I recently read a very funny cartoon in the New Yorker. It was by Roz Chast who has a unique ability to sum up life in a brilliant, concise way that shows both a frustration with and deep appreciation for the world in which we live. Her somewhat neurotic take on pop culture has endeared her to New Yorker readers since she was first published in 1978.
You don’t even need to see a picture to get a chuckle out of this one. A cartoon tombstone reads:
ED JONES
You don’t even need to see a picture to get a chuckle out of this one. A cartoon tombstone reads:
ED JONES
Tuned in,
Turned on,
Dropped out,
Dropped in,
Worked out,
Saved up,
Dropped dead.
Funny! But of course Judaism teaches us not just to look at life in the broad swaths of time, but also to look at the fine brush details of every day. And those details, the minute, single stroke moments are truly ours to control. We imbue them with meaning, we make them count. We realize that unlike the cartoon above, life is not just about us but about the lives of those we influence and touch.
1 comment:
I was preparing for a discussion this week on Mishpatim, and pondering over its micro-view of laws that are giving more than a frame work for social justice as compared to Yitero's macro-view with its "ten commandments". the 10 commandments as the frame of the house and mishpatim as the drywall - if you will.
anyway, i've been trying in my discussions with friends this past week to make acceptable the notion that the laws we are governed by today have their roots in religion.
The biggest obstacle to accepting this notion: separation of church and state. Or, maybe it's religion and law. or metaphysics and realism?
the goal is to come up with something that even an atheist would embrace :o)
maybe coming at it from consiousness and action!
still working on it.
Post a Comment