A class in The Doctrine of The Sabbath.

That’s the sort of thing I studied

at the Seventh-Day-Adventist Seminary.

The Professor, the late, great, Doctor Roy,

wise teacher he was,

personable, you know?

On the first night of class,

he invited us to write about and share

what Sabbath meant to us, then,

most of us in our early 20’s.

I wrote about the Bronx Zoo,

and a goat.

My Mother would give me

two one dollar bills after church

so I could pay my way into the Zoo.

It was near the church at the intersection of

Tremont Avenue and Fordham Road.

With the change, I could buy two hot dogs,

a few shiny little fish to throw to the barking seals

and still have enough change in my pocket

to get back to City Island on the bus

when the Zoo closed at 5PM.

(If any of you dear readers

have seen the movie CITY ISLAND with Andy Garcia

or A BRONX TALE with Robert DeNiro,

you know this neighborhood)

All this to avoid the temptation

my Father would offer me when,

just as Mother, my sister and I

would arrive home after church,

he would,

“on the spur of the moment” mind you,

decide to go sailing to Hunters Island Cove

in our 20′ Pennant Sloop, Blue Mist II,

and have a swim, or fish for flounder…

just before the sun set, you see,

and did I want to come?

My Mother had been scolded by the church elders

for giving me spend-money to buy

such secular things as

a ticket to the zoo,

two hot dogs,

seal food

and a goat

on the Holy Sabbath Day.

But in my Mom’s mind,

watching lions pace behind their

iron-barred cages

was a lesser evil for me

than sailing, “with him”,

my Father, an atheist Jew,

who was, in Mom’s mind,

a very bad influence on me.

“So, Doctor,

Sabbath means to me,

from way back when I was seven,

an escape from daily family conflicts,

pleasant, solitary conversations with my Father –

In Heaven-

while sitting on a secluded bench at the Zoo,

and a pet mountain goat I met there and who I fed

leaves he couldn’t reach outside his enclosure

with his stretched-out tongue

while I scratched the itch on his back

he couldn’t reach with his horns.”

And on through my employment in the church

from my 20’s to my early 40’s,

till my 45th year, when I left,

till now, in my 77th year,

a believer in the Will of the Soul of the Universe,

someone who always feels a bit more connected to the

Grand Mystery,

come sunset on Friday evening.