Inside Outside - It's All the Same Thing

How would you like it if someone gave you a gift of beautiful gold, but when you scratched the surface you found out it was really made of wood?  How would you like it if someone told you how much he or she loved you, but then you noticed the person looking at his or her watch as they said the words? (kind of like a lot of us do at prayers!) It seems fairly self-evident that what we all seek most in life is authenticity -- that our relationships with others will be as real on the inside as they appear on the outside.  And that the responsibilities we have each day will somehow align with our deeper values, and give us a sense of meaning in terms of how we are living our lives and spending our time. But yet, we often feel as if we are living our lives in the shallow end of the pool, with only our legs getting warm while the rest of our body shivers in the wind. But what if the problem was not with our lives, but rather with how we are looking at things? Attached please find the shu-shine for the Torah portion of 'Terumah': "Inside Outside - It's All the Same Thing".       (click “Listen Now”, below!) May we all be blessed to see all the world as precious as gold, especially when gazing at the person in the mirror. This Shu-Shine is dedicated to my dear friend Stephen Neuwirth, who knows a golden Kiddush when he hears one, even if the Rabbi standing next to him has ear-plugs in his ears.  It is also dedicated to my lifelong friend Rachel Levitt Klein, who has always encouraged my spontaneous analogies. With Love and a Smile, ~Shu