Saturday, April 20, 2013

Poof


This coming Friday is my birthday; I turn 62, which means I enter my 63rd year of life. Don’t think about sending a gift, though cash is always welcome. I buy my own birthday presents since I know what I want better than anyone else, and to tell someone else what to buy is tacky. What am I giving myself for my birthday? Poof.
My life has been lived in the quest for stability. Every company I have started or worked for was supposed to have been a permanent gig. Yet all of them went poof.
Poof is the key to understanding my favorite book of the Bible, Ecclesiastes. You can translate the opening teaching as, “Poof after poof, everything goes poof.” So it isn’t that poof is new; what is new is that I’m giving myself permission to experience poof without guilt.
My main work is writing and lecturing. No, that’s not exactly right: my main work is thinking. The writing and lecturing are expressions of the thinking. So my job is to think, and then to share what I think in words both printed and spoken.
But writing and lecturing are all poof jobs. I write a book, magazine column, journal essay, or even a blog post or Tweet, and poof it’s gone, and I have to write another. The same with talking: I visit one venue, share some of my thoughts, and poof it is over, and I have to find another venue. Nothing lasts.
This used to trouble me. I wanted the security that comes with something that lasts. But, come this Friday when I give myself permission to live a life of poof without fear, guilt, or regret, it will trouble me no longer.
Poof is liberating. I am free of having to maintain efforts that don’t work, and free to experiment with efforts that might not work, or, if they do work needn’t work forever. I will continue to produce poof: essays, books, columns, talks, retreats, and the like, but I will now do so without feeling guilty about it.
So happy birthday, Me, and welcome to your 63rd year of life, which, like life itself, will very shortly go poof.

15 comments:

Maggid said...

I am so glad you were born.
I'm grateful you share with us.
Thank you so much for all the Poof.

I'm certain there is plenty more -

Best Year Ever - Let There Be Cake!!!
(start now - a week early - Celebrate with Joy - Then, Poof! You'll be on your way to the Next Birthday . . . and the next, and the next . . )
-g-

Doreen said...

What an inspiring post, thank you. My challenge is to experience poof without fear. A very blessed birthday to you.

Fraser said...

Happy Birthday buster. As one poof worker (an lardy artist) to another I love ya work!
Fraser

Julie said...

Thanks Rami for your post and for your unpoofable sense of humor. I wish you a very happy and blessed year.

Rabbi Rami said...

Thanks to you all. I'm sure there were thousands of comments to this post, but they all just went poof.

Nij said...

Here's to the next year of Poofing and another year of great reading and thinking for us!
nij

Nij said...

Here's to the next year of Poofing and another year of great reading and thinking for us!
nij

The Right to Write said...

I think you have the right attitude toward realizing that nothing is permanent, therefore hope for such permanence is futile, and causes suffering and pain. But that same attitude can cause people to sink into depression and lassitude. It can freeze people into depressive stasis. How to prevent this? How to get the right balance?

Rabbi Rami said...

TRTW has an interesting point. My own experience is that Poof causes depression only in those who are clinging to permanence. And if they are clinging tightly enough they will reject my idea and pursue permanence. And that WILL make them depressed.

As for lassitude, some people are just lassy (or is that lazy); probably too lazy to read about permanence versus impermanence.

andrea perez said...

Happy Birthday!
By the way something doesn't go Poof if others are reading or listening :)
It just moves forward. What you do is keep everyone else waiting for more to think about...
:)

Erick Reynolds said...

I agree with your response to TRTW. Acknowledging impermanence is not depressing, but a release. Acknowledging the futility of pursuing permanence, while continuing to desire it, is depressing. And a do loop.

eashtov said...

Shalom Rav,

So the challenge remains: How do I put a roof over my head and food on my table i.e., love myself as well as love others in the omnipresence of poof?

Biv'racha,
Jordan

Rabbi Rami said...

Jordan raises a good point. I can answer the roof issue well enough: insurance. The rest are up to you. Help him out.

eashtov said...

Shalom Rav,

Huh? The roof precedes the insurance (and insurance can go poof as it can be cancelled by the seller) bought to replace it. So....the challenge remains (and I clarify) how does one put one's FIRST roof over one's head in the midst of omnipresent poof?

Yom huledet same'ah on Friday. May the everyday poof yield to the coming of Shabbat and its call to make the everyday poof into a holy one.

Biv'racha,
Jordan

K. Messerly said...

Happy Birthday from someone who stumbled upon your blog and is growing because of it.