Amazing what they can put on trains these days. Full living rooms with Televisions and radios. This chair I sit in - so soft and comfortable - makes me want to just sit here and dream.

I see some people to the right of me and I know that I love them but I just cant remember who they are. But its OK I act like I do and all I have to do is smile or sing a song for a couple of seconds and they are thrilled.

I see the towns passing by like the years of my life, like the people who shared my life...I want to stop and get off yet as hard as I try I cannot stop this train...

Its cold in here and I hear a door close somewhere in the distance and feel the warmth from the furnace driving this train.

"When do we pull into New York?" I ask and get a sad look from the man I know I should know but I just cant place him.
"We are home, pop." He answers.
"So when do we get off?" No answer. I close my eyes and I fall into a dream.

The fall board is closed, protecting the ivory keys which once sent the sounds of songs echoing through this room, this house, this city. The keys are broken…
Can you understand the song I am trying to play here, broken fingers touching broken keys on a piano long past its prime. Its a song I once wrote for you when you needed to hear something alive.
I can sense the walls closing in and the broken strings snapping as the chipped ivories fall to the ground beneath the pedals by my feet.
Little children – dancing to the music though the music is off. Can they sense the beauty that once sprung from these fingers, these keys – those strings? I hear in the distance sirens, echoing through the city, into this building and settling in this room.
My fingers have healed and the keys are still broken – can I play a song for you just to see you move slowly to the rhythm?
I once believed in forever – now the echoes are screaming a finality – but isnt it true that something written, something played and something enjoyed truly lasts forever?
Music with broken keys – has its own beauty, its own identity and thousands of meanings, emotions – like an old painting sitting on the corner of the room.
I sense your beauty…
Dance for me – though the darkness is thick I can still hear your heart beating like a metronome forever in time – come close let me feel your heart against mine…beating in rhythm as one.
The piano keys may be broken but the music will play on…throughout the halls, the streets and the canyons of this city. The echoes of love and laughter forever.

Freedom

I want to live my life based on peace, love and understanding. I want to look into the eyes of strangers and not judge them, even a little bit, based on their religion, race or beliefs.  
I want to live a life based on love.  
To sing songs like, "All you need is love," or even "Masters of War" and believe wholeheartedly in the words I am singing.  
I want to fight for the innocent women and children being *****, killed or perhaps even worse, kept alive, starved for food, air and freedom, in a lifeless life. In an uncaring world.  

I want to tell my French friend that Jews do not dislike the French, that we do not begrudge the fact that 35% of the French people think "Jews today, in their own interest, exploit their status as victims of the **** genocide during WWII," and 25% stated that "Jews have too much power in the fields of economy and finance."  
I want to be proud of the President of the United States for leading the world towards a better world. I want to say that Islam is a religion based on Love. But tell that to the millions of people who have had their lives turned upside down by cold blooded ****** in the name of their prophet.  
I want to believe that it is religious extremism across the board needs to be addressed and discussed. But it is not religious extremism it is Islamic Extremism only, that has brought us to live in a world where fear and vigilance have become words that surround us on a constant basis.
I want to tell Israel to take down the walls, to just get over the murders, the bombs, the rockets and the destruction of peace in their lifetimes, in their homeland. (Which, by the way, is 1/19th the size of California.  It is only 260 miles at its longest, has a 112-mile coastline, 60 miles at its widest, and between 3 and 9 miles at its narrowest! Surrounded by land occupied by 22 Arab states 640 times the size of Israel.)  
I never wanted Israel to destroy Gaza; but no country in the world, hell, no person living in a home that is constantly being bombarded with an aim to destroy, would show as much restraint as Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli Army did.  
Freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of ****** orientation. Freedom to assemble and to protest, to demonstrate and to mock or satirize anyone. That’s Israel.
Netanyahu, in his Christmas message to the Christians in Israel stated, "Here in Israel religious freedom is a sacred principle. Israel’s Christian citizens enjoy the full blessing of freedom and democracy. Their equal rights are enshrined in Israeli law."  
There are so many websites, news organizations and social site impostors who post and write about destruction caused by the U.S. and other democratic countries and equate them with the Islamic Jihadists and the Arab countries that bankroll them. There is a difference.  
The United States and its Allies are fighting against terror, against evil and against a ideology that is based on the destruction of all freedoms, lives and civilizations.  
The destruction of peace, love and understanding.  
I want to, I want to love all peoples.  
But more than that - I want to live, I want to be free from the vigilance and fear. I want to be free - and I believe that freedom should be fought for and should even be the excuse for war.  
I don’t want war - I really am a lover of all people. I want peace.  
But if it’s a choice between killing or being killed...I am going to do whatever it takes to live.  
A world without freedom, a world filled with fear and destruction is not a world that anyone should be part of.  

Freddyzalta.com

I was standing on the elevated train platform on Kings Highway and East 16th Street, waiting on the Q train to come and take me to where I needed to be. It was a late February Brooklyn morning and as I leaned over to see if anything was heading our way - I saw nothing but an empty track. The track rolls along an open path in plain sight, there are no obstacles - so if the train is 3 or 4 stops away - you will be able to see something moving in the distance and let out a breath and say, "About time."

Its not only a metaphor, by the way. The Q can mean "Queen" and the tracks can be a future that one is waiting on. In my case though - I was waiting for the train.

But there is a "Wait" that we all go through - we grow up dreaming of some sort of future and end up living a whole different life. No one is ever truly sure if the life that came through turned out better than the dream - but in each person's life there are countless dreams that constantly are born and alive. Still we continue waiting.

Some dreams can seem like a never ending nightmare where we are hoping for the alarm clock to wake us up.

