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A PICTURE "KNEPL" FOR PAUL
*In Yiddish, a "knepl" is a button
Marjorie Gottlieb Wolfe
Syosset, New York
My "bruder" (brother), Paul, is "krank." He's very ill, suffering from pancreatic cancer. Paul is what's known as "a gute neshome"--a good soul, a gentle person.
His doctors and nurses on the third floor of South Nassau Hospital in Oceanside, New York, are compassionate and caring individuals. (What he really needs is "a balness"--a miracle worker!) The nursing staff, no doubt, see him as some "zokn" (old) man, but he's only 72. (John McCain will be 72 before the next election.)
When I visit him, I can't help but think of Eda LeShan's 1990 book, "It's Better to Be Over the Hill Than Under It - thoughts on Life Over Sixty." One chapter is titled,"Picture Buttons."
Ms. LeShan writes about being at a checkout counter in the supermarket where a very "alt" woman had difficulty counting out her money. She was wrinkled and somewhat disheveled and couldn't stand up straight. The "yung" checkout girl was "grob" (rude), impatient, intolerant, and uncaring. Ms. LeShan thought, "Suppose this old woman had a button on her coat with a picture of herself at sixteen or twenty? Suppose beneath the picture there was a quotation from an English gravestone, "As You Are, So Once Was I; As I Am, So Will You Be"?
Ms. LeShan continues,"Young people seldom have much patience with us [older folks]; all they see is some old crock. All of us have had doors slammed in our faces, people pushing ahead of us when we need to get on line at the post office or bank, younger people chasing ahead to get a seat on the bus. Mostly it's just thoughtlessness, but some of the time it is impatience, and distaste for older people."
I agree 100% with Ms. LeShan. We need someone who can manufacture buttons, someone who would take pictures we have of ourselves when we were young to put on them.
She continues, "I think it would be good for our mental health to remind younger generations that we were once like them." Ms. LeShan wants to get herself a button, cover up whatever is on it, and create her own message. She can't decide between a sweet and sensitive picture of herself at twelve, or her wedding picture, or maybe a picture of her playing tennis or canoeing.
Tomorrow I think I'll get a colorful button
and cover it with a picture of Paul holding
the hand of the young Levittown boy
he was a Big Brother to.
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Marjorie Gottlieb Wolfe is the author of
two books:
"Yiddish for Dog & Cat Lovers" and
"Are Yentas, Kibitzers, & Tummlers Weapons of Mass Instruction? Yiddish
Trivia." To order a copy, go to her
website: MarjorieGottliebWolfe.com
NU, what are you waiting for? Order the
book!
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