Acceptance

We're All human...

images by HRS

Chef Moe at Invesco Field

Lance

I am starting the New Year by doing a Yahrzeit tradition something I have done since my father died thirteen years ago, a Mitzvah. A mitzvah is a random act of kindness. The Mitzvah can honor anyone and or anything just do one. 

I left the house taking the long way so I could enjoy music and the sun on New Year’s Day.  I was heading west on 13^th Avenue towards downtown; I scoped out the street and saw two men on 13^th and Clarkson Street. I continued to my usual drop-off local at 14^th and Logan in front of the church. The spot had no lost homeless souls asking for food or money today.  Why are they lost many saw things in previous wars?

I drove up to 16^th Avenue and turned right on to Washington Street heading south to 12^th Avenue. All those are One-Way streets and adjustments are easy to maneuver on sunny days.  I turned left on to Clarkson Street heading north and put on the emergency flashers, a courtesy to other drivers.  I looked in my rearview mirror, a concern with other cars driving north, but the plus, its New Year’s Day, lighter traffic.

I rolled down the window and the gentlemen commented on my Denver Broncos jacket. I replied to the gentlemen about my jacket, “My brother bought me the jacket, he was the Chef for the Denver Broncos. To be exact Invesco Field at Mile High Stadium on the club level. The gentlemen said, “I know your brother, he taught me how to cook.”  

I said, “Pardon, my brother passed away two years ago.” I asked him his name, “I am Lance, and I use to fly with the 92^nd Airborne.” My heart was pounding, and I smiled as he spoke of Chef Moe. I was crying, but he could not see the tears through my Ray-Ban’s. I remember my brother telling me that on game day they’d bring in homeless day workers because they needed the extra kitchen staff. 

“Your brother was a big man with a kind heart, not like the chef that yells on T.V.”

“You mean Chef Gordon Ramsey.”

“Yes, him, and he gets crazy with his cooks. Your brother explained everything to me. How to hold a knife and how to sauté food, and your brother treated me with dignity.” “He was the amputee, correct.”

“Yes, he was an amputee, and a kind man that died too young from diabetes and heart problems”

“Do you have a picture of your brother, can I see him.”

“My iPhone is slow in loading and my hands are shaking, one moment. Here’s Chef Moe.”

“That’s him, that’s him, wow, what a small world.”

I asked him, “What war did you serve?”

“I served Operation Desert Storm.”  

I asked him about his military service and he went silent, I knew that was a sore subject.  We chatted about his failing health, and he could barely walk before he said’ “You best move your car so you don’t get a ticket.” I thanked him repeatedly, and I am still in shock, but joyful. I drove away humbled after giving him the food. I recorded my emotions and just played them back, and wow.

I am wishing you my readers; Mitzvah’s, joys, peace, and loves for the New Year.

Dreidel

She Dreidel

Dreidel is played during Chanukah or Hanukkah; the holiday begins on the 25^th of Kislev in the Hebrew calendar.  Chanukah lasts eight days and is a story of Victory, and how the Maccabees defeated the Syrian’s - Greek’s to reclaim the temple in Jerusalem.

Judah Maccabee and his brothers went to the temple in Jerusalem after the fight and cleaned the temple. They discovered the oil used to light the menorah was destroyed, polluted, and unusable. Looking harder the brothers stumbled upon a small amount of oil to last a day. The miracle, the oil lasted eight days, long enough to make oil for the menorah. The story is about Strength (light), over darkness.  There is power from the candles that stay lit for an hour or so.

Dreidel Game Rules:

Get a Dreidel or make one like Zydac’s on a 3D printer.

3D Dreidel by Zydac

In a Jewish, home the game Dreidel is taught from age 3 on because of the complexity of understanding the Hebrew, English alphabet and rules. Dreidel is a game you learn as you go.  I’ve heard through the grapevine that people rig Dreidel’s to land on the magic letter of “G” of Gimmel.  Alphabet and meaning is in Hebrew, English and Yiddish.  I grew-up in a home that Yiddish was spoken the language, and I still speak Yiddish.

