Divine Light and The Soul Of Man

I took this picture today in the nursing home.

It hangs over the memorial of names for people that have passed.

The saying as translated here from Proverbs is: “The Divine light illuminates the soul of man.”

But the meaning of the hebrew words themselves are more like: The light of G-d is the soul of man.

What is a person’s soul?

– Their consciousness.

– The knowledge of right and wrong.

– The part of us that yearns to learn, grow, and be better.

– The part of a human being which is eternal

– The part of a person that can be reunited with loved ones in the afterlife.

– The part of a person that can be resurrected (to try again).

– The spiritual, inner, real you!

G-d breathed into man life.

The physical body is the shell, the exoskeleton, and the vehicle that houses our soul.

The soul is the part of us that drives the vehicle, that makes decisions–good or bad, that navigates the world, and that expresses emotion from the depths of our inner being.

Our soul loves, cares for, empathizes and has mercy on others or it can be angry, jealous, hateful, and cruel–these are expressed through our bodily actions.

G-d’s light is powerful indeed–and inside each and every one of us–it powers us to do good or bad, depending on how we take care of the gift.

Do we let ourselves run rampart driven by carnal wants and desires or do we elevate these impulses and use these to serve our master through good deeds and selflessness?

The divine light illuminates who we are and can be.

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Cries In The Night

Last night, we heard screaming.

We were woken out of our sleep, by a blood-curdling cry.

I ran to the window to see what was going on, but the street seemed empty.

There was yelling mostly from what sounded like a young man–or boy.

He was saying things like “get away from me.”

That turned into “don’t hurt me.”

Which ended in “H~E~L~P!  Somebody call the police. He’s beating me…”

The police came quickly, yet we still heard the craziness.

“He abuses me. He beats me.” and then “He tried to throw me off the terrace.”

The boy was literally begging the police to take the man to jail.

He seemed completely traumatized–unreconcilable–and kept repeating himself again and again.

Until finally everything went abruptly silent and “the show was over,” but the impact lingered in the warm, humid air of the night.

People disagree, argue, and fight–they are only human; not every moment can be a “Leave It To Beaver” hour–loving and copasetic.

We all understand that the pace of life and stress gets to people and sometimes, they say and do things, they do not mean or intend–and some which they do, but that they are sorry for afterwards.

Again, people are “only human”–or as we learned in Jewish day school, there are no angels here on this earth.

But the blood curdling cries we heard last night, left us up, sitting and holding each other–and trying to make sense of it all.

There is too much suffering out there–some of it we hear, some of it we don’t, and some of it we tune out and ignore.

As a child, I learned that the prayers of the community rise up together to beseech G-d almighty for his mercy and blessing.

Sometimes, I wonder, whether the cries of anguish of the people who are hungry, sick, raped, and abused, also rise up in the same way–as one “communal” single cry for help or more as a chorus of people in need.

In the dark, at night, everything somehow seems worse, and while I tried to explain to the kids what this world is about…sometimes, it is hard to understand or even attempt to explain.

Are these things tests, challenges, opportunities for growth, or punishments–only G-d really knows.

But hearing (and seeing) people “losing it”–and their pain that you can hear mostly only in the dark of night–can put doubts and fears about the cruelty of some human beings into any soul.

These are memories that etch into our very consciousness–scaring and maiming, but hopefully also leaving us to appreciate every peaceful and loving moment bestowed on us.

(Source Photo: herewith attribution to PalmSpringsDude)

Behind The Toothbrush, A Human Being

In the morning, I like to stop at the food court for some coffee (iced, not hot).

This week, while heading down the stairs to the coffee stand, I ran into this lady cleaning the stairs.

As I excused myself to her and got the nod to run past, I realized she was cleaning each stair not with a machine, or a mop, but with with a hand utensil that was basically like a toothbrush.

And as you can see, she was cleaning more just a couple of steps, but rather a whole staircase like this.

I had to take a second-take at this whole notion–I could not believe she was cleaning each step–one at a time–step by step–from one side to the other–bent over like this with this little tool-like toothbrush.

I wanted to stop and ask her about it–why she had to do it this way? But I was too embarrassed and more important didn’t want to embarrass her.

I took this photo discretely not to shame anyone, but to point out the plight of workers in our society.

No one–NO ONE–should have to bend over a staircase or floor or anything like this and clean inch by inch–with a toothbrush!

When I think about it–it is shameful–no, it is enraging–that anyone would treat other human beings like this.

Let’s face it–this is not done to get the stairs clean–there are machines and more appropriate hand tools–scrubbers, steamers, scrappers that can do that. Heck, I’d bet that we can modify a iRobot Roomba to eventually do it.

So this is not just about getting the job done, but perhaps about power, degradation, servitude, and even an element of abuse.

I felt terrible for this lady–I almost wanted to tell her to stop, but I assume, she has a family to feed too and has to do what she has to do.

But whoever is employing her and making her do this back-breaking work this way, as my grandmother used to say–G-d sees everything!

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)