Rev Moore Book

For an unclear reason, I've taken a liking to recent Russell Moore podcasts.  He interviews a variety of people whose work I read, often in The Atlantic, where his articles also appear.  On a recent Atlantic Festival, he was the one being interviewed.  While I thought he did better as the interviewer, he discussed his latest book, Losing our Religion.  It was something I wanted to read, in part because I could relate not only to its title but its subject as he discussed it, and the insight of the writer.  After the Atlantic Festival, I searched my local library holdings, found it at another branch and our library system, and put a hold on it.  To my surprise, even as a new book by a popular author with some recent publicity, the library retrieved it for me in three days.  It took about a week to read.

Rev. Moore has an interesting background with occasional parallels to my own, which may be why I find his media presence so compelling.  He was raised on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi, Southern Baptist imprinting which remains.  His life and childhood began long after American Civil Rights laws integrated workplaces, schools, and public accommodations, though with a previous generation that preferred that previous time, maintaining some of it in his religion's ideology and even current practices.  As a teen, he was very much part of their equivalent of the USY Clique, engaged in the activities that the Church provided.  He committed himself to studying for the ministry, though he never really fit the model of a Church Centered person that Stephen Covey described in so demeaning a way in his 7 Habits bestseller.  Russell, which is what I will now call him, attended one of his state's universities, then one of his religion's seminaries for both ordination and PhD.  He bridged several roles, preacher, scholar, advocate.  But he also seemed committed to his own independence of mind and speaking what he believed to be truth even when leadership would not receive the message in the generous way the messages were intended.  Very much the opposite of Covey's description of Church Centered individuals who salute and do what their pastors tell them to do and believe what their pastors tell them to believe.

After time on the pulpit and as seminary faculty, he accepted a role with the Southern Baptist Convention as their interface, though not exactly scripted spokesman, to the general public.  And there our parallels, and also diversions, with my own Jewish tradition begin.  The central umbrella group does not always reflect the sentiments of the constituency, which can never be unanimous.  The parent organizations, whether the Southern Baptist Convention or the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, the umbrella of Conservative Jewish Synagogues and its constituents, has an interest in not only setting policy for its religion but exerting a certain discipline through a blend of authority and entitlement.  And when their public resists, the recourse of the individual members is to vote with their feet.  There are other places to go, or sometimes just disaffiliating without an alternative destination is what the disgruntled former members choose.  The religion parent has its metrics.  They can count people.  They can count congregations.  They can count money.  They can count trends in their seminary enrollments.  As in my medical world, you can only improve what you can measure.

And like the United Synagogue or its Rabbinical Assembly division, the Southern Baptists found a gap between their desire to have membership defer to the demands of the clergy and the willingness of the people to accept those orders.  In Conservative Judaism, that focal point was intermarriage, addressed in the 1960s as various forms of shunning.  For the Baptists, that focal point was expansion of rights, even fundamental respect for, groups that had previously accepted their subordinate places but no longer do.  While Russell grew up in an age when civil rights law was generally obeyed and women could become respected members of their medical, legal, scientific, and religious communities, the leadership of his religion was scripted in a much different tradition.  They did not have to be respectful of racial minorities, minority political parties in their communities, or even the talents of their own women.  And they have the organizational authority to mold it as they wish, even if it becomes smaller.

My Conservative Jews responded to their attrition differently than Russell's Southern Baptists.  Yet they have the same dilemma, where to cede to popular sentiment and where to stand by principles, or sometimes opportunities, even if negative organizational consequences.  For the Baptists, along comes a political savior, a wretched individual, but one who when given power will protect the racism and misogyny of established tradition.  And those who defy the political protector, even if protecting the wrong things, will be shunned, even excommunicated.  And so Russell, a devoted member of their tribe, a man trained in the fundamental theology of Christ and the social needs of the organization, found himself defending not only his own beliefs, but the doctrines of the Church which the leadership had assaulted through misconduct.  You can't fight City Hall usually means acceding to more powerful forces for most, but relocating for some.  Russell held his ground.  His talent allowed him to express himself in his podcasts, articles, and now a book.

And what the book instills, or at least my read and generalization, is that organizations whose people of authority debase it never really lose the merit that underlies their creation.  Evangelical Christianity still seeks to bring out the good in people even when their top brass act in their most hypocritical way.  Conservative Judaism protects our traditions and reconciles with our participation in the secular world even when the Rabbis' litmus tests prove destructive. True, even as I personally shifted in the direction of Orthodox.  The Catholic Church, for all its detestable activities through history to this day, still sponsors educational institutions, art, premier medical centers, including places where I am proud to have studied and worked.  The contemporary Republican Party with its allegiance to a blight of an individual still advocates for its share of laudable initiatives like patriotism, individual initiative, and centrality of our family units. But I still vote Democratic, which has better appeal amid its liabilities. He advocates expressing disapproval of the ethically wrong elements like racism but protection of the redeeming elements like the messages of Scripture.  And sometimes advocating for the good requires some blend of keeping your distance but keeping forums of expression available.  That's what Russell seems to have done.  That's why his work connects, even though our theology differs considerably.

