Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Crown Heights Ramble

Crown heights gets you high passing by here’s how it goes a shriek because I haven’t seen you in forever and wow isn’t it cool to see you so out of context I am just coming from nosh world and I knoooow I would also think it would be bigger since it’s called a world but I guess some really small things really are a whole world like eastern parkway here’s the way show me how do we walk through the bachurim on the corner or go up the stairs and around I don’t know show me how its done because clearly theres a way and I feel like a tourist when really we all just come here because of the Rebbe and there’s no such thing as a tourist when it comes to that its all straight to the heart for real that’s how I feel and its hard to see 770 looking a little trashed and acting like a homeless shelter and you gotta struggle to see whats behind all the business the smell the pushing and the shoving and I couldn’t even find one siddur to daven with and succos was simply amazing you go behind these brick walls to discover loving families and opinions and hopes and dreams and when it comes down to it there’s a G-dly soul and of that I am sure but is there a tall bachur for me to marry of that I do not know so I just go with the flow dressing to impress while we roam the street because it has such a beat and our feet go shuffling along and this strong wind comes and all of a sudden there’s a bunch of people holding onto their hats for dear life and life really is funny so I am looking around at these women wondering if I could raise my many children in this place when I don’t feel safe but there’s certainly something special going on in the air so I don’t care about the so-called politics they don’t really exist and her sheital wow you couldn’t get it anywhere else and running into people who are learning and I am thinking man I know I am on shlichus and doing good things but what I would give to be going from class to class being consumed with the Rebbe’s thoughts and how I miss the Rebbe oh Rebbe oh Rebbe we need you and the many cops that protect this town nod their head and badaboom I am in Judaica world which really is a world and I have the headphones bumping to ta shma a new group with a sound a bit too much like rap for me but the rachamana with matisyahu is great and I know the boy bumping to it behind me agrees and we all just move on and move on shuffling through the crowd and I ended up buying the cd because its important to support people who are on fire about Chassidus and you know how it is it seems like everyone here reads my blog and it’s pretty cool he had a grey beard and asked me if I am looking to get married and I blushed and we talked abut Tzfat and then he said goodnight an it really was a goodnight indeed laughing and staying up late and watching them all dance and dance and dance and simcha is a great thing and yiddishkeit is for real everywhere you go went into the city and saw the sukka in washington square park and it’s just the coolest thing met a woman and I told her about what the rebbe has to say about this four walled hut thing with branches on top and she thought it was so cool unlike the Jewish missionizing man I met an hour later who told me I am going to hell and I was like actually I’m just going to the Chabad house right now and wow we need moshiach but life sure is good and so is avi piamenta and his brother rocking it out on kingston and we all want moshiach so our differences disappear no matter how many moshiach pins go flashing through the air and ahhh the sight of yidden dancing feet up off the ground its just beautiful art to me and there’s so many people I didn’t get to see but I’ll back I just love how all these people are rushing around and there are mad swarms of people all because the rebbe and chabad and chassidus and we all love life and our families and each other and it’s nice to bring my laptop and have wireless on the steps of an eastern parkway apartment and also the museum is pretty nifty went to visit someone didn’t have paid entry but in the right time got to rewind and go over it all in my head many conversations come rushing to my mind and I just can’t find my vitamin water that I left outside of 770 and oh well maybe one of the Israelis will enjoy it they’re so cool saving up money for months and months to be by the rebbe wow its just the coolest unlike how all the men and boys light up their cigarettes as soon as Shabbos turns to the festival and I’m pretty tired and content and back in philly crown heights was a whirlwind of the wonderful type of chaos and lets see each other soon badabadoom yea basically that’s pretty much it just can’t sit still its bubbling underneath and it just feels right this warm sort of glow after kicking it with the flow in the heights

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Some pictures I took:

Succah by 770

NYPD in action by the dancing


Boy dancing with heart


A forever swirling yellow flag


Boro Park visitors


My boot and friend's shoe against the plastered pavement


Too cool to dance


The Clouds of Glory in the park


Two Jews and G-d

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

!

Anonymous said...

Love the free association. It's great that you rode your brainwave and wrote it all down. Lots of times I find myself thinking so similiarly to you, but though it feels like I'm almost talking to myself I never push myself to document it into written words. A delight to read!!

Mimi said...

! I know, right? :)


Anon a miss: Hmm...would love to know who you are - from Fresh Meadows, New York, right? Thanks for commenting. I always feel the need to do some free association and just went with it this time. Felt good, I must say. So, we think similarly, eh? Now, who are you?

Anonymous said...

Mimi! I love it! So many things to comment on.. My favorite is the amazing ppl. behind the brick walls- soo amazing. and the israeli's who save up to come here.. still don't really get it. I hope to be in CH the SAME time as you one day in the next few months! Great Pic's!

Nemo said...

Crown Heights is definitely a trip.

What happened to your pictures, they seem to have gotten stained?

Pray tell, how do you do that.

Mimi said...

Yes, quite a trip. That's the only way to put it. Its also warming in a way. There's something special about hanging out in the place where my parents lived, met and got married, raised a family, etc.

I played around with the pictures using Google's Picasa. They look boring to me otherwise. The first one is masked to keep with my "no-pictures-of-self" rule :).

Nemo said...

Oh yeh, duh. I knew that {somewhere in the back of my mind}. I have Picasa too.

Mimi said...

Yea, Picasa is a little limited, but still rocks - as do all Google programs. I'm a big google fan.

FrumGirl said...

Passion, passion, passion! You define that word! Great freestyle writing, AH! Now I may just pick my butt up and drive over there....

temmi said...

hey mima,
i'm feeling what u wrote,
sorry i didn't get to see u on my way back in to town,
i love the pics and the words they are running through my head ...
keep on blogging

Unknown said...

Oh how the Heights rocked and rolled when you were born after four boys, your feeling the beat dear Mima your hearing the ruuuumble.

Mommy

Pimplesoflife said...

mim ausome post... i love it...
the pictures are pretty cool!!! was so nice talking to you today
miss ya~

Anonymous said...

Hey I was tired, I wasn't too cool to dance, cut me some slack!

Baruch said...

WOW i sure am glad my blog is still anonymous! i wouldn't want to be approached with proposals from grey bearded shoppers!! :)

Mimi said...

Actually, it wasn't that random. Not in a store. And he's a nice man.

But either way, I hear ya.
The advantages of having an unanonymous blog far outweigh it
though.

Funny how you picked up that line...

litzo said...

2 Jews and G-d. i just had to repeat that powerful line and ingrain the scene in my mind.
ps how do you wirl that flag using picasa. that is mighty cool!