Author: Manny Kagan

  

How to Develop a Habit of Love

Over breakfast on Sunday morning, I told my wife “I love you”, to which she asked “Why?”  And I responded, “This is one of the good habits I started practicing fifty-three years ago”.  We all develop habits during our lives.  Some of them are good, others could be improved.  As I mentioned before, I am currently working on one of my next books, “Retirement Solutions for Smart People.  5 Easy Ways to Enjoy Your Golden Age.”  In the book, I connect retirement with the habit of being retired.  And as with any other habits, it takes time to develop. When I started my MBA studies at Golden State University many years ago, the Dean recommended a book by Dr. Maxwell Maltz written in 1960 titled, “Psycho-Cybernetics”.  In this book, Dr. Maltz wrote that after receiving a nose job, for example, it would take the patients about 21 days to get used to seeing their new face.  He also noticed that it took him 21 days to form a new habit.  However, when Philippa Lolly from London’s University College conducted a study about habits, her team concluded that it took anywhere from 18 days to 254 days for people to form new habits.  Ben Franklin lists 13 Virtues in his autobiography.  Among them are — Silence, Frugality, Industry, Sincerity and Justice.  He spent a whole year focusing on each of them.

Instead of calling habits good and bad, I divided them into beneficial and less beneficial.  For example, drinking water is a more beneficial habit than drinking Coca-Cola or any other sugary drinks.

A habit could be divided into healthful or not healthful.  One of my not healthful habits was reading the newspaper while eating breakfast. Then I read the book “Mindfulness on the Go” written by Jan Chozen Bays.  In the chapter titled “When Eating, Just Eat”, she offers an exercise.

“This week, when you are eating or drinking, don’t do anything else.  Sit down and take the time to enjoy what you are taking in.”

As a result, I see what I put into my mouth and the food tastes better.  Another example of a healthful habit for me has been walking with Max three times a day.  You do not need a dog to walk, but having one helps.

There are other categories of habits, but I would like to return to one, which I started my story with – the good habit of being in love.  Being in love can be taken by granted; sometimes we forget that like any other habits, it requires practice, practice and practice.  Unless of course you are a dog.  For Max, love is a way of being and he expresses it all the time.

P.S. We humans often share our love with our domestic animals.  During our trip to Israel, I was amazed by the number of cats we encountered on the streets, especially in Tel Aviv.  These four images are just some of them.  However, you do not have to travel far away to meet animal lovers. Just buy “42 Encounters with Dog Lovers” at Amazon.com or Encounterspublishing.com.

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Young Nation

We returned from our trip to Israel at the beginning of November.  While there, I wrote six stories about our trip.  However, I decided not to bore you with them all at once.  There are three more to go.  Hopefully, after reading all of them, you’ll decide to journey to Israel yourself.

While walking through the streets of old Tel Aviv, I noticed a great number of young people, pregnant women, children and dogs.  On the internet, I learned that with an average of three children per family, Israel has the highest fertility rate in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.  I was especially surprised to see many young people on Sderot Rothschild Boulevard, even after 10 p.m.  One of the reasons may be that Rothschild Blvd. has become the hub for new technology developments in Israel.  Like in San Francisco, where internet companies are leasing out the best spots downtown, beautifully restored Bauhaus design buildings which were built in the 1920s, have become homes for many of the leading tech companies in Israel.  But there was something else which struck me, as well.  Along the Boulevard, there is a bike lane with electrical bikes and scooters constantly zooming by.  I found an article online titled, “As Electric Scooters Take Over the World, Tel Aviv Stands First in Line”. The article, which was published on September 30, 2018, describes the state of the electrical scooter industry.  It starts, “Rothschild Avenue, one of Tel Aviv’s central traffic arteries, is jammed. A line of vehicles has been stuck here for over ten minutes on a standard end-of-August morning, waiting for salvation.  Meanwhile, at least a dozen electric scooters zip by driven by a variety of characters.”

