Prominent Guest

The guest of highest public prominence ever to come to my home as a guest might have been Chaim Bloom, the recently ousted Chief of Baseball Operations for the Boston Red Sox.  His mother and my wife have remained friends.  We have been dinner guests in their rather elegant home.  Chaim got an Ivy education, got interested in baseball, particularly the statistical basis of managerial decisions, and when offered a staff position with a Major League team, latched on.  After fifteen years in progressively responsible and visible positions with his original team, he was hired by Boston as their senior officer in 2019.

Baseball's goal is winning games, starting with each individual one.  Unlike football, there are a lot of games and a lot of contingencies, so weaker teams often have their afternoons of glory.  Success, though, is cumulative, qualifying for playoffs, becoming world champions.  Statistical data driving who to put in a line-up or when to go to a relief pitcher will change the fortunes some days but not others.  Who to have on the team and how much to spend to have their contributory talent determines seasonal outcome.  

Since Chaim's ouster, dozens of news reports have come my way, first press releases, then commentary.  These have engaged my mind considerably more than the daily American political blight, as they involve analysis rather than tribalism, though The Red Sox probably have done much to create Achdus in Boston that even their political figures cannot disrupt.  First, nobody seems to think that Chaim should have been given more time to produce a winner.  In the years prior to his arrival, the Red Sox were a more successful team at season's end than while he had control.  It's perhaps a bit like personal finance, where we know we need to allot a portion of our income when needed far into the future, but we also want to go away on vacation once this year and remodel the kitchen in two years.  Chaim inherited a pretty good now, but not a sustainable now.

To get the players that can perform to the satisfaction of the region's citizens and the current team owners, he could either generate that level of skill in a minor league structure or he could purchase people by trading his talent and money with other teams or bidding for them as free agents.  And to get the success that he had inherited, his predecessors had generated a very high payroll.  League rules, designed to keep teams in big markets from overwhelming teams from smaller markets, place a penalty on overspending.  This left Chaim at a disadvantage trying to purchase the players his team needed from other teams or perhaps even the open market.  His farm system had already been depleted, ranked near the bottom by many MLB analysts.  So his task on entry was really one of restoring future capacity by reducing payroll to enable acquisition of players by trading for them and by creating a better system to make their minor league staff sufficiently proficient to promote to their major league team.  And he did both very successfully, according to the analysts' reports of his tenure.  Payroll reductions will give his successor a place at the bidding table for top performing players and other slots on the team can be filled by lower paid players with skills enhanced by minor league experience.

No good deed goes unpunished.  To reduce payroll, he traded away top-salaried players or let them become free agents.  He did a lot better at future planning than he did at the trading market for current players.  Their highest potential star, a fellow destined for the Hall of Fame, now makes big bucks someplace else but performs appropriate to the high salary.  And what the Sox received in return pales next to what they gave away.  Chaim just had a measure of timidity, a hesitation to take a high stakes bet in a game where future performance does not always match past performance.  And over four years the access to the playoffs at season's end had been lost several times in a row.  The fans and the owners wanted a competitive team now.  They could soon have one because of what Chaim did, but people questioned whether he had the boldness and risk tolerance to follow through on the high stakes trades needed to bring that about.  They judged not.

Chaim as a teenager had been a Torah reader at my congregation, as had his younger brother, also a man of immense talent, though not a public figure.  For a while we needed readers to fill in for our Cantor when away or when we were between Cantors, something beyond the ability of our congregation's men to do with that frequency, then and now.  We had teenagers ourselves and their parents trusted our level of observance, so we picked them up at the train station Friday afternoon and returned them to the train station after Havdalah.  That was some twenty years ago.

