It’s all Greek to me

“What am I doing here?”

While waiting to deliver an invocation at a recent function, this is the thought that ran through my mind as I struggled to follow the conversation occurring on the dais. I have mentioned before that language does not come easily to me. I have learned that unless I pay very close attention to a conversation in a foreign tongue the sounds start to blend together into a multicultural cacophony.

blah…blah-blah…blah blahblah..RBI…blah…blahblahblah…blah-blah…blah…ERA…blahblah…blah BLAH blah…BA…blah-blah…blah…blahblah…

Suddenly, numbers, which make me dizzy in first place, were thrown into the mix, as whizzed past me at a ferocious speed.

blah…blah-blah…blah blahblah…99 RBI…blah…blahblahblah…blah-blah…blah…2.90ERA…blahblah…blah BLAH blah…0.256 BA…blah-blah…blah…blahblah…

At some point, the two speakers, whose names were completely unfamiliar, switched back to English as they shared stories, memories, and perspectives from their years in professional baseball.

I have it on good authority (thanks, JockBro) that Rollie Fingers and Harmon Killebrew are well-known ball personalities. You’ll forgive me but I’d be hard-pressed to come up with a dozen ball players and the guys on my list are BIG names.

Let’s see:

Nope. Can’t do it.

So I smiled, tried to look as though I had a clue, laughed when others laughed and guffawed when others guffawed. As much as FrumeSarah can guffaw.

Here’s the thing: it was time well-spent. The event was organized by a member of our shul. The organization does some important work in our community. And an entire room of mostly-non-Jews learned how a short passage from the Talmud (Berachot 64a) can speak directly to the importance of building up our children.

Yes, time well spent.