“Words, words, words”

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“…Wisdom is better than strength: nevertheless the poor man's wisdom is despised, and his words are not heard.”
- Ecclesiastes 9:16

Last week, right before Rosh Hashannah, the Jewish New Year, I was sequestered with my wife, Dahlia, and her parents in Radisson hotel near the Rochester Airport for 4 days.

We’ve all had our parents jabber on and on, oblivious to our lack of interest. That’s what family get-togethers are all about!
I remember, on several occasions, my father and mother ending a conversation with the following exchange:

Dad: “Okay, that’s enough.”
Mom: “Hey, I’m talking!”
Dad: “Yeah, but you’re not SAYING anything!”

Frustrating… and yet, sometimes, it’s those pointless discussions that can often be the highlight of a day’s discourse.

Here is a brief conversation I had with my in-laws, sitting in the gazebo outside of the aforementioned Radisson. I tried to be heard, but I was ignored… thank God. We were discussing first names:

Mom-in-law: Sometimes men have women’s names, too.
Dad-in-law: That’s right, like John Wayne. Didn’t he have a woman’s name?
Me: Marion.
Mom-in-law: Yes, he did. What was it?
Me: Marion.
Dad-in-law: I don’t know.
Me: It was Marion.
Mom-in-law: Some men are named Leslie.
Dad-in-law: That’s true.
Me: It was Marion.
Mom-in-law: My old high school principal was named Leslie
Dad-in-law: Maybe John Wayne was a Leslie.
Me: He was Marion.
Mom-in-law: No he was my vice principal… Leslie.
Dad-in-law: Yes, vice principal Leslie.
Mom-in-law: When men are named Leslie they usually go by “Les.”
Me: When men are named Marion they usually go by “John Wayne.”

Feels like family.

“What’s in a name? If you call a rose a turd, that don’t make it smell like shit.”
- Shakespeare… more or less

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