Like a modern lyrical Cassandra, the songstress Marina Diamandis sings:

“If you are not very careful Your possessions will possess you TV taught me how to feel Now real life has no appeal

“If you are not very careful

Your possessions will possess you

TV taught me how to feel

Now real life has no appeal

(Lyrics from Marina and The Diamonds – Oh No!)

And as I sit on what passes for a bed, rather two folding camping pads on top of each other and a light sleeping bag on top of those, I see the truth of her words manifested around me. After months of scrolling YouTube and TikTok, thinking for myself and sitting with my emotions without countless opinions actually feels like myself again. One opinion I heard recently nonetheless was the catalyst behind my reevaluating all the possessions around me, a statement from Dan Senor on Yael Bar tur and Chaya Leah Sufrin’s Ask A Jew podcast.

Dan was talking about juggling too much and dropping the ball on all of it or at least on the balls we juggle that relate to the people closest to us and those that we love most. I’ve been trying to juggle so many versions of myself that I haven’t just dropped the ball, I’ve become surrounded by the detritus and debris of lives I once fantasized about living yet never fully committed to and instead let compete with each other so that none of those versions thrived in reality.

Recently I unfairly snapped at a friend to try to give me a sticker that said, “It’s a good day to read a book.” Staring at my bookshelf of barely-touched books, I realized it hadn’t been a good day to read books for quite some time. If anything I’ve only read three memorable books these past few years. The Torah, though some weeks I’ve skipped, I continue to read, reread, and write about it. I’ve read and reflected on Rabbi Jeremy Markiz’s slim tome of Jewish meditation, the excellent A Better World Is Possible. And I’m in the process of rereading Ms Nili Salem’s modern book of teshuvah entitled Awesome Blast as the holy month of Elul draws closer now that the month of Tammuz has begun and the........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)