ONE PLUS ONE EQUALS ONE TWO IS TWO-GETHER

Water and Fire and Earth and Air, which is greater which is more powerful, which is more useful? How do they relate to each other? Can they exist without each other?

Spit fire, a fiery flame, a Shabbat candle and a Havdalah candle, a spark that became a forest fire, a scrape of a flint of an Indian's arrowhead, Vulcan, hot heated horrific, a passionate severing countenance, fire in one's cat eyes, fire in one's heart, burning with green envy, red blue and yellow, orange-ish white bursts of crackling sky blue lightening, a stubborn fire that cannot and will not be snubbed.

What can we use to keep fire under control? Yes! Water, and earth. Without air a fire cannot rage either. Throwing buckets of water and earth on a fire to destroy it. Turning a river around into a mountainous volcano, lava that is the dirtiness of earth on fire, killing the jealous red lava fire, water over fire, water as an ease to one's thirst.

But what of fire to toast our bread or roast our meat? Needing to catch a fish to eat, a fish out of water, out into air.

Giving someone fiery direct eye contact, a tiger's eye, a glare, a penetrating retina, eye to eye, never letting go, never removing one's reasons to see, to hear, to taste, to smell, to feel, to breathe.

Water to break through a high walled dam, crashing bricks, a wall no more, dissolving and mixing, shooting a squirt gun, drowning an idea, kicking a water balloon. Splash! Water atop of fire that kills fire, drowns it, to water the garden of an envious gaze, not to covet your neighbor's green grass, to grow vegetables and to add water to yeast for leavened bread.

An airy nothingness a breeze blowing by, a whisper, a flow, a whistle, a wonder, an inside sucking with two cheeks full, an air balloon, a soap bubble, kid's flying kites higher than the sun.

What is the philosophy behind the existence of water and fire and earth and air?

They all need each other and cannot exist solely without the other. They must be submerged converged as One, ALL together, together-ness, Oneness, in complete stability, predictability but with the unpredictability of a Mother Nature: One Echad, created by One Adonai, One God, One as a Mother with a Father. 1+1=1

THE HISTORY OF THE BILLION YEAR OLD SANDS OF A BEACH

The raindrops you feel and the mist in the air, the dew drops on the leaves of vegetation in your backyard, the moistness on your fingertips, living a few blocks away from the Sea of Reeds, where is this sea? The great Nile, the great Lake Michigan, the clouds of water in the sky, slowly moving then quickly moving, winds everywhere, hurricanes, tornadoes, tsunamis, thunderstorms, even just a momentary sprinkling, open your mouth and stick out your tongue. Catch these water droplets and taste them, to catch sweetness upon your tongue, to taste it and to love it.

To be at a beach, a place filled with natural grains of chipped ground rock that becomes sand granules. To feel the ancientness of these sands, how old do you think they are? Blown away in the wind, sand that is over a billion years old. Want to celebrate a birthday, celebrate the birthday of the sands you are standing upon.

Blow out the candle every Havdalah, end of Shabbat. Something to look forward to everyday. A walk, a stroll, a skip, a movement forward as the sands take us back thousands, millions, billions of years. Yes, you have a history, the same as these sands. A real history of a family tree that goes back into ancient times. Related to a Prophet in The Torah, or to Noach. Yep, we all go back that far, deeply rooted in the stories of the past, and we live now and will continue to live through our spirit after we die. 

THE COLDNESS OF A SANDSTORM AT THE BEACH

A sandstorm, with harsh cruel silver lightening flashes, waters gushing forth from clouds above, rain like diamonds as hailstones cutting like pocket knives into the bodies of cars and trucks, gouging a hole into someone's head, catching hail like baseballs with a mit, golf balls, slicing splitting things in half, running with no site to take shelter.

The freezing-ness of a hailstorm, ice crystals, small snowmen, cold blasts and windstorm, sand picking up on the shoreline, lake waters rippling like sheaves of hay thrown everywhere, a harvest of broken bread, bread dipped dumped, escalated skated, open mouths with no one being fed, slipping on icy pavement as you try to get under a tree, trees falling trees not to be worshiped, not a Christmas tree, not an old Oak or Maple, idols all.

Calling to God to safely take you out of this sandstorm, to protect your property your car your household, a time to know that all are targeted as was Sodom and Gemorrah, God said all must go, all must drown or burn except for Lot and his family. No choices, dust blown away, God did not save 100, or 75 or 50, even though there could have been more than one good soul. 

The wearing of black clothing after destruction, phoenixes appearing out of the dust, people without shoes, slippers, a place to hide, a place warm without ice, a place to quench thirst, a place welcoming after a sickness of a sandstorm.

Bomb shelters all filled up, the coast is clear, look upwards no rockets, a sky not lighted up, a firework of celebration not a missile. Opening shelter doors, back to work, no one killed, a Wizard of Oz who returns us all home, a Wizard Who came out to disclose Himself, saying Who He really is is God. 

SWIMMING OR DROWNING?

Are you a swimmer or are you afraid to swim? Can you float or dog paddle the water with your legs, use a float or surfboard or life preserver to keep your head above water? Do you know enough not to swim when the waves are too high and are too dangerous to swim in? What about this awesome ugly undercurrent that is responsible for swimming deaths.

In the Pirkei Avot, the holy Jewish book, Our Ancestors, it teaches us "If someone drowns you, someone will then drown him, and whosever drowns him will be drowned."

So, this great awesome lake becomes a dreaded mysterious enemy, a place where people are drowned. These undercurrents being the reason why.

Are you a daredevil and do not know enough to come out of the rain? Have you a motorcycle in your garage, or even a bicycle? No helmet? No red or yellow blinking lights or rear view mirror? Do you go out late at night alone, and even the rats cannot keep you inside?

Play the game according to the rules. Stay home at night, do not swim in a thunderstorm, do not ride a motorcycle or bicycle with or without a helmet. Do not travel alone on the road. If there is no reason to be out, then be inside instead. If you are female without male companionship, you must advocate for yourself, being knowledgeable enough to come inside from the rain, and to convince others that you are smart enough to do this.

Not needing male counter partnerships, obeying the rules and not abusing the night and its effects on your safety, convince others that you do not need your own rulebook, that you are intelligent and caring enough not to worry people over your comings and goings.

Catching pneumonia or sinus infections, even just the common cold. No, there is no cure for the common cold or other infections, antibiotics do not cure all ailments. Be sure to baby yourself and get well, without others needing to care give you. Stay home, stay warm, not to get overly warm in hot summer weather days. Not to pretend you are a lost dog, a lost puppy without a place towards home.

To be able to accept the worry of others and thank them but show them as a living example that you are living a responsible lifestyle.