Enough!

This time of the year I love celebrating holidays like the Yom Kippur fast and the Thanksgiving feast because, on the one hand, they reinforce my Stoic belief that life is hard; on the other hand, these holidays are a reminder that with the adoption of an attitude of gratitude, I get to shift my focus from suffering with the belief that I do not have enough, to celebrating with the recognition I have all that I need.

Two weeks ago Constance and I finally caught the Covid virus. Though our physical symptoms were not too bad, I was shocked at the way the virus negatively affected my mental, emotional, and spiritual states. Perhaps this negativity was a reflection of the daunting efforts over the past three years to run a Club in the midst of the pandemic. Perhaps it stemmed from the Fed’s actions in raising interest rates to kill inflation by draining the extra liquidity from the system. Perhaps it’s simply a reflection of what older age looks and feels like. Whatever it is, I knew I needed help, so I decided to re-read Kurt Vonnegut’s Joe Heller poem and share it with our members as my Thanksgiving gift.

Personally, I am just so thankful to all of you for your continued emotional and financial support, without which there would be no City Club or Highland Institute.

— Sina.

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Joe Heller

True story, Word of Honor:
Joseph Heller, an important and funny writer
now dead,
and I were at a party given by a billionaire
on Shelter Island.
I said, “Joe, how does it make you feel
to know that our host only yesterday
may have made more money
than your novel “Catch-22”
has earned in its entire history?”
And Joe said, “I’ve got something he can never have.”
And I said, “What on earth could that be, Joe?”
And Joe said, “ The knowledge that I’ve got enough.”
Not bad! Rest in peace!”

— Kurt Vonnegut.
The New Yorker, May 16th, 2005