Golden Gooses

Word has reached me indirectly that some of the baalebatim have misinterpreted my decision to decline AKSE participation for the foreseeable future.  It has not reached me directly.  But Judaism in its many forms has always depended on agents and surrogates and other forms of intermediaries.  In the world of the Rabbinical Assembly until very recently, I could not approach them with a query.  I was at the mercy of my Rabbi to be their member and agree to do this on my behalf.  They have paid very dearly for this approach which a good deal of talent deems unacceptable, even demeaning.

My value to AKSE is really not me but my possessions.  These include sufficient financial resources to meet dues assessments which will continue and my skills accumulated over half a century or more.  What is on my mind does not seem to carry similar value.  There was no intent to leverage my skill to bargain for something else in return, as I never asked for anything else in return.  It is just time to step aside to do other things that I want to pursue more.  Agree, a better experience might have made me more tolerant of what some of the participation has taken out of me and the other opportunities that were set aside while I prepared for what I needed to do.  But had that been important, somebody would have tapped into my mind, or at least read my writing long before now.  So the Golden Goose who can daven and read haftarah on short notice and who can wade through difficult Torah assignments on reasonable advance notice has been taken to schechita, or so they believe.  I just want to do other things for a while.