Numbers

I like numbers.  It’s why I became an engineer.  Take three for example.  I just released my third album, Light up Shabbat. The number of full years I’ve lived in New York.  The number of acoustic guitars I own.

1:  The month of January coming up. The number staring at me from my printer.  The loneliest number

How about 5?   The number of Mattathias’s sons.  Today is the 5th day of the week.  The members of my immediate family.  The amount of time I lived in Boston.

27:  My new age.  I think when you get older you ponder a lot more. It’s hard to believe but I’ve actually been living in New York almost as long as I lived in Boston.

I have to say that among other ruminations of my older and hopefully wiser mind is the thought that I had a relatively normal family.  I remember watching the dramatic daytime television talk shows and thinking how bizarre it was that people could actually lose track of family for decades and then reunite on such a stage.

I kept on thinking this until last spring when I found an email from the “Solomon’s” talking about a family reunion.  My Dad to this day will swear that two of his children have ended up on the east coast because we grew up in a culturally east coast home.  His mother, Florence, was born in Malden and passed away a few years before I was born, but all I had known, or perhaps cared to know was that there was some family still there, and that Grandpa Hans kept in some touch with them, but that was all.  By some miracle, I wasn’t booked, and Mom, Dad, and my two sisters were all willing and able to drop everything and get to Malden.  Amazingly, it had been years since the 5 of us had been in the same place, and had it been the car ride from Newark to Malden alone, it would have been worth it.

Having heard only bits and pieces I didn’t know what to expect from the reunion itself.  Truth be told, I’m still processing it.  A few things to be sure of, though.  First, I saw an incredibly amount of pictures.  My grandmother was beautiful.  I also met my grandmother’s sister and might have gotten a glimpse of what my own grandmother was like.  My dad reunited with the cousins he used to regularly visit as a kid and seeing and hearing him tell stories is always a treat.  And apparently we have a huge family, in personality, warmth, and in numbers!

Huge thanks to all my newfound family, and to all of my other mishpocha in Boston who I got to see this past weekend.  It was great seeing you after all this time and I hope to see you soon!

Happy Hannukah and Happy New Year!

Movie:  Funny People
TV:  It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Book:  Three Cups of Tea, Greg
Album:  Battle Studies, John Mayer