I spent Rosh Hashanah and a very unfamiliar place. I had agreed to give a talk sometime ago and then realized it fell on Rosh Hashanah… It was fine being down there… I got some nice Walking around time… Pretty contemplative.

My relationship to Rosh Hashanah is pretty funny… It really does feel more like New Year’s then January 1 to me from the way I think… Even though January 1 is certainly more of a change from my every day life.

I’m feeling pretty excited about this year… I’m not sure what to bring… (Do we ever ?). But it seems Rich with possibilities…

I hope it’s a sweet new year for all of you!

Nite all, nite Sam

-me

Happy new year my friends. Tonight starts Rosh Hashona.. one of the two most important days in the Jewish calendar.. its the end of the old year and the start of the next. Its a time of new beginning. Im about as secular as a jew can get..but these two days.. rosh hashona now.. and yom kippur in 10 days are powerful reminders to me about the possibility of the future and the responsibility of the past.

Its a time of amazing possibility..its the head of the year..

A first !

And as we wanders are fond of saying at firsts

בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְהֹוָה , אֱלֹהֵֽינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם, שֶׁהֶחֱיָֽינוּ וְקִיְּמָנוּ וְהִגִּיעָנוּ לַזְּמָן הַזֶּה

Baruch Ata Adonai, Eloheinu Melech Haolam, shehechiyanu, v’kiy’manu, v’higianu lazman hazeh.

Blessed are You Eternal Spirit who has given us life, sustained us and allowed us to arrive in this moment

And even for those of us who are only with us in spirit at this moment..

Cani get an ‘amen’ ?,

Shana tova to you all

And may you be inscribed in the booj of life..

And lets make it an intersting book..shall we ?

Nite all, nite sam

-me

Just came upstairs from shannon and aarons wedding… its been a fun day with diane, max and a gaggle of shannon and aarons family and friends .. I took so many pictures today.. more than 400.. that they will take a few hours to upload.. ill start blogging.. but may need to post some of them tomorrow

Ill get the pictures I have up.. then explain them later

We met kate early in the morning as we headed out for a run

Shannon was in The mother of the current flower girls wedding exactly 17 years ago today ! Here she is then with our freind conner ehos also in the wedding today

The service was short and sweet . Our friend steve l Shannon’s father officiated.. he’s a judge here so that came easily to him

Here is our good friend and shannnons brother matthew and his wife carolime

heres connor.. shannons cousin

Aarons mom and step dad

And shnnons parents, our super close friends kate and steve. Steve is a judge and performed the service.. thats why hes wearing the robe

Max and matthew have been friends since they were a few months old

These folks arlene and paul are from new orleans and know many of my family down there !

next came pictures

Then we walked around the beitiful arboretum whiile the family took pictures

We found this very cool plant based kalaidescope

http://johncohn.org/base/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/img_8830.mov

And we ran into a couple out with their parrot Ella

Very cool stone sundial

Then back to the hotel on a bus for the wedding party

Here is steve and his dad is marvin

The. Lots of toasts, food and dancing

We got steve up in a chair and played the hora as is the custom when all your kids are married

It was a really nice wedding.. lots of happy and fun people.. we are so glad to be here

We wish shannon and Aaron a long and happy life together !

Nite all, nite sam

-me

Hello from state college. Diane and I drove down here from endicott today.. or I should say diane drove and I worked.. as we listened to the new malcom gladwell book .. pretty good so far..

We made an ill planned stop at colton state park.. it was beautiful.. but much more out of the way than we thought .. it turned our 3 hour drive onto a five hour drive. It was pretty though

We got to state college around 5.. which gave us enough time to check in and settle at the hotel before going to pick up max at the airport.

The hotel has a strong sports the,e that is lost on the two of us.. but its very fun

We had a great night eating in the room with food wed brought from endicott..

Around 9:30 we took off to explore town.. we ended up in a cool basement sheesha bar/ tea house/ cereal bar / vinyl record shop / head-shop. / video arcade

Diane and max played a very cool pinbal game..

Around 10:30 our freidms matthew and carolime came in..

It was great catching up with them

Ok.. more fun toMorrow for Shannon’s wedding

Ok.. gotta sleep

Nite all, nite sam

– me…