Robert J. Avrech: Emmy Award winning screenwriter. Religious Zionist. Republican. Movie fanatic. Gun owner. Helplessly and hopelessly in love with my wife since age nine.
It’s no secret that the various Israeli secret services are quite effective.
Ronen Bergman’s doorstopper of a book, Rise and Kill First: The Inside Story and Secret Operations of Israel’s Assassination Program, concentrates, obviously, on the enemies of the Jewish State who are chosen for assassination.
Bergman chronicles the awkward birth pangs of the intelligence services in pre-state Israel to the high-tech machinery that is now in motion.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKRZzvtFQw0[/youtube]
Today is our 38th wedding anniversary.
But as readers of Seraphic Secret know, I have been helplessly, hopelessly in love with Karen since fourth grade when I first saw her on the playground of our elementary school, Yeshiva of Flatbush.
Without Karen, I never would have accomplished very much in life. It was her faith that propelled me to become a successful Hollywood screenwriter. And of course, it has always been Karen’s common sense that has turned me from an irresponsible young dreamer into a man who willingly shoulders the complex burdens of life.
The other evening, Karen and I attended a dinner for the Orthodox Union where my Daf Yomi teacher, Rabbi Yitzchok Etshalom and his wife Stefanie, were being honored. At one point, I turned and gazed at Karen’s profile. Time seemed to turn liquid as present and past merged. For one hallucinatory instant, I saw Karen as the mysterious nine year-old, onyx-eyed beauty who captured my vulnerable heart.
I said to myself: “Karen loves me. Karen married me. We have built a wonderful life together. My world is complete.”
Here’s an excerpt from my eBook, How I Married Karen.
[Read more…] about How I Married Karen Thirty-Eight Years Ago Today
I have been in love with my wife Karen since I was nine years old, which is to say for most of my life. We were married in 1977. Today is our 35th anniversary.
I’m republishing the first and final chapter of my series How I Married Karen as a tribute to my wife without whom I am nothing.
Chapter One
The Rabbi’s Beautiful Daughter
She crosses my vision like a moon, nothing seems to touch her.
The new girl has thick black hair; dark, penetrating eyes that seem to look right through you. She has just transferred from Yeshiva Ohel Moshe to Yeshiva Flatbush. Her father is a rabbi in Bensonhurst.
Her name is Karen.
Consider this a footnote to my series: How I Married Karen.
First the song, then the story:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNdYJTY09T4&feature=related[/youtube]
A few days ago I was watching a movie when suddenly, in the middle of a scene, Dusty Springfield’s “I Only Want To Be With You” kicked in over the soundtrack. So riveted was I by the tune and the memories it evoked that the dialogue simply vanished.
I was thrown back to 1964, freshman year in high school, my schoolboy crush on Karen still a burning coal in my gut. I heard this song on the radio and it perfectly expressed the helpless and hopeless love I felt for a girl who didn’t even know I was alive. Now, married to that very girl, hearing it again, so many years later and so unexpectedly evokes feelings that I thought were lost.