Sharpening the Saw

Covey's 7 Habits has been my default for decades in my challenging times.  The last few weeks were my challenging times with illness, despondence, injury, and some anger.  Fishing session helped.  But I still defaulted to the final chapter of 7 Habits on Renewal.  He called it Sharpening the Saw, dividing elements to Physical, Mental, Emotional/Social, and Spiritual.  I separated Social/Emotional.  Never have been much to Spiritual, which is really a subset of emotional.

So here's what I came up with:

Mental

1. Write Publicly
2. OLLI Classes
3. Write My Book

Physical

1. Take Medicines
2. Relate to doctors candidly at medical visits
3. Exercise
4. Fixed Sleep Times

Emotional

1. Catch a Fish
2. Visit a New Place
3. Help my gardens flourish
4. Enhance my Dr. Plotzker's Mind YouTube series
5. Look Good

Social

1. Be a friendly American
2. Mingle at Kiddush
3. Mingle at OLLI
4. Invite Guests
5. Attend UPenn's 50th activities
6. Register JCC Summer session

None are beyond my capacity, though some straightforward while others very challenging.  But I definitely could use some renewal

Disposition Upturn

As I begin my endoscopy prep and anticipate Pesach, I've also noted a small upturn in my disposition, perhaps my demeanor as well.  I feel more connected, loneliness periodically interrupted with decent conversation.  Upcoming medical care guarantees some interaction, competing I think with the few minutes of anesthesia for the highlight of that day.  A few days after, I have my first annual meeting with the Delaware Community Foundation to review scholarships that they manage.  Synagogue, my common irritant, can go on hiatus.

As much as I like OLLI, I also take advantage of each semester's intercession, usually travelling somewhere.  I think I'll go fishing on the Cape Henlopen Pier unless the weather makes that ill-advised.  Beyond that, I have some 50th Anniversary college activities, then a few days on the West Coast.

My physical health seems on the upswing as well.  Arthritic symptoms not burdensome.  I miss very few treadmill sessions, with the duration and intensity mostly advancing with a few health related retreats.  I've incorporated an 8-minute daily stretching routine, following on my big screen in My Space at a reasonably set time every afternoon.  I don't feel more flexible, but keeping up with the schedule makes me feel a tad more accomplished.

Self-expression has not gone as well, at least in the public sphere, but I am starting to get more specific about dedicated sessions to pursue fragments of those Semiannual Goals that I set at the close of the last calendar year. 

So feeling more the way I'd like to feel.  7 Habits Physical, Emotional, Social spheres all better, Mental lagging behind slightly but remediable.

Nursing Animosities

My personal friends are few, though invariably interesting.  A few highly accomplished, a few quirky, a few outspoken.  All stand for something.  Some have had big crashes, much bigger than my own professional or social fluctuations.  All provide me something stimulating to talk about when I am with them.  We'll leave the perfunctory Good Shabbos, Nice Tie for the Torah processional.  My friends discuss medicine, Judaism and its culture, the vagaries of our politics.  And there's our families, pretty much all turned out well.

In face meetings are few.  Synagogue has become a place where I am mostly cordial to everyone, candid with a few, social with almost none.  My closest friend, however, is of synagogue origin, almost parallel mindset as put off by mistreatment of people, more common in that setting than any presiding Rabbi would admit.  We like to move the furniture around, ask what if, and when offered a title of responsibility sometimes try to do what we imagined might be possible but may not.  As a consequence, we get some opposition, his more vociferous than mine as his ventures can generate some negative transference reactions and negative consequences.  There is an upside and a downside to boldness.  He found himself the one in isolation to the governance, basically evicted from it, soon departing.  He had a business that went on hard times as well due to some malfeasance from above.  The two events left him suspicious of authority.  We share a disappointment with our synagogues, but while he departed, I remain, sit quietly, express myself without much suppression from my higher CNS centers though politely, and on Saturday mornings more often occupy space or add to the male minyan count than benefit a lot from my personal presence.  His expression was absence from synagogue but all in on our local Kosher agency that provides Kosher products to our region.  As a result, when I see him in the last couple of years, it is almost always attending to some activities in the Kosher departments that our Shop-Rite has provided.  And as is our custom, our chats are pretty direct.

He found a friend in the now departing Rabbi, the director of the Kosher agency, and a devoted friend to have.  I liked the Rabbi personally as well, but saw his role as advancing our congregation, my Jewish commitments, and my Jewish mind, none of which really happened.  I keep a more stringent Kosher than ever, acknowledge and restrict activities for Sabbath and yontif, but find my Jewish presence more a personal one than as part of a kehillah.  Our Rabbi, his friend though more of a business deal for me, announced his departure, a nominal promotion to a larger more stable congregation in a community with a Jewish majority.  I asked my friend who the next supervisor of Kashrut would be.  He indicated that the Rabbi would continue as the supervisor, at least for the next few months.  Then the vitriol started

My friend has his bogeyman, the congregational President who eliminated him as a toxic VP who generated too many congregational complaints.  If this individual dispatched my friend, he must have worked behind the scenes to make the synagogue a toxic work environment for the Rabbi.  Since I really only associated the Rabbi as a hired professional, not as a friend, I did not really pick up on any directed toxic work environment.  He had reasons to do job hunting as the predicted longevity of our congregation would not take him to retirement age, but did not pick up on board relations as being less than professional and supportive.  As my friend related, there were clues, a closing contract with a lot more specific provisions than prior contracts that had him vigorously represented by somebody Archie Bunker would identify as a Sharp Jew Lawyer.  I did not know the sermons had to be submitted in advance for editing.  That may be why they have gotten more meaningful the past couple of years, but my friend saw it as an unwelcome assault on professional autonomy.  While I did not know about this, English comp would definitely benefit from having to go through an editor first.  