Other dreams are like a perfect summer's day in June - that we spend the rest of the summer trying to duplicate only to end up falling short but having a good day none-the less.

Some dreams are like a Snow Day is to a child - no school and all play, mommy in the kitchen making some hot chocolate, TV humming in the living room as your sister or brother watch. You standing by the window watching the snowflakes congregating on the cars, trees and the streets.

Some dreams begin and end with no proof of ever taking place. I knew an older man who once told me that everything he had was taken away from him in Germany during the late 1930's and 40's. He was 12 years old, living with his parents and 6 brothers and sisters and getting ready to be Bar-Mitzva'd within a year. One night, they were taken out of their home by force - whatever possessions they had were left in their apartment. Within a month he was alone - his parents and siblings sent to different camps. He survived the war, barely, and found himself an orphan at 15 years old - with no siblings, pictures or souvenirs of a life and a future that had been stolen from him in plane sight. He moved to New York where he had an Uncle, got married and had his own children and grandchildren.

"But somewhere there are millions of souls still trying to get back what was taken from them. My soul was lost - from when I left Europe until I had my first child is all a blur to me. But when I saw my baby for the first time, snuggled in his blanket and safe from this world, I began to live again. I cried for hours, days hell even years. I began to feel and it kept me up at night - we all had dreams...but I had been given the life that so many had stolen from them."



"My eldest brother wanted to move to Jerusalem, my sisters wanted to get married and be mothers and wives - while my younger brothers wanted to just play. Just play - can you imagine something as simple as 'Just Play'? They all disappeared with no trace of ever having existed besides letters typed onto paper. Those letters cannot express the dreams, the joys, the fears they each possessed. The look my mother would give me when she was upset - it would send chills up my spine. The feel of my fathers beard against my face when he would kiss me as I lay sleeping..."

"My friends, who were all excited about getting bar-mitzvahed that year...they had dreams and aspirations back then as well. My friend Avram wanted to be a Doctor - can you imagine? A doctor? What if he would've been the Doctor who cured cancer? Instead the cures, the dreams, the aspiration lay in ashes on the ground. No proof of ever having had the parents or the day to day lives we enjoyed once upon a time. What we did have was our faith - that no one could ever take away"



I would always walk away from my old friend feeling that we have been given the opportunity so many have had taken from them. I would walk away feeling that I was a thief of time - having wasted was allotted to me. I would walk away in awe of people who were able to continue to have faith in a God who possibly fell asleep at the wheel.

This was a long time ago - maybe ten or fifteen years ago - I learned from him that we that nothing lasts forever. Not love, people, time, pain, sadness, joy, laughter - nothing is immortal - everything is transient - from one emotion to the next, from one second to the next - nothing stops moving, evolving, revolving or spinning in its place. The rivers keep flowing and the arms on the clock keep on moving - the sun rises, the sun sets, the moon rises and then goes away again. There is no certainties in this world - nothing, not even the sun. But faith - a true belief is something no one can ever take away.

So dream big, live bigger; love a lot and express it even more.

But if you take the time to soak it all in - to ingest and to invest in the stuff that is vital to existence - the stuff that "Dreams are made of."  You will find that there are things in life that not even time can take away.

Paint your masterpiece and paint it over and over again...that train will find its way towards you in time - all in its time.

March with me, let us sing songs and carry signs. Hold me, hold my hand let us chant healing words and walk into the light...arms locked.
March with me, in defiance of the hatred let us walk side by side. Look into my eyes and see that I am sincere, my heart cries out and my soul lives in fear.
March with me, not in front, not behind - but by my side...
As one...
As one...supporting the arm of Ms. Liberty...
Let me hold you as the cold wind begins to blow.
March with me my friend although no words have been exchanged.
Peace, love, acceptance and understanding...

In a city full of beauty, in a country full of life and a culture full of art and love - strangers have set foot upon the land - where poetry thrives, artists dream and music is composed.
They are burning the books and bringing the flames of hell upon the people...
They are covering the beauty so no one can see it and be tempted to take it away...
Children are shaking, the windows are breaking and the thunder is being silenced once again.
When will it end?
This hatred that is spreading like a cancer?
When will it end?
These questions which have no answers?
When will it end?
For the artist, the lovers and the romancers?
quand cela se arrêtera?
quand allez adorer revenir à la maison et dépasser la haine ?

I walked into the ballroom - surrounded by tuxedos and long revealing gowns. An orchestra was playing a song from Our Town. People stood together, as if protected from their fate. I looked towards the door, but I knew it was too late.
Too late to leave, too early to stay.

Play me that sad song the one we used to play.
Song called, "Evergreen" from another lifetime ago. Do you remember the way I held you as we danced so slow.

Where are you - is it too late for you to get here?
Is it too soon for you to believe?
I can see you standing against the wall - would you like to dance with me?

A piano is playing, an older man tickling the keys. playing a song for dancing, playing a song for you and me.

"Touch me in the morning..." We stood close together, through the window we can see the stormin'.
"Then just walk away..." Your arms around my neck, my arms around your waist.
"We don't have tomorrow..." I kiss your lips, I feel your tongue...
"But we had yesterday..." The piano stops and the orchestra is silenced.

The doors open and we walk our as one - tuxedos and long revealing dresses, piano man and the storm.

I put my arm 'neath yours - you place your head on my shoulder. The orchestra begins to play a song as we walk through the doors. The music fades as we walk in the rain - we walk towards a tree and we stand beneath it. The roots of our love keeping us warm - keeping us close.

Lightening and then Thunder - striking 100 times for you and me. While the old man sits by the piano - playing that old song for you and me.

Together through life - each other's stories run together like the days and nights of our time...our tree has blossomed and its growing so fast - if we don't have tomorrow our yesterday will keep our memory alive forever.