On reflection, and maybe why the reports of Chaim's tenure capture so much of my interest, is that my congregation has a similar situation, one lingering much longer than what he both inherited and addressed while head of Baseball Operations for the Red Sox.  We effectively have the men with the skills we need right now, at least in the sanctuary, though the ability of the Governance is much more open for debate.  But we lack a farm system, both in our Sanctuary and on our Board.  We have a Dominant Influencer, much like the Sox have an owner and a hired CEO.  Somebody can execute each part of the service at the time it needs to be done.  But we don't have, maybe not even seek the promotability of a farm system.  A VP has a list of who read what Aliyah last year and recycles as needed.  The Gabbai responsible for shacharit has his pitching rotation.  The Haftarah inviter probably finds it easier to default to himself much of the time.  Two new people arrived by random circumstance, not by planned development.  And all, from the Rabbi recruitment to who might have a say in future initiatives must have the approval of the gatekeeping Dominant Influencer, which has the dual effect of  bypassing some of the best minds and generating resentment in the form of expressing their free agency by non-renewal of membership or more frequently the insidious adverse consequences never getting invited to throw their energies and abilities into the mix.  So next shabbos the parts will get chanted capably, there will be herring after the services but there will also be people who resent being kept outside the gate while programming decisions and participatory invitations that never reach them for things they can do remain out of reach.  Much like Chaim, my guest and my synagogues hired but transient extreme talent from decades ago, inherited and tried to correct.  

Seasonal Chill

Winter clothing gets exchanged each year on October 1.  That date is arbitrary but easy to remember.  It's a reasonable match to the weather, though never a perfect one.  This year the need for long sleeves arrived little before and summer shorts have not been worn since a heat wave crossed Paris during my visit there a few weeks back.  I keep a few out of season items aside in anticipation of a variation between calendar and forecast.  Some long sleeve shirts on hangers in the closet though the no-iron knits remain in the storage duffle until the change of month arrives next week.

I personally like the early chill.  Even with some rain, or maybe especially with some rain, there is an element of refreshment.  I have a couple of nylon windbreakers just right for this circumstance.  With the Holy Days and Sukkot, I spend more time in the synagogue, which also means a sports coat and occasionally my last properly fitting suit.  Sandals go into storage with other summer things in favor of sturdier shoes, as I am not anticipating vacationing in anyplace warm before next spring.  Bought a pair of New Balance cross-training shoes which will become staples, and need some minor repair on my disappointing Sperry Topsiders which also function as go with most things basics.

I never put outerwear into storage.  But I do at the start of needing some gather mine in one section of the downstairs closet.  They get arrayed roughly by how cold it must be to justify wearing each jacket or coat.  Each coat has a cap and gloves in its pockets.  The hats and scarves for very cold situations stay in an upstairs box, usually tapped into once or twice a season when only a Peruvian Wool Hat with ear extensions will do.

So just a windbreaker today.

Logistics

My brother-in-law passed away two days ago.  He had a variety of chronic illnesses, some major surgery which, while successful, had difficult convalescence.  Yet he rallied with some permanent limitations.  His limited longevity was expected but the time and circumstances of his passing could not be anticipated.

Thus, we enter a difficult YK weekend.  He lived about 130 miles away but he and his widow opted for funeral arrangements near the rest of their families.  His widow and the funeral director decided on a place and time, erev YK, which is a Sunday.  The yontif precludes Shiva and the shloshim gets halted by Sukkot a few days following.

As the person with the car and the mobility and some activities arranged previously, that leaves me with my share of tasks as well.  I have my big OLLI morning on Fridays.  For Saturday, I had agreed to lead Shacharit, one with a few Shabbos Shuvah insertions that I had not done publicly before but have familiarity with them.  My daughter arrives from the west coast sometime Saturday, arranged long in advance to be with us for YK but she will be able to attend her uncle's funeral.  I will retrieve her from the airport's arrival curb.  My son and daughter-in-law arrive from Pittsburgh on Saturday night.  They will have a car and can get themselves to the funeral.