But the former congregational VP who done my friend wrong now has an enemy's imprint, one probably not deserved.  Yes, anybody looking at our synagogue with detachment would identify obvious elements of leadership failure, excessive comfort zones, and resetting the standard as mediocrity.  That is a lot different from the more nefarious Jewish canards of a few control freaks assembling together to consolidate and exert power to exploit the vulnerable.  Probably not the reality, or at least not my reality.  Stephen Covey in his 7 Habits identified people whose focus was either exacting revenge on enemies or shielding themselves with an impenetrable barrier.  Either way, the enemy always seems to control what happens, even when he really doesn't.

 

Looking at the Week

Tisha B'Av has come and gone, leaving me with my first coffee in about 45 hours.  I have been fasting  since retirement, as it impaired patient care when I had those obligations.  I missed the coffee but did not get withdrawal symptoms.  Ate reasonably sensibly after dark, decent night's sleep I think, though my sleep monitor that assesses the pattern failed.  And did a few chores but did not do anything directly related to Tisha B'Av ritual other than fasting.

Since work is permitted, I did my usual Sunday weekly outline in the morning, though without coffee as a break from listing tasks.  I came up with an unusually long list. Usually I have two columns coded by different color pens, though this week I had to put the green or professionally related tasks between the two columns. I have an ordinary number of blue household objectives but an unusually large number of red family/financial projects, and a growing number of black everything else endeavors filling about 1.5 columns.  Stephen Covey's 7 Habits taught me to think in terms of a week, much like the Torah does.  While Commandment #4 focuses on shabbos, it prefaces this with a requirement of working six days to earn this day off.  

From the morning after Monday review, it's hard to tell if my growing list will ever get whittled down.  Some are particular to this time of the month:  my financial review, donation, a couple of seminars that interest me, preparation for OLLI's fall semester, a few synagogue obligations, maybe a visit to Fenwick Island, my monthly Medscape submission.  Those do not carry forward indefinitely providing I do them.  Others are intermediate components of larger projects.  These get done only to be replaced by the next component.  And increasingly, I find things that have a life of their own, items that have no deadlines or often even end points.  Will go fishing when I get around to it, and then again when I get around to it.  But for now, I think the list has gotten too long to retain its utility, so those One and Done's that shouldn't appear on next week's initiatives need priority for completion.

Essay Whiteboard

 

MY WHITEBOARD

Measuring 29 x 29 cm, my whiteboard has since its acquisition always held an honored place at my line of sight when I gaze left.  In my final office before retiring, it suspended by its upper enclosed metallic ring surrounding a red plastic push-pin on my corkboard.  I could see the whole square.  Now it attaches by parallel magnets to of the exterior of a four-drawer metal file cabinet to the left of my desk in My Space.  A goose-neck lamp clipped to my desk surface obscures the lower left corner.  This segment has no writing utility, being imprinted with Avandia in its logo green letters with an equilateral red triangle pointing down in the groove of the V of this once widely prescribed and heavily promoted thiazolidinedione, of blessed memory, a pill for insulin resistant diabetes.  If it lasts centuries, which it might due to its Avandia green plastic frame, archeologists can try to place its date in the late 20^th century but contemporary mavens of modern culture can assign it to an age when doctors like myself received a lot of medical kitsch, now about twenty years ago.  This promotional item retained its utility.  As a reminder to prescribe this drug by its brand name, it has long since lost its value.  As a reminder to register what I am about and what I need to pursue each day, it remains timeless.  The sage Kohelet of the Old Testament knew enough neuroscience to realize that “the wise man has eyes in his head.”  What we see, particularly when we take care to seek out the important, our visual focus creates our mental focus.

This treasured vertical flat surface with mostly unused clips and magnets for notes keeps me verbal.  I divided its surface into zones.  Its lower third has remained blank, a place for the empty clips and magnets, also made of pharmaceutical advertising.  There I deposited a single small paper with a security number that I will need to communicate with Social Security.  The upper two thirds contain meaningful writing.  On the right there are two four-word entries, the upper in English, the lower in Hebrew, each a different marker color for each word.  The summary of Mayor Bloomberg’s guidance to my son’s commencement class of 2008 won its place there the day after the ceremony.  It has not changed.  He advised the graduates to focus on their individual personal

·        Independence

·        Honesty

·        Accountability

·        Innovation

Some five years later while reading Rabbi Sidney Schwarz’ anthology Jewish Megatrends, I added the Rabbi’s four desired attributes, Hebrew on the board, translated here:

·        Wisdom

·        Righteousness

·        Community

·        Sanctity

There they have remained, thought about in some fashion most days.

In the center I added two insertions: a Hebrew DerechEretz which reminds me to remain courteous to all people whether they merit it or not, and a brief quotation from a TED Talk on writing: I remember the time when…  Ben Franklin advised remaining civil to all, enemies to none.  Since he did better than me, I need the reminder. We are the composite of our experiences, their contexts, how we responded to them at the time, how we allow those experiences to upgrade us.  Judaism in particular depends on memory. We remember Shabbat as Commandment #4.  We introduce Shabbat each Friday night with memory of Creation and of Exodus.  We all have those times when… We do not always allow those experiences to move us ahead, thus the daily reminder in my central vision. 

