Celebrate the Present

Elizabeth Holtzman, a former member of US Congress and a friend of Joseph Brodsky's, came in with a friend to spend the evening at the Russian Samovar. I met Elizabeth about 20 years ago at one of Joseph’s Birthday parties. We talked about how many lives Brodsky had touched and how he brought together so many people. Elizabeth’s friend turned out to be a professor at a Hebrew University so the conversation turned to Israel. I came up with a bleak prediction that once the situation becomes desperate, the Israelites would use the bomb and that will be the beginning of a world-wide nuclear war and the end of the world as we know it. It started in Jerusalem and it will end in Jerusalem. This is my pessimistic view of the apocalypse. I wish it would not happen. In the meantime, let’s enjoy this life and that’s what we did clinking glasses at the Russian Samovar.