the assignment not taken

UPDATE: I added an explanation of what a "kiruv organization" is.

Before I begin, let me acknowledge that I can be stupid.

This post is in response to a question a friend asked on Twitter. In a conversation on that platform I twote that I could have been at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's first induction ceremony -- but that I turned it down. He asked how that happened. The story is too long to put on Twitter so here it is.

Back in 1986 I was in college. I was majoring in math -- hoping to become either a professor or an actuary.* I was also working at a college newspaper and doing some freelance writing, hoping to -- well, honestly, I'm not sure what I was hoping for in the writing arena.** I had developed a couple contacts at Tower Records' Pulse!, which was a monthly publication distributed at Tower Records' outlets. I had done a couple articles for them -- nothing earth-shattering.

I was surprised when I heard from a publicist -- I don't recall who the publicist was representing -- about how I was going to be covering the first induction ceremony for Pulse! That was news to me. I hadn't tried to get such an assignment, and no one at Pulse! had mentioned it to me. And it was getting close to the event. I assume that Pulse! had someone else covering the event until something fell through and they needed a replacement. I was a more-or-less known quantity, I was located in New York, and I had a pulse.

As a young music fan who was getting into rock journalism, but was still a nobody in that world,*** I should have been thrilled. Opportunity wasn't just knocking; it was kicking the door in.

But there was a problem. I had already paid for a weekend Shabbaton sponsored by The Center for Return. The Center was a kiruv organization at my college. I think it was Lubavitch-run, but it certainly had Hassidic influence. For those not familiar, a kiruv organization is one that reaches out to nonreligious Jews and tries to influence them to be more religious. Or even to get them to perform one religious act. I had become friendly with the Rabbi there -- part of the years-long adventure I had in sorting out my ambivalence about religion.**** I couldn't go to the induction ceremony and the religious event. I had to choose.

I chose poorly.

When I first told Blair about it, she was shocked. What had I been thinking? I still don't know. But more than that, she is amazed that no one in my world told me that I should choose the induction ceremony.

Stoopid...stoopid...stoopid.

*spoiler alert: I am, in fact, a professor or an actuary.
**spoiler alert: I'm still not sure what I'm hoping for.
***spoiler alert: I'm still a nobody in that world. Probably more so than I was then.
****spoiler alert: I'm not a very religious person.