I noticed many different brands of scooters speeding by.  Besides the “BIRD” electric scooters, which you can rent, there are many other brands, which can be purchased for about $550.00.  Some are made in China.  There is also an Israeli company (50% owned by the Chinese), that manufactures and sells scooters under the name “INOKIM”.  They expect to sell 14,000 units in 2018, for an average price of $2,000.00!

In comparison, San Francisco officials have recently authorized only two electric scooter companies that can be rented, totaling only 1250 units.  Being only 70 years young, Israel is definitely a young nation.  After all, San Francisco is one hundred years older. Is it therefore more mature, since it was reported that in Israel there are many casualties from electric bike and motorized scooter road accidents?

P.S. It was easy to pick just four images to show scootermania in Tel Aviv.

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What Is Hanukkah?

On the eve of last Sunday, December 2^nd Jews around the world started the celebration of Hanukkah, which lasts for eight days, by lighting a special candle holder called a hanukiah.  The holiday commemorates events which happened in 165 BC. I will not bore you with what this holiday really is, since you can read about it online; rather, I will try to share with you some of my thoughts on what it means to me, especially after our recent trip to Israel.  I do not know any other country in the world which connects its history with the current reality, as Israel does. The miracle of Hanukkah happened when one crude with clean oil burned for eight days on the holy Menorah – a candelabra, which was located inside the Second Jewish Temple. The Temple was rebuilt in 515 BCE, only to be destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD.  During our recent visit to Jerusalem, a friend took us to the site of the cemetery going back to the First Temple, which existed over 2500 years ago.  During the excavation, archeologists found a small silver scroll. Inside, were inscribed words of a special prayer, that priests blessed people over the high holidays of Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah. My last name Kagan, traces me back to the priestly lineage (which goes back to the time of the Exodus from Egypt), of the “Cohanim”. As a Cohen, I am given the honor to bless the congregation in our synagogue with the same prayer, twice a year. Just imagining this connection to my ancestors doing the same, gives me the goosebumps.  Hanukkah is called the holiday of lights, but also the holiday of freedom. Some interpretations of this are the freedom of self-expression, and the freedom to express religious beliefs and practices. Most of us take this freedom for granted, but in the Land of Israel in 165 BC, a small group of Jewish rebels led by the Priest Mattathias, fought for the freedom to express themselves as Jews against the Assyrian army.

During the services in our synagogue, Rabbi Zarhy told another Hanukkah story which actually happened during our times.  In 1939, at the start of the Second World War when theGermans occupied Poland, in the city called Lodz, the wife of a local rabbi lit the Hanukkah lights, and decided to photograph it. When the print was ready, she noticed that through the window, across the street was a building of the Nazi’s headquarters.  On the back of the photograph she wrote: “Germans come and go, but the Hanukkah light will stay forever”.  The rabbi’s family managed to escape and ended up in America. Years later, the descendants discovered this old photograph, and of its remarkable story.

The Mattathias family fought for their religious freedom in their own land of Israel. They won; however, 200 years later their descendants were expelled from their homeland.  Almost two thousand years later Jews came back to reclaim the small piece of land where their journey started.  And today, the Holiday of Light from the ancient Land of Israel brings light into the nations.

P.S. The four images for this story show Hanukkah lights in various ways.  One is of Rabbi Langer with the torch in his hands is about to light the public Hanukkah in Union Square, and my two artistic renderings of the Hanukkah light.  The last image was taken when Max joined his “sister” Alona when we lit the first candle (the second one called a shamash, which translates to“servant”, is used to light the other lights).

Besides lighting the Hanukkiah, this is a time to give and to receive gifts. My book, “42 Encounters with Dog Lovers” will be loved by everyone. I guarantee that.  Please order it on Amazon.com and Encounterspublishing.com.

If you are reading this story on Friday, it is the night of the sixth light.

Happy Holidays!

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What’s In a Name?

