Friday, July 20, 2007

Mar Bar Ravina & I


When I feel that another person is looking at me askance it is often a sign that it I am the one projecting these feelings onto this person. Yet, there are times when my perception is completely accurate and the person is looking at me and not seeing me, only my big red beard and yarmulke.

When I notice these disparaging looks, I fight against my innate nature and try return them with a smile or a friendly greeting. And when I daven, these people come to mind when I finish the Amida and say the last line of Elokai Netzor.

5 Comments:

At July 20, 2007 at 1:39:00 PM EDT, Blogger haKiruv said...

I get that a lot, too. Thanks for sharing.

 
At July 20, 2007 at 1:40:00 PM EDT, Blogger A Simple Jew said...

I am glad someone could relate.

 
At July 22, 2007 at 12:47:00 AM EDT, Blogger Neil Harris said...

Those lines in the siddur are indeed powerful.

 
At July 26, 2007 at 2:35:00 PM EDT, Blogger Alice said...

OK, so I'm going to very poorly paraphrase a quote I once heard.

'In my teens I cared too much about what people thought of me. In my thirties, I learned not to care. In my fifties I learned that no one was thinking about me.'

I have found this to be quite true over the past 18 months. A number of people whom I thought were obsessing over such and such were not even the tiniest bit and I wasted a ton of energy stressing about it and feeling sorry for myself. It was all in my head.

 
At July 26, 2007 at 2:39:00 PM EDT, Blogger A Simple Jew said...

Thanks for sharing that, Alice :)

 

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