The left third of my whiteboard has a list of twelve initiatives that change at the end of every June and December.  What I want to accomplish, really intermediate goals that must remain coherent with the core values listed on the right third of the whiteboard, remains in my sight daily as I start nearly every day except the weekly Sabbath by deciding what activities would make for a good effort.  These are also color coded:

·        Red: Financial or Family Projects

·        Blue: My Living Space

·        Green: Projects filling my identity as a physician.  None for this half-year

·        Black: My personal development.  8 of 12 are listed with black marker this cycle

There is a theory that languages with vowels are read from left to right which puts their ideas into the analytical left hemisphere, while non-vowelized languages such as Hebrew are read from right to left, which forces us to form ideas from context as well as letters.  Our visual tracking puts this preferentially into our right cerebral hemispheres where we derive our emotional connections.  My whiteboard has a mixture, as does my formal and informal education.

Those are the mechanics that outline a blend of identity, principles, pursuits.  While I made a reasonably successful effort to stand aside from our American political fray, avoiding the temptation to demean anyone verbally, standing amidst our civil meltdown caught me as a victim along with everyone else.  I look at intersectionalities of political position more than I did just a few years ago.  Sometimes my opinion of people I don’t know defaults to disrespect, and not the amusing Rodney Dangerfield kind.  People have started to register in my mind by what they espouse, not the worthy efforts they might put forth.  With that framework, and not neglecting my own views which no doubt generate parallel poorly considered reactions, I went back to each item that puts my mind in perspective each day to assess how partisan each really is. 

My white board effectively divides left and right.  Unlike our political ideologies which are also labelled left and right figuratively, my left and right expressions are more literal.  On the left I have proposed actions, on the right and center, in two languages with different perspectives, I have abstract values that frame the daily tasks.  As much as people increasingly take a binary view of what they stand for, the daily pursuits, at least mine, have a consistent universality.  There is nothing partisan about nurturing a garden, visiting children, tracking expenses with the intent of better financial prudence, creating friendships, banding together with others in organizations where the target beneficiary is not self, maintaining health, or challenging my intellect.  However somebody else may imprint one of their labels or slogans to me, on most days we each do something because the effort generates joy, we take pride in our families with the expectation of forthcoming nachas, we know what our doctors think we ought to be doing and try to comply, and do our best to generate the funds we need for our responsibilities or aspirations.  Partisanship rarely arises from this task column, for me translated each evening into specific desired tasks to pursue the following day. For every troll who takes a written poke at me on our increasingly toxic social media, there is a more stoic person, sometimes marking with a red cap what is beneath that red cap, taking care of his home, acting in a courteous manner in the workplace to people he will slander with his computer later that evening, walking on a treadmill, or planning a vacation to a state whose citizens vote differently.

Those right and center placements on my white board, things that have resisted any modification from the time they were first written more than a decade previously, reflect more indelible and highly particular imprints.  Independence means no temptation will get me to blithely slogan somebody when I should be using my higher centers to assess circumstances.  That’s important to me, not at all essential to others who are more inclined to never challenge their nearest person of title.  Does it segregate by other elements of partisan ideology?  I think it does.  Mayor Bloomberg advised the graduates honesty.  I think the commitment to something like that really isn’t generated at University commencement, though.  Honor systems abound in schools and in the workplace.  Violations are few, but not so rare that they never occur.  And while people tend to maintain stage 1 of an Honor System by not cheating, we don’t do as well with stage 2 that requires reporting of cheaters.  Our political divide does not seem at all equal in willingness to come down on wrongdoers in their midst.  But with whatever tribe you select for yourself trust remains highly valued, and not particularly ideological.  We assume our credit cards will debit only what we authorize, our doctors will have our best interests in the advice we receive, other drivers will not abuse the orderly flow of traffic.  Yet, our tolerance for violators of honest does have its element of political intersectionality.  Accountability may differ as well.  Much of our public discourse has focused on blaming the opposition and scoring points with the faithful when that happens.  That negates accountability.  And I think the two partisan poles are highly unequal.  Willingness to exploit people’s vulnerabilities has its intersectionality.  Trustworthiness is one of the most fundamental of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People that captured more than a few paragraphs by Dr. Stephen Covey in his landmark best seller. In many, trustworthiness portends success far more reliably than a degree from charm school, which may be why one group of voters seems more professionally accomplished in their distribution than the other.  And Mayor Bloomberg cited Innovation.  The challenge of college was to share common sets of facts but move in different directions from them.  The great innovative enterprises and the people who devote their efforts to advancing them are simply not uniformly distributed across America. 