I do not know where my sister-in-law and nephew will be staying, but a limo from the Funeral Director will transport them to the graveside service.  A kosher caterer will provide a meal of condolence platter which I need to retrieve before the funeral, deliver to my other sister-in-law, then transport some people to the cemetery.  And the weatherman predicts rain.

Some eating and memories at my sister-in-law's house, leaving early enough to assure that I can assemble a suitable meal before YK.  Then Kol Nidre Sunday night, with its various speeches.  I am Torah reader YK morning, something I've done proficiently before and have adequately rehearsed for this year.  Eventually shofar blowing.

My daughter will then need to be transported to the airport, not sure when.  But I'm the one with the car.

If I like anything about retirement, it has been my control over my time.  I have imposed a few timed tasks, when to get up, when it's lights out, my OLLI course selection with meeting times a huge influence on what I take, my morning routine, when and where I want to travel.  Occasionally I will get an invitation for synagogue, which I usually but not always accept.  And shabbos arrives at its determined time.  My life has enough structure with a few things to do each day, mostly in the mornings. Consecutive days of being at this place at this time to do this, once my daily expectation, has become infrequent.  Even traveling in Paris this month, the tour had its schedule, dividing each day into three parts, but I had enough opt in or out choices to remain in control.  For the next few days, I will need to conform to a series of externally created tasks with specified times.  I'm no longer used to this, but up to the challenge.

Short Story

Submitted.  Including a $25 submission fee. Once in a while, a journal or magazine to which I subscribe invites short stories from readers and others with the prize being seeing your name in print and your ideas broadcast to others.  I've entered two medical ones sponsored by The New England Journal in recent years.  To be sure, the ones the editors selected far exceeded my 1500 words in imagination and elegance.  Yet there was value to me in the few hours it took to compose, edit, and submit my own manuscript.  Much of what I write, the means of expressing myself, is descriptive, bordering on journalism.  Term papers are long gone and I've never had a published research paper.  But I engage in a lot of commentary.  Those 1000 word submissions created over a few hours appear periodically and generate a little comment.  Unfortunately, in this day of FB, X, and similar public forums, thought has been replaced by Tweets, those quick sentence or two retorts whose brevity and straightforward wording get captured in less than a minute.  Journalists seem to hang out on Twitter when not composing their own articles because of the brevity, and usually superficiality, of the comments, which often reflect the id of the typer. 

My current challenge arrived passively from a reputable and widely read Jewish magazine, which has printed my letters in the past, along with one tongue in cheek satiric photo I took near my workplace.  It had to be of Jewish content, less than 5K words, and with a due date.  Short story, fiction.  I rarely write fiction, though I've taken to assigning myself at least two novels a year since retirement, never falling short of that quota and often exceeding it.  But short stories are often difficult for me to read, as they are expected to be read in a single sitting, the length frequently in excess of my attention span.  Yet fiction may reflect the pinnacle of language.  It requires the author to transform his or her mindset to somebody else's, to tell a story with actions, physical descriptions, conflicts, and unexpected outcomes all projected on a narrator other than himself.  In effect, giving the glory of language to people who do not exist in reality, yet would be recognizable if they did.

The writer, or verbal storyteller, also has to have motivation to organize and convey what he thinks.  Frequently the stories are tangential to an author's experience, or a real encounter fictionalized.  But sometimes the subject is somebody else's experience either witnessed or imagined by the storyteller.

For me the Jewish subject was easy to choose.  People designated as leaders often do not put optimal treatment of people ahead of the objectives of the institutions they are trained to lead.  Some very good people who could have been contributors, or often were contributors, become ideological sacrifices.  No shortage of these incidents to expound upon.  And I did.

Off it went to an electronic submission service along with a credit card authorization.  And there it is likely to stay until dismissed by the magazine's editor scanning the first paragraph some time after the due date.  But somebody, maybe a professional, maybe a writing hobbyist like me, will compose a tale that merits a broad audience.

