One of the many gifts my father left me were clippings of stories he collected over the years. Once I found this clipping from a James Hodgson in Salt Lake City:
"I was lounging in front of the TV watching a second-run Western when Dad came in from shoveling snow. He looked at me quizzically and said, 'In 24 hours you won't even remember what you are looking at now. How about doing something for the next 20 minutes that you'll remember 20 from now and enjoy every time you think about it?'"
"'What is it' I asked.'
"'Well, son, there's 8 inches of snow on old Mrs. Woodbury's walk.' he said. 'Why don"t you see if you can shovel it and get back without her knowing?'
"I did it in 15 minutes. She never knew who had done it. And Dad was right. I've enjoyed it every time I've thought about it."
To celebrate the birth of our nation, do a mitzvah - it may stay with you a lifetime.
Once the people of Iran are free and no longer silenced, they will replenish the world with so much art and culture and science and more, because they have been denied that for almost five decades. They won’t spend the next five decades exploiting their trauma, or claiming to be refugees, or seeking to destroy Israel, or blaming someone else for their pain. They’ll do more than survive. They’ll thrive.