Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Happily Ever After

I don't like suspense.

For as long as I can remember, whenever I'd read a book, as soon as I'd get to a part that was even mildly suspenseful, I'd flip to the back just to make sure everyone was alive and well. As long as I knew that, I could relax and enjoy the book. It's how I read A Little Princess and Little Women and even the Little House books. It's how I read everything. I needed to know that everything would turn out happily ever after. I didn't want to go through the entire book worrying.

I still read that way. I still flip to the back to make sure the character I am getting to know doesn't get sick or die or get divorced. I just need to know.

Sometimes, the character does die. Sometimes she does get sick...or lose her baby. It's not always all happily ever after anymore. But I still flip to the back to check. I still need to know. I don't like it, but at least I know.  

Real life has enough stress. I don't want more of it when I read.

Sometimes I wish I could do that in real life. I wish I could flip to the back - just to make sure it all ends happily ever after. Just to make sure everything turns out okay....to make sure that everything I worry about - everyone I worry about - turns out fine at the end. I just want to know.

But what if it doesn't? What if it's not all happily ever after? Would I still want to know? 


Hashem directs Moshe, "כְּתב זאת זִכָּרוֹן בַּסֵּפֶר, וְשִׂים בְּאָזְנֵי יְהוֹשֻׁעַ." Write this as a memorial in the book and place it in the ears of Yehoshua. The Gemara explains that this refers to, among other things, the Megillah.

According to this, Moshe wrote the Megillah long before the story actually happened. He was instructed to tell it to Yehoshua, and it was passed on to the leader of each generation - until, and including, Mordechai.

U'Mordechai yada es kol asher na'asa...

Mordechai knew.

Mordechai knew what was going to happen. Mordechai knew the end of the story. He knew how it would all turn out. He knew that it would all end happily ever after. While Esther was wondering why she was chosen...while the Jewish people were worrying about Haman's decree...Mordechai knew.


I was talking to a woman whose 31 year old daughter is getting married. I wonder...all those years of worrying and waiting, would they have wanted to know? When she was 21, would it have been easier for them to have known that she would not get engaged until she was 31, or would they rather not have known - and kept hoping that it might happen any day? Would I want to know?

If things do not turn out exactly as I hope...if it's not all happily ever after...would I want to know?

I don't know the answer to that. If I was given that option...if I had to decide...I don't know what I would choose.

I just want happily ever after. I want to flip to the end and see that it all turns out happily ever after.

Like the story of Purim. 

18 comments:

  1. Everyone wants a happy ending, and the security of one. Sadly, life simply doesn't work that way. It's all a giant crapshoot and we just gotta carry on as best we can....

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    1. A giant crapshoot, eh? Lol...you're the only one I know who would describe it that way.

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  2. I think I'd want to know the ending. Forewarned is forearmed- for the good and the bad. But that's not an option down here so...

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    1. Forewarned is forearmed... And what, exactly, would you do with that knowledge? If you'd know that there's no happy ending (not you personally, of course), How would being forewarned help you?

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    2. Pretty much what Chaia said. But I've been thinking about it and there are so many people and experiences I wouldn't have touched with a ten foot pole had I known the outcome, and ultimately I would have lost out on a lot. So I guess it's a good thing that we don't know.

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  3. "you don't want to know too much about your own future" - Doc Brown (and Batman in the Justice League episode 'time, warped")

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    1. He might be right...but I meant just knowing - just a peek - not changing anything.

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  4. Sounds like a plan, along with that manual for life that I've been wanting.

    I imagine that knowing some endings, at least the physical world endings, would make daily life extraordinarily difficult.

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    1. A manual for life... I never thought of that. I think I'd like one of those!

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  5. If you flip to the end it takes the enjoyment out of the middle! ;) I understand that you want to know what is going to happen, but I believe that there is a plan for all of us, and I trust that there is a happy ending somewhere, even if we can't see it right now.

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    1. This is how I enjoy my middle :).
      I have no doubt that there is a plan. My question was if I'd want to know what that plan is - including whether or not I will get to see that happy ending while I am in this world.

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  6. I never knew that. Mordechai really knew the ending? That everything would be okay in the end? I thought a tzaddik has emunah that everything is for the best...but I never knew that in this case, he knew it so clearly...and he didn't have to wonder. Wow.

    Honestly, although it sounds nice to know what kind of ending there will be, I don't think I'd want to know it. Because, if you know the way things will turn out, how can you live your life and make real choices?

    If that girl's parents knew it would take until 31 until she'd get married, what would she do with those 10+ years until she reached that point? She probably wouldn't meet a shadchan until her 31st birthday. And she would probably be a very different person without those 10+ years of struggle, pain...and yes, hope.

    So, it would be nice to know how things will turn out...but do I want to know it? I don't think so. It would change the way I would live my life from when I want things to change until they actually do.

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    1. That's a really good point - thank you. It's about how you live your life...and who you become...because you don't know. And what a different person you'd be if you did know. I like that!

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  7. If I would know that I have a few more years until I get married I would use that time differently than I am using my time now. My time now, like many singles, is so focused on finding Mr. Right. If I knew he won't come for a while I would spend this time working on a career, possibly, or for more schooling, etc.

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    1. And what if Mr. Right is not destined to show up for another 15 years? Or 25? Or never? (again...not you, personally!) Would you still want to know?

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  8. Wow. Great piece- but I personally prefer it the way it is now. I just heard a great vort about this. When Mashiach will come, all the yomim tovim will be batal except for Purim. Do you know why? All the other Yomim Tovim are Geula- related, but Purim is all about being in the dark. Hashem's Hand was hidden from the yidden. And the gains you make in the darkness- when everything is fuzzy and obscure- cannot be compared to the gains we will make when Mashiach will come. When the reason for everything He does will be crystal clear. The right thing will be the only one we will want to do then. But now, when everything is unclear and the right thing is usually the difficult one and we choose to do it the way He wants us to, those gains are so precious that the yuntif that symbolizes all that, will stay with us even though all the others won't.

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  9. There would be lives that I would not have invested myself in if I would have known what would be at the end. And I would be the poorer for it.

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