THE NON-WANDERING JEW

I have finally learned the lesson that Dorothy learned so many years ago in “The Wizard of Oz.” And I don’t even have to tap my red shoes together to make it happen. For me, there’s just no place like home. Living in a family that loves to explore new places and new lands, I am the hold out who gets all excited about travel plans but when it comes to the actual trip, I never really enjoy it. The effort it takes to leave town to see new sights in unfamiliar places doesn’t work for me. I would get just as much pleasure from a book or DVD that shows the splendors of another location, especially if I am enjoying it with people I love. Yet a look back at our Jewish history shows that I am definitely in the minority. When Abraham, the father of our faith, began his walk with God, one of his first acts of obedience was to pack up his family and move from Ur to “God knows where.” He provides quite an example for those of us who don’t even want to travel on vacation to a different location. Sometimes the move was not of one’s own choosing as when Joseph wound up in Egypt through no choice of his own. But that move was God-inspired as he was able to provide for his estranged family who traveled to Egypt when famine struck their homeland years later. When I look back on my life, I see the many times I was uprooted as I followed a husband from place to place. Starting out in New Jersey, I moved for a summer to Newport, Rhode Island and then to Oceanside, California for two years. Following that, I was off to Milwaukee, Wisconsin for another two years and then wound up in Austin, Texas for the next two years. From there, I would spend twelve years in Florida and five years in Georgia, and eventually back in Texas for several years before heading to Tulsa and then Los Angeles. After a brief year and a half there, I moved back to San Antonio where I have been comfortably settled for over twenty years. The most amazing self-observation is that I still get excited when I read the section of Hadassah Magazine that spotlights Jewish life around the world. Who knew there were still Jews in Budapest or Oslo, Norway? Or that you can spend a week in Portugal visiting past and present places where Jews have settled? Even the Jewish community in Key West looks inviting enough to visit. One of the few places I will still visit is California, maybe because it felt like home when I first went out there some twenty something years ago to spend time with an old friend. It was the place where my dad had lived as a young single man and made me feel connected to him though he had died when I was in my twenties. And it was there that I first thought about writing songs, scripts and personal essays. But I must admit that what I love best now about trips to Los Angeles is the chance to sit at the Farmer’s Market and chat with the elderly Jewish folks who live in the Fairfax area. They remind me of growing up in New Jersey where a Jewish face was often seen in a neighborhood deli or a kosher bakery near my father’s store and people always had time to visit with one another. But mostly, I am content to explore areas near San Antonio with or without a real estate client next to me in my car. I recently closed on a house in Lytle, Texas, and told a friend who came along that we were probably the first two Jewish women who ever got out of their cars in Lytle, Texas. Yes, I am definitely a “stay put” Jew whose wandering days (unless it is a day trip not far from home) are over. But wait. I just got an email from a friend that touted the magnificent beaches and friendly people in Costa Rica. And another that told of the incredible hospitality of the Jewish community in that country. (And I know it is warm there right now as I sit writing this with a blanket over my legs. Well, maybe I could consider one more trip before I permanently implement my “no travel” ban.