was going on, trying to get a handle on it. RYKER is, you see, a caretta Caretta – you know- a Loggerhead Sea Turtle.
MITZVOT ARE EASY-TRY IT.
RYKER was nursed back to health by humans who believe that animals need to be cared for in ways they cannot for themselves. The professionals and volunteers treat their “patients” as family, naming them and watching over them as one would hopefully watch over family. It is a great mitzvah to care for any of God’s creatures, large or small. There is no thank you from the patient. Renewed health is the best you get, and I bet if you come nose to nose with RYKER in the wild, a small piece of your body will depart in response to a small “love tap” from the Loggerhead. A mere kid, as s/he (being too young, it’s sex is undefined as of yet)was one flipper in the ocean wave, Ryker hesitated and turned looking back at the beachfront of humanity as if to take it all in. I’m quite sure the thought process went like this:
“WOW! And I didn’t even have insurance….
These two leggie-thingers are quite strange. OK- back to the water”.
As scarecrow said, “ I’d unravel every riddle, for every individ’l, in heartache or in pain…”. DO a MITZVAH-SAVE AN INDIVID’L…..(I knew he was Jewish in there…lol)
PEOPLE ARE AN ODD SPECIES, EY??
Yes we are… We spend months in anger over what we feel is personal mistreatment of ourselves or another. And yet we spend even more time nursing an animal with no conception of how we have saved it’s life and determined it’s fate.
Maybe it’s our fate we determined- I was tearful as people called out RYKER’S name as the waves cooled down his now clean and repaired shell and he stepped into the surf, trying all the while to figure out if s/he had done something wrong that s/he was being cast out into the wild blue down under to fend for him/herself, having to find food, avoid danger and do all the things humans do as well. After all, it was pretty safe in the small cement pool circle called home for the last seven months.
QUIZZICAL BEINGS THOSE HUMANS
The High Holidays are starting to look brighter on the horizon of the future. How do we prepare? Let’s look at how many mitzvot it takes to become human again. Let’s begin to look outward again and see what we can do to make the world a Better World, a better place, a place where God would be happy to dwell with us as deserving partners. All it takes is a mitzvah opportunity seized and completed.
I was proud to be a human today. I was proud of our species- and all it took to bring me back from the cesspool of how badly we can behave toward each other was a 75 pound orphan who asked for nothing and got everything in return; health, caring our love and friendship.
Travel in safety Ryker. I’ll be pulling for you.
Even more amazing- I could see it in your eyes: you will be pulling for us as well. You’ve seen us at our best.
Thank you for giving me back my pride in being a human. I guess I needed a nudge..
Gotta go- there’s another mitzvah waiting to be done.
Travel Safe RYKER
Be the witness to whom we can aspire to be,
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