just a moment in the woods …
new york has gotten me all theatered up. similar to returning to shul: an old, familiar environment visited in a new skin. do you realize my life used to be All Jews All The Time? you’d think, having transferred to the entertainment industry, that not much had changed, but you’d be wrong, not to mention drawing on invidious stereotypes, you bigot.
no, working in the entertainment industry is nothing like being at jds, except that a relatively conforting number of people have curly hair and have to stand on their tiptoes to reach things. here’s how different the two are: the office was subtly dead over the holiday where at jds it would have been officially dead.
officially, i had to take a personal day in order to observe one day of rosh hashanah. but take it i did. my dormant judaism was powerful enough to prompt two lengthy train trips in a 24 hour period so i could ricochet straight from my desk home & back again. i use the term “desk” loosely, as i have no such bourgeois acoutrements at my new place of work; i’m something of a bedouin in the office, & that’s all i’ll say on on the subject, other than It’s Going Fine and I Got Paid!. forgive, then, if updates remain a little sporadic.
but theater. the theater is the point i wanted to make. the point was not supposed to be about work or the new year, although i wish everyone a hearty and sweet one of the latter. my mother threw yet another lovely, rowdy new year party that i enjoyed immensely & i made it back to the city; so much for rosh. but theater. something about my permanent proximity to broadway makes me want to see plays! and hear songs! and get all gleefully retro about the whole show business. shira & i obtained student rush tix one lunchtime to see i am my own wife that evening, a remarkable show at the tail end of its remarkable run. i’m feeling the bony fingers of addiction, or at least of habit, tightening: i want MORE.
the korean-american world bank economist i bonded with on amtrak gave me, in addition to a compressed intro to several centuries of far east history, some advice. maybe it’s obvious advice, but it was the perfect thing for a stranger to tell me at the beginning of my career as an adult & a new yorker & responsible 21st century individual. she said, it’s okay to fail. it’s good to fail, cuz then you know you can take it. i failed at theater until i learned to approach it from a different angle, and then i didn’t fail anymore. that’s a good lesson to relearn and learn to reapply.