Lab Results

Patient portals are great.  Lab drawn yesterday.  Results available to me today.  Not ideal numbers, if fact a gradual progression of a few things, enough to want me to act.  But nothing very dangerous.  I still think I am over medicated, as I never quite feel well, though rarely feel badly.  I can still donate platelets.  I can still modify my diet.  See what the doctor recommends when she calls, then set up appointment.

Doing Big Stuff

I'm feeling fuzzy after Rosh Hashanah, though very functional.  It's a transition date, conceptually from one year to the next on the Jewish Calendar, now 5784.  My Hebrew calendar, gift of AKSE, has taken its place to my right on my desk.  And I have the list of Semi-annual projects on the whiteboard to my left and the daily task list to my right.  Each has big stuff and quick do-its, though my whiteboard has mostly big stuff.  Writing a book, writing articles including one with a looming deadline, the trip to France with just a few returning loose ends, the spaces of my home that I want to upgrade.  Stuff that takes a sustained effort, a schedule, milestones.  And then there are the quick daily checkmarks, taking my weekly health measurements, checking on my plants, doing some laundry.  Do it and it's done, but these tasks will return and not advance me a whole lot for having completed them.  It's the grandiose ones, hard to do, broken into segments that all have to have time allotted, then sequenced, that give real satisfaction.  And I need the New Year to focus on them more effectively.  And maybe some external deadlines.

Next High Holy Days

The Holy Days are my demarcation point, or more accurate part of a larger demarcation point, the transition from summer to fall.  It's a change from a few months with few appointments to the remainder of the calendar year with many.  OLLI, Yom Tovim, doctors appointments, football games I want to watch, all needing me to be in a place at a set time.  This year all begin within proximity of my grand experience in Europe, OLLI and football while away, Holy Days and Doctors on return.

I'm not terribly enthused about what awaits.  I opted to sit out AKSE's High Holiday Honors program for the second consecutive year.  There have been incidents in which I cannot frame the encounters other than having been treated poorly by people of influence.  I never thought I would report one of these encounters to their President in the way I would fill out an incident report for the ADL or my medical center, but I did.  But I also took the view that I will not use hurtful speech in response.  I will withhold money, which is my response for opting out of their High Holy Day honors, with this year's invitation a lot more expensive activity than an Ark Opening.  I am the YK Torah reader again and should be in optimal form.

Ordinarily I focus more on food and on guests.  Daughter coming for YK, though after shabbos dinner.  Very simple prefast dinner.  For YK I like to make my own round challah.  OLLI classes in the morning make this unrealistic but I can make a honey cake.  There are elaborate recipes that challenge me, but with more restricted time, a simple one this year.  Wife does the rice kugel as her annual contribution to our festive table.  I make carrots, though Mesorah Heritage Foundation sent me a card with blessings for other traditions like beets and cabbage.  Carrots are easy.  I found an economical porgy, so this year a whole fish with its head on and eyes inviting us to eat it.  And a simple chicken.  Also found a Tabachnick's chicken soup with noodles that can be warmed in boiling water.  And shabbos style baked chicken breast and purchased round challah.  So it will be a full festive meal, though less my effort than other years.

I've not yet unpacked my main suitcase after two full days home.  Do this while honey cake bakes.  And usually for RH I put some effort into appearance.  Suit first day.  Sports coat second day.  Nice shoes, polished.  White kippot.  Beard trimmed, hair groomed, nails filed.  But still tacky smartwatch not really suitable for shabbos.  Maybe I'll wear one with a dial instead.

The Holy Days, while officially ten, really extend most of the month of Tishrei.  We have a command to be happy on Sukkot, and I try.  The time for guests to come and this year to be somebody else's guest.  Effort into constructing and decorating the Sukkah.  Some pageantry of the Lulav.  The season typically ends on a more satisfying note than it begins.  

And by then I've learned things at OLLI and know how my team's seasons are likely to play out.