Friday, April 23, 2010

Sefirat Omer- Week 4

Endurance is an interesting word. When I think of endurance, I think of running. I remember back in fifth grade. We would all run the mile. Four laps around the track. As the race began, about fifteen of the kids went in knowing they would not do a good time. Endurance handles drive and determination. Sprinting the first lap tired them out for the rest of the mile. I think of passing by slow runners when I hear the word endurance.

Is life a race? We are born and we pace ourselves, but there is no sprint at the end. A marathon? Where is the training season for life? Life is like eating fruits and vegetables. It takes determination sometimes. To endure in a healthy life, we love the healthy life. Loving what we do is half the battle, doing it a quarter, and the last quarter is effort.

Effort comes from discipline. Where do our efforts lie? We should benefit the good not the evil. Think of others before ourselves. Determination can come in many forms. The form of waking up in the morning when we feel down. The form of going out for a run when we see potato chips. Discipline focuses endurance.

Yesterday, we focused our endurance. Today we take that focus and put it into action. Caring for a friend takes love for the friend. Compassion for a homeless man on the streets on the Bronx takes endurance. At my cousins Bat Mitzvah, we worked at a homeless shelter. The man in charge of organizing the shelter told us to remember something as we were cleaning up and leaving. Too many times we see homeless people on the street and we look away. He said to just give them a little wave. Have the determination to avoid treating them like the other. 20th Century Jews were treat like the other. That got us nowhere.

The Holocaust was an awful test of humanity. Endurance was the key component. Having the endurance to live when the country around us wants us dead. Hope is a dwindling feeling as hate emerges. As Jews were wared down, a love of endurance may have been lost. Discipline and compassion were gone too. Enduring endurance kept the few, remaining Jews of Europe alive.

Fortitude comes from within us. God gave each one of us determination, yet we all express it in our shape and manner. The unique views come from one's ability to look out at the world. Humility lets us decide where to take a stand. If something makes us upset, we should not let it roll by us. People I know are over dramatic about the unnecessary. In real times of trouble, they are untouched. Humility lacks in their determination.

Bonding with endurance should keep us sticking to our goals. President Obama decided he wanted to be President. He went to law school, studied hard, became a senator, held a good campaign, and now he is in the White House. At law school, homework may have been piled on Barack. Bonding with the dream of being president prevailed him.

As our week ends once more, we examine the dignity of our endurance. Do our goals put in a brighter path for the person we want to be? Am we where we want to be at our age? If we are not, we can think of it this way. A dreamer is always asleep dreaming pleasantly. A go-getter follows the dream they like. I would personally rather be awake than in a permanent sleep.

Four weeks down, three to go. More than half the human heart has already been explored. As of now we have the endurance to handle the rest!

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