I’d love to hear from you. Reach me at shlomolevin6@gmail.com, and I read every message.
Subscribe for free to receive new weekly posts.
P.S. If this content resonates with you, you can choose to support my efforts by becoming a Patron or a Founder — an option available both when you subscribe and after you have subscribed.
Patrick
Patrick was a security guard. An African-American, ex-Marine and big. Not the kind of guy you would like to meet in an alley on a dark night. But despite his ‘don’t mess with me’ appearance, he was a gentle, thoughtful and sensitive human being.
There was a dinner for members of the synagogue one Friday night. The hall was filled with people eating, chatting and enjoying themselves. I popped out for a minute and when I returned, I saw Patrick standing in the corridor outside the hall, gazing into the room through the glass inset panel in the door. There was a wistful expression on his face. I asked him, ‘Patrick, what are you thinking?’ His reply has remained with me throughout the years. ‘Shlomo,’ he said, ‘all these people inside this hall know who they are and where they come from. I don’t know who I am. I am rootless.’
Patrick’s upbringing in the USA was unstable, a sketchy family line, a lot of moving around in the army. Tragically, he died during Covid. But the lesson he taught me that night, and that I pass on to you, is how important rootedness and belonging is in all our lives. It sits in the substrata of our consciousness, but it is the rock upon which our sense of stability rests.
Human beings are social creatures. We coalesce in groups. Each group in which we participate is a dimension of belonging that collectively contributes to the mosaic of our multi-dimensional lives. Clubs, social groups, the pub, football teams, faith communities, even teenage gangs – all are driven by the human instinct to define our identities as part of a group or a tribe.
But none of these are what Patrick was referring to. He was talking about a deeper belonging – the deepest of all. To know where one comes from, who one’s ancestors are, the chain of values and teachings that they handed down in their families from generation to generation.
In our misplaced rush to create social equality and an identikit urban culture, we risk erasing this precious past, pretending to ourselves that as ‘moderns’ this dimension is no longer relevant. The result is an increasingly unstable, fractious society that has lost its way.
Thank you, Patrick. In memory of what you so wanted and never had, you have helped me to remember what we have and must not lose.
