Episode Summary

In this episode we explore failure through two stories about how even with the right intentions and even with proper planning sometimes things just go wrong. . We all fail at things—even things for which we have prepared.

Episode Notes

The first story is a hilarious story about our visit to a woman in a local hospital. Tommy told me that she was dying and that he wanted to see her before she passed. He told me that she was in room 402 and we found her there staring out pensively I into space. In an act of amazing spiritual courage Tommy began by telling her right away that she was dying but that there was nothing to fear because after she died God would hold her soul in God’s hands “Like a little bird.” 

She broke out into hysterical crying, but Tommy was not deterred. 

He went through the little bird speech several more times. He kept asking her if she was afraid now and she kept sobbing, “Yes Father I am still afraid.” He then asked her why she was still afraid even though she would soon be in God’s hands (like a little bird). She looked up at Tommy and said through her tears, “I am still afraid Father because I just came into the hospital for a hernia operation!” Without a pause Tommy said, “Weel my dear then the good news is that you are not going to die.” I was convulsed in laughter but managed to get Tommy to leave with me quickly before she called security. On the way out Tommy said to me, “Maybe the dying woman was in room 502?”

The second story is about my friend Steven from my rabbinical seminary who was serving a small part time congregation in West Virginia where children of several grades were all in one class. He carefully taught the children to act out the biblical story of wise King Solomon who resolved a dispute between two women who both claimed the same child as their own. Steven was so prepared. He even brought a paper crown for the little boy who played King Solomon and a baby doll as a prop for the two fighting women. At the climax of the story the child playing King Solomon says that the baby should be cut in half. Steven then waited for the little girl who was playing the real mother to say, “Give the other woman the child.” However, she was terrified by the sight of the little King Solomon who had taken out a pen knife from his pocket and was already starting to cut the baby doll in half. Steven panicked and yelled at the little girl, “Say your line dear! For God’s sake, say your line!!” The little traumatized girl was crying but she gathered herself and said, “I’ll take the head.”

We must be able to laugh at our failings in order to savor our successes.