New Horizons by Max Roy

                                       Still Here And Sticking Around!   I’m sure you see lots of folks around like me. Some of us are using a cane or a walker. Maybe we’re just standing around, looking a bit confused.   We could be just trying to remember what it was that tempted us to venture out of our more comfortable surroundings. That might be me or my Bride. I’m thinking quite a bit about that because, often, when I see stories about the dearly departed in the News, they are younger than I happen to be. I wonder, was I looking the other way, deaf to all sounds, when the exit whistle sounded? I think, why them and not us, not me? Is it something about our virtuous nature that has singled us out? For myself, I know that I have tried with all my might to develop vices, but none of them took. I get depressed sometime like everybody else, but I have never researched the technology of departure. I know I have seen my best days, but is that a reason not to stick around? Is it

     Contemplating Our Blessings The world is fraught with unfortunate events. We all know it, recognize it and abhor it. We so often write about it and tell our horror stories in chapter and verse, make movies, reports, scream it from the rooftops. We see so many unfortunate things happening around us, in our backyards, and around the world. Does one tempt fate if one recognizes that one can also be the recipient of blessings? Is it dangerous to recognize that the world can also evolve to grant us blessings beyond our wildest dreams? Dare we venture to announce that to all and sundry? Can I tell the world I am remarkably happy? Can I recount my relative good health, the love of my Bride, how our children, grandchildren and my great-grand-daughter are flourishing? Don’t you have that similar story to tell in your lives? Can we announce our joy at the accomplishments of our children and grandchildren                                                                                  

            Seventy Years On! About Seventy years ago, when I was eighteen years old, I went on Machon 11. , a project from Israel.   I joined young people from North and South America on a leadership training course in Israel. We were twelve in number from Canadian Young Judaea. Most of the group was American but there was a strong contingent from Spanish-speaking countries. People there were of all shades of political opinion, reflecting the different streams of thought vigorously debating Israel’s political future at that time. The government was firmly in the hands of the political left, the people who had built the kibbutzim (collectives) movement, planting a Jewish footprint throughout the Mandate territory. Government had sponsored a program to bring Jewish youth from the diaspora to strengthen Israel’s ties with Jewish communities around the world. Israel was living within the restricted Armistice boundaries that were the outcome of the bitter struggle for survival that w

           What About Lying? Some people have a thing about the truth. They believe we should always be honest, tell people the brutal truth about what you believe even if hurts people’s feelings, damages relationships, closes doors to collaboration that would be ultimately beneficial to all parties. The truth has to be that it’s complicated. I don’t like to lie and I dislike liars. At the same time I don’t like to be unkind in the face of ignorance. I think that one should be willing to admit when one does not know something rather than offer assurances regarding matters on which one is not qualified to offer an opinion. It is much more honest to say that one is not qualified to offer an opinion rather than offering empty assurances just to make people feel a little better about a situation which is fraught with negative possibilities. I am excluding situations of outright efforts to deceive and people who lie like they breathe. We all understand the potential evils inherent in