Options

October 14, 2001-Sleepless

Living here is like living in a fraternity house. At 2 AM we thought we heard a loud group carousing outside. When we looked out at the pool area, we realized it was raining. No one was out, so the noise must have been coming from an open balcony door. Syd Bruce said he could check to see if there were quieter locations in the complex, but David won’t give up our pool view. I can’t say that I want to either. I also don’t think this kind of noise can be eliminated by location. The tenants change each week. It was pretty warm and muggy so our bedroom window was open. We ended up closing it and finally got to sleep around 4 AM. We hardly got any sleep!
Moving Moments

I was going to drive David to Temple this morning for Sunday School, but decided to sleep in. The plan had been for me to go to the building at noon for his brown bag lunch class. I didn’t know who was planning to go so I didn’t call anyone to hitch a ride. The turnout for that and the Hebrew class he had earlier in the morning was much larger than he’d anticipated. They ran out of printed material for both. He said he felt like a one armed paperhanger with all the things he had scheduled. There was the regular Sunday class schedule, a meeting, counseling, Hebrew class, and the discussion group.

The people here still don’t get it. They’re so starved for programming they fantasize about how it would be if he stayed on. He’s looking forward to being retired again. He had a taste of it before coming here and really liked it. Even if we stayed, he’d have to avoid getting sucked into working at the temple. We’ve discussed it and although I have been giving it some thought, David said he hasn’t considered moving here. As much as I like it, I’m leery. For one thing, I don’t think Australia has a healthy Jewish community. The Hasidim along with the extremely orthodox are the majority and are dominant. They are fundamentalist and unhealthy for the growth of a well-balanced Jewish atmosphere. By nature they are exclusionary. Even though the number of Jews on Gold Coast is the same as in Akron, they don’t have a presence. They’re mostly unaffiliated with any Jewish institution whereas in Akron there is a high affiliation rate. Brisbane doesn’t even have a well-organized progressive/reform presence. David thinks it’s a lack of progressive rabbis in the country. The Hasidim send a bunch of rabbis over here so it’s inevitable they’ll be more influential.

Another issue is that I really don’t think our kids would move here. Being this far apart is hard enough for nine months, but it’s too far for forever. I know Daniel and Vikki would love it here on Gold Coast and Wendy would like either Sydney or Melbourne. But they have too many ties and I don’t think they’d want to leave. They‘d have to earn more than they do now in Australian dollars to have the same amenities here. We, on the other hand, could live quite well since we’d be spending U.S. dollars. What we need to do is find a place in the States that mirrors this where we can afford to live.

The other realization is that we don’t need a lot of living space. This apartment is too small for a permanent residence, but I realize how much simpler life can be in a smaller and more efficient space. We should say a “Shehechyanu.” That’s a prayer recited when something happens for the first time. David went swimming. It was 28-29 degrees today (Celsius), so he thought it was warm enough. I lounged on a chaise in the shade and read.

Toby