There’s a beautiful line in a recent New York Times movie review of The Worst Person in the World, named one of the best movies of the 21st century: ÒA life lived robustly is bound to include some detours.’

Sometimes, we choose detours voluntarily while other times, detours are forced upon us. Either way, life rarely turns out the way we hoped or imagined. As the famous Yiddish phrase goes: Mann Tracht un Gott Lacht. ÒMan plans, God laughs.’

It’s hard to believe God is laughing at the way things have been going in our country lately. Some detours are one-way streets. ÒThat which has been twisted cannot be fixed’ (Ecclesiastes 1:15). Have things become hopelessly broken, beyond repair? Is it too late to course correct?

What is funny is that we continue to try to predict where this all leads. Whether we’re hopeful or hopeless, many of us try to anticipate a future that hasn’t yet come to pass.

The High Holidays are a time of heightened anticipation. A new year brings new possibilitie