The values that I wrote on the whiteboard in Hebrew have similar divides.  Chochmah, or wisdom, cannot be obtained while screeching slogans.  Tzedek, or righteousness, poses more of a challenge.  I think when a natural disaster occurs someplace in the world, people of all backgrounds offer their assistance, whether by personal relief efforts or generous contribution.  What differs, though, seems to be the assessment of the recipient.  We all help.   We don’t all help because the recipient is our equal.  I think that’s where the intersectionality of righteousness plays out.  It plays out more starkly in the willingness to harm somebody.  Most of us won’t.  In the early days of Facebook, as my high school chums reassembled to give updates on the forty years since graduation, most of us had families and a measure of prosperity.  One highly accomplished classmate introduced us in cyberspace to his gay partner, subsequently formalized to his spouse when that became his legal option.  This fellow had a very distinguished creative career, appearing in the final credits of many TV shows that I watched.  We go back to Cub Scouts, where his mother, now in her 90s, volunteered as Den Mother.  I had no reason to consider one way or the other whether he was gay.  His partnership approximated my marriage in duration.  Would I ever do anything that would hurt my friend?  Not a chance.  Would I resist somebody with fewer Gifts from God demeaning him in any way?  For sure.  That’s Tzedek.  We strive for it in large part because it is not set as a universal priority. 

Kehillah or Community often has a mixed message.  Some loners such as Burt Shavitz, the Burt of Burt’s Bees, valued his solitude yet became an icon of non-materialistic purity.  More commonly, though, we encounter people who either lack community or latch onto one devoid of personal contact through cyberspace.  Mass shootings tend to come from lone wolves, at least in America.  Misplaced but very real community can go awry as well.  As Lord Rabbi Jonathan Sacks noted in an essay in response to a British election, “Anti-Semitism, or any hate, becomes dangerous in any society when three things happen: when it moves from the fringes of politics to a mainstream party and its leadership; when the party sees that its popularity with the general public is not harmed thereby; and when those who stand up and protest are vilified and abused for doing so.”  Community shares purpose, though not always benevolence.  Moreover, community is continually being repackaged, a fluid arrangement of associations in which people frequently change their geography, employers, political affiliations, preferred places of worship, and numerous other shifts in loyalty.  Absence of community, as Judaism teaches, is dangerous in its own right, but people banding together does not by itself generate either cohesion or stability.

Kadusha or Sanctity forms the basis for inner peace.  Unlike pornography which one of our Justices knew when he saw it, we appreciate holiness more viscerally when violated.  For most of the past three millennia, religious codes have carried this banner and still do, though in a very fractious way and with enormous inconsistency over extended times.  Certainly, evil has not been eradicated even when a universal consensus largely agrees on not murdering or stealing.  Dualism abounds with stated positions that seem irreconcilable from one sacred text to another.  Historically we have schisms within a religion, creation of new religions, definable sects within large faith umbrellas, and defined behavioral obligations within each group.  Things that I would regard as deplorable serve as behavioral mandates to others.  That leaves this value at best minimalist.  Don’t harm somebody when they are vulnerable, or in Torah terms, “You shall not curse a deaf man, nor place a stumbling block before the blind, but you shall revere your God; I am the Lord.”  [Lev 19:14] While the literal divine imprint to the commandment offers universality and permanence, I think most atheists would not take a different view.  There are, however, moral challenges that divide by tribe.  I can easily convince myself that my view of Wisdom is superior to an internet troll’s view of Wisdom. I cannot really say with equal certainty the divisive questions of when life begins, what damage have people done to Mother Earth, or even when doing something expedient is a better option than doing something because it is right.  There are no shortage of clergy or demagogues who have their own shows on Cable TV that have more certainty than me, though I clearly do not share either their espoused desire to act or their certainty.  Socrates lives on in spirit for exposing these uncertainties to sanctity without exploiting them as so many public figures generate their followers by doing.  Kadusha depends on living with the uncertainty but remaining consistent.  As I write my daily goals for the following day, none can undermine my concept of holiness.  Yet I have to accept that some pretty dastardly initiatives fall within other’s version of what their God or other deities, literal and figurative, expect of them.

So, there’s my visible daily guide hanging to my left on a white board with color coded prompts, the left column what I do, the right column what I believe that forms the foundation of what I strive to do.  The actions of promoting various levels of performance and responsibility have a very universal consensus that does not get mired in the ideologies which are more fractious.  Yet it is those very personal and particular foundational doctrines that generate each semi-annual goal. On the left, shared interests in family, learning, money, and recreation.  On the right, sometimes putting on armor to defend core tenets of myself and often my tribe, sometimes making a truce with others of different driving principles and affiliations who still generate their goals in ways that complement mine. 

 

 

Snooze, Unfollow, Unfriend

Like most of America, if not the world, the recent police homicide of George Floyd, has opened avenues of introspection for some, reflex rhetoric for others.  With few exceptions only a real schmegeggi would not be able to figure out in advance who will try to defend the outrageous and rationalize the unthinkable.  Add to that the American phenomenon of post event riots with property damage in great quantity and personal injury in lesser quantity, one dating back my entire adult lifetime, and it becomes very easy to identify what the people you encounter value.  The American Electoral College left us with somebody despicable and with previously decent individuals climbing aboard.

Amid this disruption, there is a surprising amount of consensus.  Policing standards need more professionalism and accountability.  Crime emerging from legitimate protest needs to be addressed.  Amid this consensus, I've encountered some pretty ugly perspectives from people I know, mostly not know well, but who now skirt my concept of despicable. 

