Keep Alive!

It isn’t always easy to figure out who you want to be when you grow up. When you were a kid, the answer to the perennial question always was that you wanted to be whatever you idealized. Do you still remember wanting to be an astronaut or a firefighter? How many of you wanted to be an investment broker or a kosher butcher? Odds are that none of you wanted to recreate yourselves in that specific image.
You are grown up now. You are, however not dead. The possibility of moving on, being more than you are right now is still real.
When Blema Feinstein (yes that is her real name) was in her 50s her life could have just become a tape that would play the same song again and again. She was a language professor, was married, and had lovely grown daughters and a deeply beloved husband. Her suburban home completed the dream. The problem is, that she wanted to live, and life means change. She began to read, learn, and make contacts. Her husband, Alvin, was less than enthused by the changes that she had introduced to their home. However most men learn quickly to adjust to gourmet dinners on Friday night, a wife who sits across from him dressed in a way that usually suggested an evening out, and a home that exuded the particular combination of being both well organized and welcoming that is the ideal that most women strive to achieve in honor of Shabbat. He was one of them.
The result for all of them is that within 13 years of patient waiting, nurturing and growing they were redefined. Although Blema never became fluent in Hebrew, she availed herself of the many English translations of classical Judaic texts and has written several books on Judaic topics.
She is no longer young. Alvin is gone, and she now lives alone. To her this is just another opportunity for growth, developing her inner life and offering her teachings and advises to a younger generation.
Stay alive!