We walked into our building the other day and one of our doormen, whose name happens to be David, called us over to let us know he has been meaning to tell us something. We listened as he proudly shared the wonderful news that his son Eric had recently become a Bar Mitzvah. He told us we could watch the service on You Tube and the theme for the party was all Baseball. We stopped in our tracks, wished him a big Mazel Tov and went upstairs to our apt.

We were thrilled for him and confused as we didn’t know he had children or much else about him. He always greeted us with a smile and we exchanged pleasantries as he handed us our Amazon packages.

Schools have opened up, the streets are bustling with children walking with super sized back packs and after school snack money in their pockets. Things feel re-booted, still left of center but closer to a familiar time, pre pandemic.

Back to several days ago when David called up to let us know our sushi dinner, that we ordered was here. Ah, the Bar Mitzvah. So we ate dinner and sat down to watch David’s son Eric become a Bar Mitzvah. Can’t make the names up for those in the know. We kvelled as Eric read from the Torah, sang along, silently prayed and sent a shout out upon request from the Rabbi to Hashem for our forever ago friend Rommy Revson who passed away yesterday. Baruch dayan emet. Oh, Rom.

We listened as David’s wife spoke about their son and we cried for their pride in him.

Moral of story -bottom line-it, grab moments of pleasure, now more ever especially in these precarious days with so much uncertainty.

So we got some paper, wrote a mazel message, put some gelt into an envelope for Eric and went downstairs to have a “Minchin by you Moment.”This time the blessing in disguise came with a shout out in the lobby from a very familiar face, albeit in concept a stranger. Make it a schepp nachas for no longer a stranger kind of day. We are all a community and hashtag stronger together. It’s a reach out to someone dear kind of day. Bh