SO SO much since the last post here. Many apologies. An unexamined life is not worth living (Socrates?), but we are most certainly living. Now for some examination.
First, I have to say that Montreal is an incredible city, a blessing of a nest for this egg of a project. We have been to three festivals now, the Montreal Jazz Festival, the Just for Laughs Comedy Festival, and the Francofolie French music festival. These excursions have been welcome breaks from our work together, as well as inspiration for our own creation and performance.
Every day, Kal-El Shore, Ofer Rivlin, and I gather in Ofer’s apartment on Aylmer Street in the McGill student ghetto. Hatha yoga, meditation, and breakfast kickstart our bodies and souls. Then we read and discuss a short passage from the Pirkei Avot, the Ethics of the Fathers. It is a section of mishnah from the Talmud, and gets us thinking about spirit, about ethics, about our roots in Judaism, and about the ways we can translate and transport these messages to the wider audiences we hope to touch. It’s not always easy to reconcile ourselves with the words, especially when they draw a stark tribal boundary around Judaism. But this is in part the work we have set out to do.