Since most encounters are on Facebook, I snoozed a person today, somebody who had sought me out, and snoozed another a week ago.  Neither are evil, though neither are particularly erudite or analytical.  I followed the algorithm to review my friends list, some deceased, now numbering 92 individuals and for some reason two duplicates.  Those were the only two on current snooze.  My indefinite unfollow list is a little longer and only includes two that I know personally.  It's an interesting collection.  One was just a nudnik posting something every 10 minutes while awake.  A couple are folks who just annoy me posting in the manner of a jingo pageant.  About three I would call toxic.  The number unfriended ever I can count on one hand and the number unfriended of people that I know personally is zero.  All to date are people who pitch an offensive form of the Orthodox hardball.

The irony to this has been that I maintain some portions of classical Republican ideology on economics or on social options but harming individuals is not on my radar, nor is it on the radar of some revered Republican minds that I've encountered along the way. All political stances have their intersectionalities, sometimes undesired, but some of the unacceptable gets stamped by me as absolute.  And my Jewish learning and respect trends Orthodox, attracted by elegance of analysis, though I usually seek hesed (kindness) and hain (graciousness) elsewhere.

Facebook and Twitter are great assets for conveying thought but some of that reasoning or faulty reasoning can be toxic.  Stephen Covey named one of his early 7 Habits "Begin with the End in Mind."  While I expect a Blue Wave in the next voting cycle, it takes more than that to reach an agreeable end point within the preponderance of overwhelming consensus.  Richard the Lion-Heart, that magnanimous individual had a concept of smoothing out long-standing Norman-Saxon animosities. In order to do that, he had to divert from his generous innate character, hanging a few, exiling a few, and marginalizing a few.  I have an obligation to use my own forums in the best way.  Furrydoc.blogspot.com has no oversight but no readers but no restriction on access.  It's self-policing.
Facebook poses the more difficult decision.  The two snoozed this week have some redeeming value, and I will not unfriend anyone who I know personally in the absence of hostility to me on their part, which has only happened once in ten years.  The bigger challenge will be who to simply unfollow as somebody who impedes how I think my forum is best utilized.  Some surgical excision of selected individuals,  not the meat cleaver implemented by that Presidential public blight who I need to help dispatch.

Super Sunday's Defector

Last week I gave a public seminar on Jewish attrition which is really a subset of religious attrition.  It takes many forms, and unless one is among those Church Centered people that Stephen Covey, z"l, so vigorously downgraded in his 7 Habits, we all probably have some element of this.   I've been on Federation's Do Not Call List for 25 years and I do not expect a solicitation today.  Indeed, many Federations and other fundraising organizations have written off their small donors as not worth the effort or the telephone earfuls that their contributions would bring.  I've not forsaken tzedakah, quite the opposite, just fired my agent for doing this in 1995 and brought this vital initiative In House.

I think the attrition from Judaism that we see now is really Leadership Generated Attrition, the just deserts of how people see themselves as being treated, whether accurate or not.  Of course those machers told each other how wonderful their leadership efforts were.  Defectors were by definition, inferior Jews or ingrates.  Probably not true then and not true now as their leadership clones who have taken up the baton look at how to make the best of their current circumstances.

For me, the experience violated some of the most basic needs of the Animal Kingdom.  We all devote our efforts to looking for food, avoiding predators, and reproducing.  I gathered food and a good deal of professional and personal satisfaction externally to the herd, found a fair number of predators from within, and had to protect one of my offspring.  Even looking at the herd for the security and opportunity it provides, the losers of the rut who are put in subservient positions may start seeking a different herd where they can flourish more effectively.  That's me.  That's a lot of people.  It's not everyone.  They'd have real tzuris if it were.  The disaffiliation composite speaks for itself.  The rut through which the people of title emerge will just have to engage smaller herds.

Tackling Projects

Some initiatives are little with no excuse for not doing them.  Each Monday I measure my waist with a tape measure and my weight with an electronic scale, then later in the week record the results and a comment on diet and exercise progress in a bound notebook.  My waist has been static within one-half inch for a few years but I measure it anyway.  My weight varies within a kg for a few years but failure to reduce it and those paragraphs of where I fell short probably helps keep it static when the natural history might be rising.

Some projects are big and have deadlines.  Each month I am contractually committed to present an essay on Endocrinology, submitted the final days of each month without fail.  Approaching the end of the month.  I've chosen a topic and an approach to it, could use some minor research, then write it on time.  I have a deadline for submitting medical expenses for reimbursement.  The process can be tedious but I have the data.  And taxes come due once a year.  My wife has more attention to detail than me.  Once these are done, I have a respite, monthly for my article, annually for taxes and this time forever for health set-asides which disappeared with my retirement last summer. 
Some projects are big and have no deadline.  Stephen Covey in his 7 Habits of Highly Successful People called these Quadrant II initiatives, things that are important, or at least have been assigned importance, but have no deadline, and sometimes no end point.  So my weight reduction goal drags on for each six month interval.  It is important, never achieved, but its pursuit has kept my exercise schedule afloat with some benefits other that weight.  I want to review my finances each month but never have, as I pay an expert to keep up with this.  I will this week now that I have ready access to the data, one of the intermediate steps to this ongoing project.  Each six months I create an initiative for my house.  Remodeling my kitchen got done.  Now I am making a dormant room, intended as our study and later computer room into my retreat.  It has a deadline, self-imposed with no consequences for failure to meet it, meaning it really has no deadline.  Is it important?  Having my dedicated space probably is more want than need.  Pride of accomplishing something may be what is most important about this project.  It is those Quadrant II's, things that have no deadline like health maintenance, retirement planning, periodic vacations, gratifying hobbies that pay off the most but become subordinate to the urgent. 

