Now That I'm Forty...


Born in New York and now going to die in New York. Someday.

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Now That I'm Forty...

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Monday, March 15, 2004

T-minus Two Weeks And Counting...

I made it to the Brooklyn Tabernacle yesterday. Yay! Telling my mentor and Saidy that I would helped to motivate me. You'd think the promise of good music and God's presence and a good sermon would be enough motivation for a church boy like me, but I expressed before, I get motivated by the Risk/Reward factor more than anything. I make most choices by weighing the risk against the reward. When the risk is greater, I'm OUT.

Well, since Valentine's Day, the risk of running into that girl I told you about was greater than the reward of being in church. Yes, she attends the Tab. Always had done, even when I met her. It was, in fact, one of the things that drew me closer to her. (How do you make a link to an archive? Well, the full account is back there somewhere--February 14th or 15th.)

But I spoke to my mentor last week and to Saidy the week before and told them I'd go, so I went.

Now, get this--they did a dramatic presentation of a story called "The Necklace". Anyone remember this thing? I didn't! It took me unawares. It was presented as a poor woman married to an invalid husband, trying to raise a son. She worked for a rich woman whom she was terribly jealous of. She was invited to a high school reunion and decided to borrow a luxurious necklace form her employer without permission so she could impress her former schoolmates. She did, she went, she lost it. She took out loans and worked sunup-sundown to replace the necklace. 32 years of her life went by before she settled the debt to pay for the necklace that she used to replace the lost one. Then she ran into her old employer, who had fired her 32 years earlier just because she was under suspicion, not actually caught. She confessed to the employer because she felt she had already paid her debt, not just with money, but her husband had died from lack of medical care that they couldn't afford and her son was an angry and bitter blue-collar worker instead of the college grad she wanted to make him.

The employer confessed that the necklace she lost had been fake all along.

Even after the play was over, and Pastor Cymbala was sermonizing, I didn't realize this story was based on Guy de Maupassant's (sp?) original tale, which I had read back in what, the 6th grade? until he referred to the necklace in the tale as 'pace jewelry'. That phrase triggered the actual text of the original story (I think! I haven't checked for the original text yet!)

Anyway the sermonization he gave there at the end had one specific message, which was illustrated by the drama--"Don't go working your whole life away for something that you will discover in the end to be a big fake."

Now, before I turn this whole blog into Alan's Pulpit, and change its' name to "When I'm In Heaven..." I will say that, to date, every time I've gone to the Brooklyn Tab, the songs and sermons have applied to something specific in my life. Ahem...I said EVERY time. Yesterday? Well, I see it as a tap on the shoulder (a HARD tap). Before I get all swept up in the nightlife of NYC, which I got a taste of on Saturday, I need to make sure my priorities are in order and spend my time in the things that matter. Things that will make a difference.

Yeh, I GOT it.
Thanks.

Meanwhile, two more weeks to go and I'm free of Trenton. Yay!

I told my clients last week. Some congratulated me. One was mad at me and thought I wasn't going to follow through with his treatment plan (well, I'm certainly going to try). Some of the ladies were sad--one wanted to take me to lunch (um, no, I'm going to keep the therapuetic relationship intact, but thanks just the same). But nobody cried. Another yay! THAT'LL teach me to overestimate my importance!

Me at 3/15/2004 08:16:00 AM