Archives for July 2010

My parents met in Ecuador. It was the mid sixties and they answered Kennedy’s call to become Peace Corps Volunteers. They tell me that they considered getting married in Ecuador but decided instead to come home so that their families could be at the wedding.

It is not inconceivable to say that had they not changed their plans I might have been born there, in Quito. Instead of being able to say that I am one of the few natives of Los Angeles I would have been the American kid who was born overseas. Not that there is anything wrong with that, because there isn’t. But sometimes I wonder how much better my Spanish would be had that happened.

Spanish has been a part of my world for my entire life. When my siblings and I were little the folks would use it to discuss things that they didn’t wants us to know about. But children are little sponges of learning and we all picked up on it.

And if I am not mistaken each of us took Spanish in school to meet the foreign language requirement. I can’t speak for my sisters, but I receive an ‘A’ in my courses. But somewhere along the way I started taking Hebrew and Yiddish lessons too and it didn’t take long for things to blur a bit.

There were more than a few moments where I confused words. Conversations became peppered with bits and pieces of this language and that. Fragments of sentences flowed from English to Hebrew to Spanish and Yiddish.

Eventually it grew to be quite difficult to focus on learning three languages at a time and I opted to focus on Hebrew. Some of that can be attributed to that famous summer of ’85 that I write about. It made it easy to do nothing but focus on speaking Hebrew. Everywhere I turned it was being spoken so it was much easier to spend time working on it.

As my proficiency grew I reached a point where I began to dream in Hebrew. It was a trip and it really helped to reinforce for me how beneficial it is to speak more than one language. When you are bilingual you look at the world differently and open yourself up to possibilities that you might not otherwise have experienced.

So when I became a father it was important for me to find a way to help my children learn a second language. As things worked out they were placed in a Hebrew immersion program that did a very fine job of helping them learn the language.

I can’t really say that the three of us are completely fluent or that we sound like native speakers. Although I should add that the children don’t have as thick an accent as I do. On a side note I still laugh at the idea of having an accent. It wasn’t until I was the sole American at an Israeli company that I really understood that I have one, but that is how it goes sometimes.

Dear LeBron,

We have a number of things in common, presumably the biggest is that we both play basketball. I love the game and I am going to guess that you do as well. But while I know who you are there is no reason to assume that you know me or have a clue that I exist.

That doesn’t bother me. Why should you know about the 41 year-old Jewish kid in L.A. I am not famous, can’t dunk the ball now and couldn’t do it when I was 20 either. Not that it matters because I never had the talent that you have, though I had ample desire.

The fellas that I play with will tell you that much. They’ll tell you that I fling my ancient body all over the court. They’ll tell you that it is dangerous to get in front of the freight train as I drive the lane. I suppose that we have that in common too, both of us have enough muscle to force the opposition to do what we want them to do.

But the reality is that for me it is more of a dream. I picture me flying through the air with grace and skill but if video footage existed it would probably be pretty ugly to watch. But not as ugly as the spectacle that you have created.

This overblown hype about which team you are going to sign with is shameful and you should be embarrassed. I don’t begrudge you the opportunity to make a living. I don’t really care that some team is going to pay you more money than you can possibly spend. If someone is willing to pay you than it is not my business to tell you that you shouldn’t take it.

But the fashion in which you are doing this is what I take issue with. I am killing myself slowly to provide for my family. Our troops are literally dying in Afghanistan to protect you and yours. My friend John is dealing with a real challenge with class and dignity. The New York Times reports that your generation is finding the American Dream to be nothing more than a dream.

The oil spill in the gulf has created devastation that has an impact that we cannot begin to conceive of and you have the gall to agree to a one hour television special to announce whether you are coming or going. This is foolishness, idiocy and just wrong. I want to grab and shake you, drag you into the real world and remind you what life is like.

I am angry and you should be too. You should be pissed off that you let this nonsense turn into something that could haunt you for years. It doesn’t matter whether you decided to do this yourself or were talked into it because it is wrong and ultimately you will pay the price.

Or maybe you don’t care. It is possible. You have already earned enough to retire. You have a brand that will probably overcome the boneheaded move you are making. The country loves celebrity. You could go have sexual relations with three sheep, a goat and a cow and people would forgive you, provided that you can still play.

So the rest of us have to take some blame for establishing a foundation that allows you to think that it might be ok to do something like this. But ultimately the buck stops with you. You have created quite a situation for yourself. I hope you are happy with it and I hope for your sake that you recognize why this is wrong because if you don’t, then I feel sorry for you.

Good luck LeBron, for the record I am still confident that you are on track to become the next superstar not to win a championship, but maybe you’ll prove me wrong. I hope you enjoy your day- the rest of us non media types might catch the news on Twitter, provided that we are not caught up working like most normal people do.