hard to believe?

ACCIDENT or meant to happen?       When I think of words and what they mean, I seldom see the words AND their meanings personified. On Sunday night, my partner and I experienced just that.

“All we have tonight are a pair of seats for $135 each,” said the woman selling tickets at Manhattan’s Spiderman box office.

We wanted to see the show that seemed doomed due to its dangerous stunts [Spider-Man' Accident Captured on Video - YouTube  ' Spider-Man' Accident Captured on Video ... ( Dec. 21) Category ...' Spider-Man' Actor Returns to See Show by AssociatedPress 19,334 views; www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3pKHSqhi4A]; we wanted to see what made it that way and what made people rave about it. But we weren’t curious enough to pay what they were asking.

So we walked out, regretting that we’d missed the earlier matinee of My Name is Asher Lev   [Broadway Buzz | My Name Is Asher Lev - Off-Broadway ... My Name Is Asher Lev on Broadway.com.], an adaptation of Chaim Potok’s book by the same name.

It had gotten colder; the wind felt stronger. I was about to suggest that staying inside for the evening might not be a bad idea when a tall young man in his late thirties approached us.

“Do you need a few tickets?” he asked in a voice no seasoned scalper would use.

Before we could answer, he added, almost apologetically, “I’m here with a group of students and two of them couldn’t come…”

We brightened, had a pleasant negotiation, then bought his two tickets.

“Where are you from?” I asked.

“Norfolk, Virginia,” he responded. Then he mentioned that the students he had brought were with a Jewish Academy there. “I’m a Rabbi,” he volunteered.

“Do you know Phillip Rovner? He’s my first cousin, with the Tidewater Jewish Foundation,” I said proudly.

“Yes!” he answered. “In fact, we’re working with him on a project…”

We spoke for a while longer and were pleased to find that we almost sat next to each other in the balcony. Our seats were perfect. We saw everything we’d wanted to see about the mechanics of the show.

So did the five and six year olds who sat in front of us. They were mesmerized; we wondered why OSHA hadn’t made the show put up safety nets.

Of course, we didn’t ask each other about that until after the show. Before then, we were too busy watching.

It was no accident that the Rabbi and his group were too!

                                                 B. Koplen 1/22/13