I want to make it big. I want to be huge. I want to feel full of purpose and passion. I want to get up every morning eager to tackle the day. I want to see the path ahead and I want to feel confident that I can navigate the way. As long as I have the why, I can figure out the how.
I generally connect to my deepest purpose through God. He helps me feel passionate. If I feel like I am doing God’s will, then I feel full and strong and driven. I like it when I’m doing mitzvahs (divine commandments) and I believe they come from God and that by doing them, I am developing myself in a good direction and I am a blessing to those around me.
Connecting with those around me, that’s probably more important to my happiness than connecting with God. It’s too easy to think you’re connecting to God when you just go off and do your own thing. Connecting to a concrete community of people is more challenging but more rewarding and more Jewish.
I love when I feel part of a community and that I have a role suited to my talents. I love to make a positive difference and to make money doing it by producing a needed service. It’s easy for me to go off on half-baked projects that make me no money and probably do little good for the world.
When have I been happiest? When I was making good money from my writing. When I was doing loads of interviews for my blogs. When I’d go to events and I felt like an important person. I hate waiting around to get into parties. I want to be at the top of the guest list and to have the doors open to me and complimentary drink tickets pressed into my hand.
I love it when I go to daf yomi (Talmud study) every morning and look forward to seeing everyone at shul and to bonding over the study of the sacred text.
I loved running over the hills of Pacific Union College in the Napa Valley, eating up the miles.
I loved it when hot girls kissed me.
I loved being on 60 Minutes and Entertainment Tonight and ABC News.
I loved hanging out at Yamashiros with Cathy Seipp and Heather Mac Donald and Matt Welch and company. I like the cognitive elite. I find their company bracing.
I loved dinner at Eugene Volokh’s.
I love stepping on to college campuses. I grew up there. I always thought I’d be an academic star.
I love a rousing lecture and a good book and a good movie.
I love a passionate conversation.
I love a good turn from an Alexander Technique teacher. I love feeling aligned and poised.
I love it when I can help others achieve alignment and poise through my own teaching of the Technique.
I love to go to synagogues that use musical instruments on Shabbat.
I love celebrating Shabbat and Jewish holidays with people who do it seriously while keeping a twinkle in their eyes.
I was so excited to crest the grapevine in August 1988 as I drove into Los Angeles to start the fall semester at UCLA.
I love it when I can recapture that excitement about Los Angeles, when I can see the city with new eyes, and get that quiver again that I’m in the place to make my dreams come true.
I love the early morning fog flowing in from the coean and the crunch of jacaranda flowers under my foot as I make my way to shul.
I love going out in the evening and smelling the star jasmine.
I love it when words come easy.
