This time of the year my mother has the habit of asking: “Have you heard the shofar?”
Well, I haven’t.
But Thursday night I was invited for dinner by a couple in Harlem, and there I dipped my apple into honey, and I even listened to some of the blessings. For the wine and the apple.
During the course of a very pleasant evening I was informed that Germany is trying to break up Belgium and German banks own the Balkan. It is still surprising to me that highly educated people can have such strange beliefs and opinions. (Sometimes I have the feeling that they hold bizarre opinions dear because they don’t allow themselves to practice their sexual fantasies.)
Of course the holocaust was discussed as well, Elie Wiesel was put away as a con man and a slick businessman. Poor Mr. Wiesel, I met in April him for an interview. He deserves better than the vengeance of people who are jealous that they themselves never survived a concentration camp.
But the biggest miracle to me is why this advice by Joseph Brodsky is widely ignored: “At all costs try to avoid granting yourself the status of the victim.”