Age group 3 – adults:

Recommendations for kids use pretzels, chocolate coins, and or m & m’s and other coin like edibles for kids. Adults may use quarters, dimes, nickels, and pennies. House Rules are honored same as Vegas house rules:

Welcome to the Starr’s House Rules played in Yiddish, have fun.

Adult Ante: $0.41 cents per person

Kids Ante: a smile and whatever food you can get them to add and a kiss on the kop (head). 

Spin:

Nun ℶ = gornisht = nothing

Gimmel ℷ = gantz = the whole pot

Hay ה = halb = half the pot

Shin ש = pay = ante in $0.41 cent

Happy Chanukah from our home to your home, and May your Miracles come true.

The Season of Lights

3rd Avenue at 2:00 AM 

The “Season of Lights” is a phrase used to describe the month of December. The light frenzy takes off the day after Thanksgiving, and continues through the first week of January.  The phrase even pleases the Atheist because it is neutral and does not cross the boundary of “religion.” The phrase “Season of Lights” reflects how our Christian friends decorate their homes with beautiful bright twinkling lights. 

I am Jewish and I celebrate the miracle that happened when “light conquered darkness” and became Chanukah or Hanukkah.  The holiday is not a religious holiday, but a holiday about perseverance and believing in yourself and the miracles we have inside of us. I believe, do you?

No matter how you celebrate the season, taste the flavors of the season and try something different without political conviction, and have fun. 

I wish you all, a Happy Chanukah, a Merry Christmas, a Merry Kwanzaa, and a Happy Winter Solstice.

Mark Twain

I passed through a bookstore and saw a magnet with a quote by Mark Twain. The magnet sits on my desk with only three other quotes; the referent is similar in two of them about exploring, dreaming and discovering. Throw caution to the wind, your dreams are in front of you, let go of doubt.

“Twenty years from you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”  Mark Twain

explorer ...

Happy Thanksgiving

Peacefulness

Think kindness, and tolerance for your own soul, as you go through life protecting your heart on a day we give thanks.   Wishing you all peacefulness... 

Occupy Denver

Land Ho

1450 Broadway

Occupying Denver

My mother and I put together a Mitzvah Package for Occupy Denver, and it involved teamwork. One part was her making fresh hot chicken that came from her heart.  The other part I delivered the packages to Civic Center Park, downtown Denver, CO.  When I got out of the car a couple of polite young men came to the car to help take the donations.  I explained, “I am a daughter of Holocaust Survivors, and my mom, and me support the movement.”

Once I said, “I am a daughter of Holocaust Survivors”, a young man started sharing some ideologies from Torah. He shared that he’s Rastafarian, and the Rastafarian Movement reads Torah, and believes in the Old Testament and Twelve Tribes of Israel.  He shares his beliefs with others and helps support the Occupy Denver Movement.  He said these words to me as I parted “Go forward and prosper” funny Spock always said that same phrase in every Star Trek, oddly enough, that’s the Torah portion reading for this week, Lech Lecha.

Pay attention Christian Evangelicals, Republicans, and the Republicans in Congress, and the Senate, the 99% people do not like you. The 99% people do not like the Koch Brothers or Wall Street Bankers.  The tax breaks you guys get are disgusting, lopsided, and Bushes tax cuts destroyed America.

The people of Occupy Denver, they do not like Michael Moore, they think he’s a 1% opportunist. He came to Denver to promote his new book and paid a visit to Occupy Denver. Back tracking, he took a break from “book signing” during his visit at Occupy Denver. During his 20-minute speech, he was confronted by a news reporter from CBS 4 Denver.  That question, put Michael Moore on the defensive, as he left for The Tattered Cover Bookstore for a book promotional book signing w/ press, and live broadcast with the Rachel Maddow show.

The young man explained that today was cleaning and moving day and those sleeping bags that were wet went to the laundry mat. The moving was in honor of the Veterans Day Parade. The Occupy Denver set-up a mailbox for mail, a clothing station, and they share with homeless and others in need, that’s kindness amazing.  Perfect strangers came together with the same compassions for a cause and are caring for one another. Incase you want to send a postcard or donations the mailbox address is 1450 Broadway.

The message is loud and clear; stop the 1% from destroying 99% of the American Dream…