First Post

This blog is named for the verse "Azamrah Leilokai Bi'odee," Psalms 104. It means  "I will sing to my Lord with my "od".  I always loved this. "Od" means "more," or "still", so literally the verse reads "I will sing to my Lord with my more," or something like that. I guess this could be interpreted in a bunch of ways. The two I can think of are "I will sing with my abundance/with that which overflows from me," or "I will sing with what is left/what still remains of me." One reading is burgeoning, the other precious, numbered, scarce. Either way,  the Psalmist manages to spin his amoebic "od" into melody. If the "od" is robust, as in the first reading, I imagine a third grade choir teacher orchestrating crazy children to sing something for the parents, or a novice in the kitchen throwing in everything but the kitchen sink. If it is limited, I think of women bubbling up whole meals from grass, Itzak Pearlman's, "make music from what remains," symphonic lives when we know "im bigvurot shmonim shana," even the strong ones live only to eighty. 

I thought this was an appropriate sentiment for beginnings, in this case the beginning of a blog and Seattle life and whatever after (I have just moved out to Seattle after leaving my job in NYC.)  I don't know what I will write. I don't know exactly what I will do in the coming months. To some extent this is the only way any of us can ever feel about our futures. I do know, though, that time chisels our "ods", the both scarce and flourishing, into definition, and when we look back, we can see something. We can hear something. I just hope...however I fashion my own mass of self...AZAMRAH...let it be a song.

Please harmonize with comments anytime. I much prefer if this would be a discussion forum as opposed to unilateral writing.