January 7, 2025

Linking Northern and Central NJ, Bronx, Manhattan, Westchester and CT

It’s About Time: Part 3

The solar clock doesn’t stop … even for the 2021 eclipse. (Credit: Stan Weiss)

It’s about time.

So much of my life revolves around time, in both training and work. It is not just how I count up the elapsed time at an Ironman triathlon as I count down the miles. It’s how I “do” everything. Unless I get lost in a workout or in a book, the precision of the clock is always closing in on me.

It’s the same with Shabbos, everything on Friday revolves around candle lighting, as the clock ticks down.

The countdown clock is running from the moment I open my eyes at 4 a.m. until my wife lights her candles. Naturally, I should have more time in summer when Shabbos starts later.

(Yet, somehow it never works out that way.)

No matter what, I’m always racing the clock to get everything done in time for Shabbos.

There are two types of people: those who see the needle almost on empty and think, “I need to get gas now!” and those who think, “Let’s see how much farther I can drive before I stop for gas.”

(You are the latter, not the former, aren’t you?)

My wife’s Shabbos candles. (Credit: David Roher)

Yup.

Sometimes there’s a last-minute grocery item I have to “run out” for or I’m rushing into the shower because I started my afternoon workout later than I had wanted to.

(It sounds like your house is chaotic.)

It used to be, but now the four of us have designated shower times and designated food prep times to avoid disorganized chaos.

(There’s such a thing as organized chaos?)

I was a busboy in college. Read on…

(It sounds like a choreographed dance.)

If the teenager doesn’t want to eat what we are making, he has to make his own food, but he has to get that done by 3 p.m.

(Why 3 p.m.?)

Because I’m gonna be using the last 60 minutes and sometimes, 18 more to finish the cooking.

(And sometimes 13 minutes on top of that.)

And you don’t want to be in my way when I have three dishes on the stove top and a fourth one on the grill just outside.

(What do you call that?)

Controlled chaos.

(You made that one up.)

With Randy Lazarus, Purim 1998, mid-melody of Purim songs. (Credit: David Roher)

Nope, here is the citation: González-Miranda, J.M. “Synchronization and Control of Chaos: An Introduction for Scientists and Engineers.” London: Imperial College Press. 2004.

Chaos has its own rhythm that resolves like a math equation. That resolution is how I cook four dishes at once in the last hour before Shabbos.

(So, will you tumble out of orbit like a misaligned satellite if your child begins to cook while you are running in and out of the kitchen?)

As Randy Lazarus, my first Upper West Side Shabbos host told me during the summer of 1997, “No matter what time Shabbos starts during the year, we are always rushing to get ready.”

Why is that?

It’s about time.

I could cook everything the night before … but what would be the fun in that?

(Ummm, your wife would disagree.)

How so?

(Not everything needs to be a race to the finish?)

Are you insinuating that my life has become one giant triathlon?

(Well … it does appear so.)

No, no. I was like this before triathlon ever entered my life. If you are like me…

(Heaven help you.)

…then you understand perpetual motion.

(Yes, but you would be violating the first two laws of thermodynamics.)

The first law of thermodynamics states that energy, like heat, will pass into or out of a system, and the system’s own energy will change. You heat food, the food becomes warm. The energy is simply transferred and that is called the conservation of energy.

The second law of thermodynamics states that the entropy, or chaotic disorder won’t decrease due to contact.

(I’m confused and my brain hurts. Please explain.)

I believe that it’s in our nature not to sit still or stay in one place too long.

Even when we plant roots and move in, we keep moving.

We are still looking to grow. That’s why I decided to enroll in a PhD program while training for an Ironman triathlon, while working full time. I almost don’t know what it is like not to be involved in a project.

(But it’s summer. Teachers go on vacation now.)

I’m teaching at a summer school. In between those days I’m working on my term paper for my next grad course and working on my next article for The Jewish Link. I’m training for my next Ironman and planning my son’s bar mitzvah.

(Mazel tov! When is it?)

18 months from now.

(Why are you planning now?)

Whether I am swimming, biking or running, my brain is running like a car’s engine. It is during these long periods of training that in my mind I write my articles or in this case, my speech for my son’s bar mitzvah.

(You’ve written the speech?)

I felt it was about time…


David Roher is a USAT certified triathlon and marathon coach. He is a multi-Ironman finisher and veteran special education teacher. He is on Instagram @David Roher140.6. He can be reached at [email protected].

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