Manny Kagan

Cheers,

How to Ask for Forgiveness,
and from Whom

Many years ago as a teenager, I did or said something which upset my mother. I knew that I was wrong, but kept quiet. The next day, my father suggested that I should ask her for forgiveness. “But Mom forgot about it already”, I responded. “Yes”, father said, “but you still carry guilt inside yourself. It does not matter what you think right now, you should still ask for forgiveness.” It took me years to accept my father’s advice, but now I freely admit my faults and shortcomings and ask for forgiveness.

During Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), which falls on Wednesday, October 5^th, during the services in the Synagogue, I am going to read from the prayer book during the whole day, with many prayers asking God for forgiveness. However, before we deal with God, we address our requests for forgiveness to the people in our lives. Therefore, I use this opportunity to ask for your forgiveness for anything I knowingly or unknowingly did or said. Thank you in advance.

After being forgiven, it is a good idea to enjoy bouquets of flowers.

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Cheers,

Happy Birthday!

On Monday evening, September 26, Jews and anyone else who follows the tradition set up in the Torah, are going to celebrate the birthday of the first man – Adam. He turns 5,783 and this day in the Jewish Calendar is called Rosh Hashanah, which translates to “head of the year”.

This holiday is the start of the cycle, which ten days later is followed by Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. And five days after that on the eve of October 9^th, is the start of Sukkot. The holiday cycle ends with Simchat Torah, on October 18^th. On that day, the last chapter of the reading from the Torah scroll is followed by the new one – Bereshit. “At the beginning of God’s creation of the heaven and the earth (Genesis 1:1)” the old cycle is followed by the new one. From the moment of the Creation of our world (some claim that this actually happened much earlier than 5,783, and the day in the Torah represents an epoch), Jews follow well established traditions.

One of them on Rosh Hashanah, is to eat a slice of an apple, dipped in honey and to wish each other Shana Tovah U’Metukah – A Good and Sweet Year!

I photographed these apples with my camera recently, at my friends’ house in Sebastopol.

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Cheers,

There’s Gold In Them There Hills

No, the title is not a misspelling. In the Appalachian dialect, Them there means those. The phrase is attributed to an Italian immigrant, Felix Pedro, who after several years of searching, found gold in the Tanaha Hills, not far from Fairbanks in 1902.

There were eight gold rushes in Alaska. One of the largest was in 1882, when two prospectors, Richard Harris and Joe Juneau found in a creek now called Gold Creek, that had rocks covered with gold deposits. The discovery led to the formation of the Alaska Treadwell Gold Mining Company, which employed as many as two thousand people. In twenty years, the boom was so great that US Congress moved Alaska’s capital from Sitka to a new place named after the first discoverer, Joe Juneau.

Nowadays, out of the six modern large-scale hard rock mining operations in Alaska, four produce gold. Juneau is still the capital of Alaska. It is the second largest city in the United States by the area. Our ship arrived there at night; however, we were not allowed to go ashore. Here are three images that I took from the ship at night.

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Cheers,

Where to Celebrate a 50th Anniversary

As life marches on, from time to time we discover that some people whom we’ve known for years are no longer around, or the couple we met years ago are not together anymore. Therefore, to our great delight, we received an invitation to celebrate our friends’, whom we have known for over forty years, fiftieth wedding anniversary. Our children studied in the same school, and I vividly remember the little girl who was hiding behind her mom’s skirt. Now this girl is a successful attorney, who has three daughters of her own. Her family, as well as her entrepreneurial brother, now live in Southern California.

A few years ago, our friends decided to relocate to Del Mar, closer to their children and to take care of their four grandchildren. It was their children’s decision to throw a party, and we were invited. For three days, we stayed at the L’Auberge Del Mar Hotel. In the morning, I walked on the beach, and saw many surfers in the water, and in the evening we partied. On one of the mornings, the party was on the beach.

There I found a young man and a woman, who I learned were surfing instructors. They were invited as part of the entertainment and brought with them a variety of sizes of wet suits and surf boards. Some of the guests, including an eight years young girl, who plays tennis and soccer, got surfing lessons on the beach. The process how to surf seemed simple. You just need to lie down on the board, and first paddle across the waves and then stand up on the board and maintain balance, as the waves carry you to the shore. It turned out this is not so simple as you can see in these short videos. I also included three images of the experienced surfers, who take some time on the beach before jumping into the water.

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