Some times the confluence of events remind us of realities we may have repressed, or really desired to ignore. This past week my wife and I went to see the Dylan movie “A Complete Unknown”. In the middle of the film, as song after song and scene after scene that reflected so much of our youth, I was reminded that this same week saw the death of Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul and Mary. It was one of those weird moments that brought home the challenge of trying to understand time as we grow older.
It was the music. From “Blowing In The Wind” to “Puff” and “Leaving on A Jet Plane” and so much more, each song that they reprised in Yarrow memorials and the film brought back flash backs of where was I when I heard that song, what was going on in life and the news? And, where has the time gone and how so much that we thought was going to change, has changed, and, feels like is being erased!
It is funny, in a weird way, that so much of the music we grew up with is still being played. After all, the Rolling Stones are still on tour! But, you cannot help but reflect on where the time has gone, how much the world and we all have changed, and how much disconnect there seems to be with the dreams of our past and the realities of the present. The times surely have changed!
In a strange way, reflecting on this film and this death, also reminded me that with the passage of time we, and our generation, now must confront the passing of the torch of influence and leadership to those who must come next. While we understand this in an intellectual way, I have a feeling that so many of us are not so willing to cede our time so willingly. The reality of our mortality can shake us to the core and so many of us do not have a spiritual foundation that will allow us to understand that this passage of time and presence is just another reminder that we are just part of nature’s cycle of life and death. It is that Peter Paul and Mary song “The Great Mandala”. We move through our “brief moment in time” and what and how we choose in our brief moment shapes who we are and how we will be remembered.
Shalom
Rabbi Richard F. Address
Rabbi Richard F. Address, D.Min, is the Founder and Director of www.jewishsacredaging.com. Rabbi Address served for over three decades on staff of the Union for Reform Judaism; first as a Regional Director and then, beginning in 1997, as Founder and Director of the URJ’s Department of Jewish Family Concerns and served as a specialist and consultant for the North American Reform Movement in the areas of family related programming. Rabbi Address was ordained from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in 1972 and began his rabbinic career in Los Angeles congregations. He also served as a part time rabbi for Beth Hillel in Carmel, NJ while regional director and, after his URJ tenure, served as senior rabbi of Congregation M’kor Shalom in Cherry Hill, NJ from 2011-2014.
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