If certain
events or situations were a book, we would want to see the last page of the
last chapter most every time.
That is why we have
meteorologists, who are right a lot of the time – so we can plan our day’s
activities accordingly. Sometimes
weather forecasters have actually saved people’s lives. And sometimes even they can’t predict
the unexpected storm that develops too quickly to forsee.
At the beginning of a
sports season, there are predictions regarding who will win a league or a
championship and, then, who will triumph in individual games. Then, once the season is over, there
are further commentaries about which team will win a playoff or championship
game.
It’s the same with politics. Nate Silver, who accurately predicted
the outcome of the 2008 elections for president and Congress, said in a recent
interview that people don’t pay enough attention to the signs around them,
especially when they point to an undesired outcome.
 |
| With Adam Karol at Fenway Park on July 18, 2007 to see a 6-5 Royals win over the Red Sox (who won the World Series that year) |
As a fan of the Kansas City
Royals, I am amazed. I have a
sense of wonder at how things have unfolded last year and this year, and, with
every game, all I want to see are stellar performances that will make the
contests worth watching.
I tend not to believe predictions because they don’t take into account
the events in the course of play that can change everything. Sometimes it’s mood, it’s mind, it’s
the weather, it’s the ball that bounced in an unexpected way, it’s the confidence
of the player involved at the moment on which the outcome can turn. We just don’t know until we get
there.
When we make life
decisions, like moving to a new city, everything probably doesn’t turn out
exactly as we expected. So, a
quick poll – raise your hand if life in Las Cruces has been 100% what you
expected it to be……90%......75%.....50%.....25%.......10%.....1%.
And how
many of you had no expectations whatsoever – in other words – you were just
taking a chance?
In asking
percentage, I am asking you to quantify a feeling based on many aspects of
life: financial, social,
health-wise, your participation in local organizations and events, and your
ability to travel to get a change from the desert. It may even be variables in our lives that are outside
Las Cruces that can affect us here.
It is likely that most of us had a sense of what life would be like here
that brought us to this place. And
we may still wonder how it’s going to turn out – or we will just let it all happen
on its own, doing our part to make the best outcome possible or probable.
The Torah reading for this
Shabbat, Vayeira, is full of situations with predictions and probabilities, as
well as promises that were almost broken.
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| Abraham and the Three Angels Giovanni Andrea de Ferrari, 1660s |
·
First,
three messengers came to Abraham to wish him REFUAH SH’LAYMAH after his circumcision
AND to tell him that Sarah was going to have a child. This was not a prediction, it was a promise. For Sarah, it was a promise that would
likely be unfulfilled, because, as she said, “Her husband was old.” She laughed – and then God asked
Abraham why Sarah was laughing about having a child.
·
Next,
God told Abraham that the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah would be destroyed. Rather than seeing this as a fait
accompli, Abraham challenged God. He turned into a defense attorney for the
possible ten righteous individuals who might live in those two towns. What God proposed, Abraham came close
to thwarting altogether. It would
have worked if only there had been some righteous souls in those cities. There weren’t.
·
Abraham’s
nephew Lot lived with his family in one of those two cities – Sodom. He escaped, but his wife
demonstrated how rules can lead to predictable outcomes. Looking back at the cities undergoing
destruction was a definite no-no.
Lot’s wife gave in to the temptation, and was instantly turned into a
pillar of salt.
·
Sarah
did have a son, who was named Isaac, meaning “he will laugh.” She saw that Ishmael, the son of the
maidservant Hagar and Abraham, was taunting Isaac in the same way that Hagar
had taunted her years before for not being able to bear a child. Sarah asked Abraham to banish them from
their household. God gave Abraham
permission to send them away, which meant that God’s previous promise to Hagar
might be nullified. Once Hagar and
Ishmael were in the wilderness, God heard Ishmael crying. An angel appeared to reassure Hagar
that her son would, indeed, become a great nation. A well of water appeared before them, and Hagar and her son
were able to carry on.
·
God
commanded Abraham, or so it seems, to take Isaac and offer him up as a
sacrifice. This directive
contradicted God’s promise to Abraham that he would be a father of a multitude
of nations and that God would make his name great. The fulfillment of the promise seemed to become impossible
with each step towards Mount Moriah.
That is, until an angel came and told Abraham not to harm the boy,
because this was a test of faith which Abraham had passed with flying
colors.
These are all situations where the
outcomes came to fruition only after some type of obstacle or challenge. I believe that is what real life
is about – traversing a journey to a particular goal or destination, where the
events along the way make the whole experience meaningful. To quote one of my favorite
songwriters, “It’s got to be the going, not the getting there, that’s good” (Harry
Chapin, “Greyhound”). So it’s not the prediction of what will happen
that is most important, or even the final result. It is the unfolding chain of events that leads to the end of
the story that can elicit from us wonder or amazement. If the outcome is not what we had
hoped, it is always possible to learn a lesson for the future. What if there
had been ten righteous people in Sodom? What if Sarah had been patient with
Hagar and Ishmael? What if the
angel had not called Abraham’s name?
And what would Isaac’s name have been if Sarah had not laughed? It all
would have been different.
I am probably not the only
person in the sanctuary who has been fascinated at one time or another with
science fiction stories that include time travel, changing the course of events
– or trying to change them back.
The television show Quantum Leap, the movie Timecop, several episodes of
Star Trek and the two latest Star Trek films, NBC’s Heroes, and Stephen King’s
book, 11/22/63, have all played with time. Philip Roth’s novel, THE PLOT AGAINST AMERICA, imagined a
United States in which Charles Lindbergh had become president instead of
Franklin Roosevelt. It was a dark
story, until the very end.
The Yiddish Policeman’s Union, by Michael Chabon, suggested a State of Israel
that did not successfully come to be, so that the only Jewish settlement of
refugees that remained was in Sitka, Alaska.
The late Yogi Berra would
have said about the future, “When you come to a fork in the road, take it!”
While there is no deep thought there, it could mean that we do have many choices
before us. Whatever happens, no
matter what the outcome, each of us has a chance to make sure that everything
will eventually turn towards a positive end. Even facing the most dire of situations, Anne Frank wrote in
her diary, “It’s really a wonder that I haven’t
dropped all my ideals, because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out.
Yet I keep them, because, in spite of everything I still believe that people
are really good at heart. I simply can’t build up my hopes on a foundation
consisting of confusion, misery, and death. I see the world gradually being
turned into a wilderness. I hear the ever-approaching thunder, which will
destroy us, too. I can feel the sufferings of millions and yet, if I look up
into the heavens, I think it will all come right, that this cruelty, too, will
end, and that peace and tranquility will return again.” So, whether or not predictions
come true, even if promises made are not realized, there
is always a place to go – forward, with hope, with strength, and with wonder at
the many possibilities that life sets before us. May we find ways to allow that wonder to sustain us
always.
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