One evening we returned to our apartment in Tel Aviv in the late hours, after a walk on Rothschild Blvd.  It was past 10pm, but there were quite a few people relaxing and enjoying the warm weather. Who was Mr. Rothschild that one of the most iconic and popular boulevards, which is a commercial center with major financial institutions and technological start-ups occupying famous Bauhaus buildings, is named after him?  When we lived in Israel many years ago, I heard about Baron Rothschild, but had no idea about his contribution to Israel.

Online I found some fascinating information about the Rothschild family (which is still one of the richest in the world).  Baron Edmond James de Rothschild was born in August 1845 in France into a well-known Jewish banking family.  He received a traditional Jewish and secular education and in 1877, married his cousin. His interests were primarily in the arts.  However in 1882, Edmond cut back on his purchases of art and began to buy land in Southern Syria (Ottoman Palestine). He became a leading proponent of the Zionist Movement.  In 1924, he established the Palestine Jewish Colonization Association, which acquired more than 125,000 acres of land and set up business ventures. He also played a pivotal role in Israel’s wine industry.

Jews and Arabs lived amiably on Rothschild’s land and in 1934, the year he died, in a letter to the League of Nations he wrote, “The struggle to put an end to the Wandering Jew, could not have as its result, the creation of the Wandering Arab.”  Eighty-five years passed since his death, but the seeds of his and his wife’s contributions bare tremendous fruit. A question pops up in my head about how it was possible to get the idea, which changed the course of history?  How was it possible in 1882 to foresee that one day there would be pogroms in Russia, rampant antisemitism in Europe; to have a place for the Jewish survivors of World War II to live?  History had many remarkable names, one of them being Baron Edmond Rothschild.

P.S. Israel is known as a start-up nation, and many high-tech companies have offices on Rothschild Boulevard in spite of high rents (like in Downtown San Francisco); they prefer to have prestigious addresses on their letterhead.  We met a lot of young people in Tel Aviv, and I was not surprised to meet some of them having a good time during the late hours, as you can see in these four images.

P.P.S. The book signing of “42 Encounters with Dog Lovers” was a success as this short video can attest. Get your own copy at Amazon.com or Encounterspublishing.com.

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The Most Important Words
In Any Relationship

My wife Elfa likes to tell others that as the head of our family I always have the last words – “Yes, Dear”.  Actually this is not exactly, accurate.  Being a stubborn person and often thinking that I know better, sometimes I try to do things my way.  To my credit, when I realize that Elfa is actually right, I say, “My wife is always right”.  This upsets her.  “If I was right, why didn’t you listen to me?” she asks.  To this I respond, “If I would always listen to you, I would be Elfa, not Manny”.  In some occasions our children accuse their mother of being negative, only to discover that actually she was cautious (and right).  It was Mark Twain who wrote, “When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant, I could hardly stand to have the old man around.  But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years.”  Our children have passed the age twenty-one, but they are still learning the truth.

Being married for over 51 years and running a business together with Elfa for over 33 years could not happen without one quality we both possess – an attitude of gratitude. Recently Elfa related to me a conversation she had with one of her friends, who got upset after giving some business advice to her boyfriend, to which he didn’t even say “Thank you”.  Elfa’s response was, “Do you think that Manny always says “Thank you?”  Of course not.  Because of their ego, men often have to process the information before they can acknowledge that it was someone else’s idea.”

In our lives together, I would not become who I am and accomplished what I (we) have without acknowledging other people, especially my wife. Therefore, when I do say “Thank you” to her, I add “for this as well”.

P.S. Now we also express our gratitude to Max. Being sixteen months young, the puppy shares so much love and makes us laugh, that the only thing I can say is, “Thank you, and for this as well”.  These four latest images of Max just confirm my point.  I want to say the same to you, especially, if you buy “42 Encounters with Dog Lovers”.  “Thank you, and for this as well.”  You can find more images on Max and Manny Facebook page.  Please follow us.

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