Real Imagination

Sitting in a restaurant, looking at the menu and trying to choose between the different dishes.

How can I choose when I don't know what the names represent? (in French!)

The waiter sees that I'm a religious person and says, "Brother, this is not Torah, you don't need to learn it..."

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In a world where advertising people decide what I will wear, buy and eat, do I have a free choice?

"...life and death I have given before you, blessing and curse, and you shall choose life..." (Deuteronomy 39)

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Smokers (and other addicts) who decide to stop smoking for example, then the urge to smoke arises again, but they want to stop so much! Wow, what a war! In the end, they find an easy solution: just one more cigarette and that's it...

Why not put things on the table and decide you're going back to smoking? Why lie to yourself? who do you work for It is a choice between the lie and the truth, lying to myself, or admitting and acknowledging the truth.

(For more, Ein Letter from Eliyahu, part 1, page 111)

Or for example, I'm lying on the couch reading a book, and I want so badly to be in shape... to go for a walk or run a little... but I don't feel like going out! I feel like lying on the couch! But I want to be fit...

I want to be hardworking, but I feel like being lazy...

This is the free choice, to choose between the fantasy of ``just one more cigarette'' and the truth (that just one more cigarette means to keep smoking), to choose between what I want (what I feel like), what I really want.

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I was born in Israel, to parents who immigrated from the United States, as a child I dreamed of America, I thought that happiness was there.

After I met my wife and we got married, we went to the USA for three weeks when all the time I'm looking for something without knowing what I'm looking for. I didn't know what I was looking for, what attracted me? I knew it wasn't the skyscrapers, the big houses and the nice cars, but I didn't know what I was looking for.

When it was time to get on the plane back home I couldn't get on the flight, I felt missed, I'm here, and I don't know what I want from this place, and it's already time to go!

Later I looked inside and discovered that what I was looking for was some childhood illusion about an "American paradise" that does not exist. (at least not in America).

But I left with a simple insight, that before I arrive at the place, I try to find out in advance, what do I want from this place? What does this place have to offer? and prepare a "list of places to see and things to do" so that I don't miss what this place has to offer.

Later I realized that such a list should also be made about life, we are here for a relatively short time, and it is very worthwhile to make a list of "places to see and things to do" while we are here.

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This song is about trying to understand what is imaginary and what is real, and what I want to do in the time I have here. With the understanding that if I know what I want to accomplish in my life, I have a higher chance of doing what I really want.

Hope you enjoy and find it useful.

Yours with love.

Yossi