Today's to-do list, always far in excess of what I can realistically do, has a lot of Quadrant II's, noted with green highlighter.  It has some urgencies which I do not note with highlighter but don't need to be.  Avoiding the negative consequences of missed deadlines usually does not need a reminder.

Weekly Planning

It's been some 25 years since I first read Stephen Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.  The type of goal setting that he described came fairly naturally to me, though my lists were too long and not categorized well enough.  One piece of advice that permanently changed was time perspectives.  While I always had what I should do today and what I need to do this semester and what am I pursuing toward graduation, my planning had always been day to day.  His guidance changed the perspective to a week.  So now I have a semi-annual list of projects in categories compiled every June and December.  But instead of the Franklin Planner approach of day to day, the perspective has been to incorporate parts of six months into each week.  I think that is a much better goal breakdown.  Seven day blocks have been the norm since Biblical times, probably for a reason.  Each Sunday morning, excepted only for yontiff, I look at the six month projects and determine what I should be able to do this week.  Activities for the week that are part of that six month effort get a colored highlight.  Each night I take the weekly list and select a daily array of stuff that I need to select from, as the list always exceeds what I can do, but urgencies get done and non-urgent priorities get pursued. 

So this week I should be able to complete my third day trip, either to New York or the Harley Factory in plain old York.  There is a meeting with my financial advisor who helped me computerize my assets.  I need to review my Medicare Part D program.  Clearing my upstairs study has not gone as well as some of the other initiatives because the weekly projects seem to lack the task specificity of the others.  My weight has gone nowhere though I have done reasonably well on the intermediate steps to lose those ten pounds.  I keep weekly records and while I have not lost any, my weight and waist circumference have remained static for two years. 

Come next week, we return to December, that semiannual review of what has gone well, what fell short, what merits continuation, and what directions should get revised.  But overall, it's been a useful system.

Upcoming Initiatives

This week left me with three days off, not much scheduled other than a somewhat overdue doctor's visit.  Much of this blank canvas of time went into the semiannual project development that I engage in every June and December.  In recent sessions I've pick twelve, a couple easy or with deadlines that I must meet.  These get done.  The more elaborate multiple aspect initiatives generally do not go to completion but they still get a due measure of effort.  Last week I explored cyberspace to try to figure out why so little comes to fruition.  To a large extent it seems to be related to picking end points over which I have no control.  My goal of catching ten fish resulted in none.  But I do not make fish take the lure.  A better approach would have been to go fishing a certain number of times, make a modification for each unsuccessful venture, and try out a specified number of locations.  I probably have less control over my weight than I might imagine so losing ten pounds may not be under my control.  Exercising and modifying what I eat is very much under my discretion so this year's goals will get modified to specify the exercise expectations and the dietary modifications, allowing the weight itself to go wherever nature intends it under the circumstances I create.

My template has changed from one modified by Covey's 7 Habits many years ago to categories that come across as more specified.  So with two days left before the first Sunday weekly planning specimen of implementation, here's how it looks:

Travel:  Visit three different museums which I've not visited previously  in three different towns.

Personal:  Engage in a program of healthy eating

Long term Activity:  Develop a comprehensive retirement plan with pursuit of three activities that can be carried forth to my retirement years.

Mental:  Develop the premier Jewish iconoclast blog filled with external comments.

Home:  Declutter part of the house for 45 minutes every Sunday.

Financial:  Make a donation to a worthy Jewish cause on the 20th of every month and send each organization a note of appreciation for what they do.

Friends:  Write to two Jewish thinkers per month.

Family:  Attend my son's graduation.

Health:  Exercise 15 minutes three days a week.

Large Purchase:  Remodel the kitchen.

Community:  Set aside my religious participation in AKSE in favor of a beneficial non-religious project.

New Frontier:  Begin writing the book that ultimately makes me famous.

I color code my projects and the daily activities that enable their pursuit.  No professional projects to pursue for the first time in many years.

We'll see how these dozen proceed over the next few months.

Strategic Planning

My shul has a real problem.  It resembles my Bar Mitzvah shul which crested at about the time of my Bar Mitzvah, then suffered membership attrition for the next forty years until it closed.  The shul where I attended services as a resident closed.  Both suffered demographic reversals probably beyond their control.  AKSE's struggles may have been more self-inflicted.  There really are not many places like the JCC Spring Valley that are thriving but there are places that used to be like the JCC of Spring Valley that adapted successfully to changing views of what the Jewish experience should be like that do not have to reassess their future today.  Or maybe more accurately they are continually reassessing their future as part of their leadership process, which may be why they do not go from crisis to crisis.

Our President invited comments on what the options for the future might be, posted a slide summary of the 42 comments he received, then invited the Board to comment on the presentation.  my assessment (blue)of the minutes (orange)

o Review of ideas submitted:  Categories: Building, CBS/AKSE; do nothing; egalitarian, financial, liturgy, other, youth.  

Discussion: Sell or downsize building; increase role of women, share space with CBS.  Need to look at how problem 

solution will solve problem; e.g., if membership decline is problem, will solution increase membership.  Problems with 

borrowing from restricted money, fundraising.  Rabbi willing to work something out with another synagogue. Not 

enough children; not growing.  Suggestions are interrelated; must discuss together. 

