Reflections on Mom

Pilgrim on a Long, Long Journey

My last memory of Mom is a lunch with our family. Her short term memory was fading. She was living in the Miami Jewish Home and Hospital for the Aged.

As we sat together celebrating her birthday, the sweet attentiveness she had shown me all my life had drifted. Her beautiful mind was wandering. Nevertheless, as we wished her well in song she showed a childlike youthfulness that was lovely.

And yet I carry more often an image of her exquisitely beautiful, smiling face crowned by thick flowing hair. There was something royal about her bearing. My younger brother, John, who has the eye and the skills of an artist, once said to me he thought she was even more beautiful than any of that era’s movie stars.

That beauty went far deeper than what was visible. Her photos reveal a fun loving, sweet child. As a Girl Scout leader…

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Play

So what is it with play or games? Other primates play considerably as youngsters. Stop by your local zoo and watch a few of the young apes.

We humans seem to never tire of games. The oldest team game, in essence, here in the states, is baseball dating back to the mid to late 19th Century.

We fill stadia, watch on every conceivable screen and even listen on that technology dating back 100 years, with radio station KDKA in Pittsburgh. Of course, its ball club the Pirates, dates back to the 1800s.

We have needed to play since the time of the caveman (see The Flintstones). We have been passionate about our cities all over the world for who knows how long? It was the Roman Empire. Right? The Eternal City beckons now with play as the Italian Tennis Open has commenced. It marries the love for play and cities, tennis with the grandeur that is Rome. So, what else have we got to do?

We conduct business. The value of money is a game not based on precious metal but trust in the money-printing government. Right? If a business is going belly up, it can declare bankruptcy and measureably fend off its creditors. Right? Games, games and more games…