It all begins with an idea.
The younger me hated writing. I hated writing anything. Cursive was my undoing. I would have preferred hours in the dentist chair over spending one hour getting the capital G’s, S’s and F’s just right on that weirdly lined third grade writing paper. I took no pleasure in memorizing spelling words. And diagramming sentences? Don’t get me started.
For me, writing was a chore. Pencils and chewed up erasers, double spaced doodles on yellow pads and afternoons transcribing the tedium onto erasable typing paper with my IBM Selectric were not my idea of time well spent.
But when I became a pulpit rabbi, my resistance to writing fell away. I now had an audience. People would listen—sometimes attentive and sometimes between yawns. I learned that words and stories can transform lives and bring comfort and pleasure to the readers and listeners. The foundational work of rabbinic study was the careful examination of words made holy by the scholars who loved the letters, delved into the words and drew meaning from both their clarity and their ambiguity. As I evolved, words became a pleasure and writing a delight.
I love the catchy phrase, the sermonic twist that ends in surprise, and the messages to lovers on their special day or mourners in their profound grief. Words and writing became my joy. I learned to transfer the murmerings of my heart and the fears and joys and worries of life onto the written page.
Over my decades, I have written extensively for the Jewish and non-Jewish press. I have collected reams of sermons—and some of them were even good. I have written newsletters and reflections. I have gazed at the world and the human heart and committed some of what I have discovered about life to the written word.
Now that I am retired from the active pulpit, I am further engaged in my love for words. I can now write for the pleasure of telling stories and preserving insights. I will write and enjoy words as long as I have the facility to tap the fingers on the keyboard.
Beyond the sermons, articles, letters and reflections, I have written two books. The first is Legacy, a Rabbi and Community Remember Their Loved Ones, a collection of eulogies I delivered while serving Temple Emanu-El in Birmingham, Alabama. And in the pipeline is my first novel, Take My Dog. More on that later. With Backwards and Forwards, my twice a month newsletter, I will continue to spend time at the keyboard and share thoughts about life with the head of the Janus, looking backwards and forwards.
When I am not at my computer, I enjoy journeying through the world. I am blessed to share laughter and love with my wife of 47 years, my three children and their life partners, and of course, the best of all, my grandchildren. I spend too much time in the kitchen feeding these loved ones, but no one complains. Good food sustains our bodies. Good words sustain our soul. Both bring smiles to the heart and create happy lives.