This is much too diverse.  First the problem needs to be defined better.  Not enough members?  Not enough money?  If we had money would we care about members?  Are the birds-in-the-hand sufficiently satisfied?  What do the members want in return for their support?  How well do we deliver on that?  Is synagogue affiliation really a consumer purchase?

If the problem is money, do we prefer to acquire more money or are we content to spend less or compelled to spend less?

Stephen Covey in his 7 HABITS recommended "Begin with the End in Mind" as the title of one of his earlier chapters.  That will determine when and how to play the gender card, seek other affiliations, develop programming and plan for the future.  Reading the range of comments, many of which can be traced back to when I arrived in 1997 and were addressed by a consultant some time ago, the direction needs to be teased out first.

Now for specifics:  Building is paid for.  Dormant Rabbi house has market value and we need the money..  There is much to be said about merging Beth Shalom with AKSE to a single congregation once the gender card is shredded.  Our talent adds to what they can do.  Their stability and institutional affiliation benefits some of our people.  Do Nothing has been the path for a while, though not exactly.  There were projections of what bringing a young personable Rabbi aboard would do.  Much of the projection did not materialize but at least it wasn't entirely a Do Nothing approach.  Much of the rest of it has been with reasonably predictable outcome.  I think it better to call "egalitarian" the gender card, since that is more accurate and is an issue at all non-egalitarian congregations where there is a disconnect between the secular opportunities for women and their role while under their synagogue's roof.  The blue line of what is acceptable halachically is always in motion, mostly expanding from what was before.  Rather than say egalitarian, I think it better to think of it as making the affiliation with AKSE, orthodoxy and its traditions more appealing to women than it is now.  Remember, orthodoxy with women involved is thriving nationally.  Liturgy needs to be addressed desperately.  My own attrition speaks for itself.  For all intents and purposes, there are no youth.  It is much better for AKSE to accept that, and integrate the children that we do have with other opportunities for them to socialize in the community.  The School remains one of those elephants in the room.  Sharing space with another congregation will not alter the lagging experience of AKSE affiliation.

Discussion about how would work out details and maintenance of identity if partnership with CBS; if work with CBS, 

chance for both institutions to develop a new identity.  Rabbi AKSE has discussed partnership with Rabbi CBS; next 

step is to go to board level.  Could remain as congregation, but not in this building; perhaps smaller building in N. 

Wilmington. Concern about conversion status if Adas Kodesch identity changes. Need longer period to discuss 

changes than proposed.  Main focus needs to be on our own congregants and what they want, to serve our own 

members’ needs; easier to retain members than to find new members; if we can engage current members, they 

become best ambassadors, which provides best chance for survival.  If we are going to talk about partnership with BS, 

should do relatively soon; difficult to combine missions of CBS & Adas Kodesch.   JCC suggested as a possible location 

if we decide to sell the building.  

AKSE has an identifiable mission?  Before you work out details you have to understand what you want.  If you want AKSE of the 1960's to be immutable, you already have that.  If you were engaging current members adequately as a matter of course, this discussion would not be coming up during the tenure of every single recent President.

Possible loss of membership if move left or right.   Discussion about egalitarian changes. E.g., if make some egalitarian 

changes that are Halachic, people will perceive us as fully egalitarian.  If rejoin OU, would require Mechitzah.  If joined 

CBS, most people would not notice the difference.  Adas Kodesch and Chesed Shel Emeth merged, and both changed; 

there is a way to do things if needed.  It appears that people like the type of service we have, although want full 

participation of women.  Should look at Beth Hillel-Beth El in Wynnewood which incorporates elements we have 

discussed.  Going in either direction would result in a loss of members; we should combine ideas, make major cuts in 

expenses, and keep existing traditional Jewish practices to ensure our survival and identity for longest period.  

Problem to ensure traditional practices when difficult to get a morning minyan.  We have to manage unappealing 

choices.

My grandfather's orthodox shul in the Highbridge section of the Bronx does not exist anymore.  Few shuls remain in Manhattan's Lower East Side.  My Bar Mitzvah congregation is gone.  The place I really liked in Quincy has closed.  Synagogues go through life cycles.  Amid that, new ones form and grow.  Charismatic Rabbis sometimes assume the pulpit bringing an energy and perspective that attracts people.  This seems to be independent of form of worship, more related to personal connections that people make at the educational level.  AKSE certainly has its challenges.  It is hard to say what the optimal solution would be, looking at the diversity of end points that people have expressed.

How would Rich the Sage go about this?  First, there cannot be Sacred Cows.  Everything is subject to schechita.  Second, there has to be an examination of ways in which AKSE is unique.  There are many.  There has to be a literature search, both internal to analyze why projections from the past were so wrong or even delusional and to distinguish approaches with potential from sure losers.  I think there has to be a planning committee.  It needs to have ex officio the Rabbi, President and Membership VP.  It needs to have three experts experienced with different trends in American Judaism and in doing literature search and analysis. Then it needs to have five members, either chose at random or selected by the Rabbi.  However whoever the Rabbi chooses should not be seated.  The spouse of that person should be seated.  There is just too much in-breeding and A-lists at AKSE which have been highly detrimental.  Only then does a direction get worked out, sent to the board for vote and then a parallel assembly of officials, experts and random congregants named to make it happen.  Will it happen?  No guarantee.