How seriously should we take our own minor disappointments and how seriously should we take other people’s minor disappointments. Last month along with 85 other people I was fired from volunteer job at the Spring Mountain Ranch, the oldest homestead (circa 1875) in Southern Nevada and also a celebrity ranch. Owners over the years included Howard Hughes and Vera Krupp.

All organization started by any group of people are prey to jealousy, resentment,  and senseless rivalries. The Nevada State Park System is no exception to this rule. Some individuals in the Nevada State Park System allied themselves with a small faction in our organization, the Spring Mountain Docents against other employees in the Nevada Park System.

There was a coup staged by the upper echelon of the Parks Service. They ordered the Docents disbanded . There is a smaller  volunteer organization at the Ranch, VIP, Volunteers in Park. The organization is limited to 25 members. The more active and knowledgable volunteers are not welcome in the organization. By knowledgable and active, I mean the kind of person who know the name of every type of rock and plant at the Ranch and loved sharing this knowledge.

Firing a volunteer tour guide is not the worst of fates.  The destruction of a small volunteer organization is not a great tragedy.  I’ll miss the four or five hours I spend at the ranch. And the public will loose a valuable service.

When I was young, about 8,  my parents belonged to a  reformed Synagogue. The board fired the Rabbi. My parents sided with the fired rabbi and joined his new, much smaller synagogue. A couple of years later they rejoined their older larger synagogue.

I never know the reasons for the split. My  sister who is older and reliable source for all thing that happened to our family when I was young, said she had no idea what the caused the split.

Was this split the beginning of my disillusion with organized life? Probably not. Still this incident must have some effect on me.

The old synagogue is no longer a reform congregation. It’s now a Bukharan Jewish Synagogue. I don’t think any of us would have known about the Bukharan Jews in the 1950’s, even as a minor somewhat exotic branch of Jewish culture.