We know next to nothing of what we’re going to know in 20 or 50 years.
Years
Once every five hundred years or so, a summary statement about poetry comes along that we can’t imagine ourselves living without.
If people would dare to speak to one another unreservedly, there would be a good deal less sorrow in the world a hundred years hence.
Some of you may know my story: How for nineteen years, I worked as a manager for a tire plant in Alabama. And some of you may have lived a similar story: After nearly two decades of hard, proud work, I found out that I was making significantly less money than the men who were doing the same work as me.
In my office in Jerusalem, there’s an ancient seal. It’s a signet ring of a Jewish official from the time of the Bible. The seal was found right next to the Western Wall, and it dates back 2,700 years, to the time of King Hezekiah. Now, there’s a name of the Jewish official inscribed on the ring in Hebrew. His name was Netanyahu.
It wasn’t until I’d turned 50 and had been in the business 25 years that I realized I might actually have a career as an actor.
I have more memories than if I were a thousand years old.
For many years, I thought a poem was a whisper overheard, not an aria heard.
All through the years of the Soviet empire, its Politburo held ‘elections.’ Of course, calling something an election and actually having it be an election are different things.
My first name, Benjamin, dates back a thousand years earlier to Benjamin – Binyamin – the son of Jacob, who was also known as Israel. Jacob and his 12 sons roamed these same hills of Judea and Sumeria 4,000 years ago, and there’s been a continuous Jewish presence in the land ever since.