$168,000. That’s what I paid for my condominium, a place with two bedrooms, a self-cleaning oven, an innovative tool closet, and a view overlooking the captivating and ceaselessly moving Highway 401.
Despite what Mordecai Richler said through his character Duddy Kravitz’s grandfather: “A man without land is nothing,” I never felt compelled to buy my own place. That is, until now.
First, I have always been domestically challenged and have no idea how to repair my broken electrical fireplace. Further, after spending $300,000 on rent, I always figured owning a dwelling is not a financial investment. One rarely, if ever, sells their home and cashes in; instead they move into bigger place with a larger mortgage and more floor space to fill with additional furniture.
Does real estate always appreciate? Ask the woman who bought a place in Miami Beach a couple of years ago, how she is feeling today. Lousy is my guess. Purchasing my place was not as a financial investment. So why did I finally take the real estate plunge and become a home owner?
I am now a father, and my reality has shifted with Noah in it. The world with Noah seems safer. It seems more dangerous. I now view life as a parent. I want to share with Noah the Tao of the 401 traveller who passes before us and experience the hardy sense of happiness and security that comes with every giggle and laugh as we watch. I want to open our windows and doors, step outside, and invite the world in.
I now view life as a parent and am petrified at hearing the news of a child dying anywhere. It makes me ill, sick to my stomach, and I want to lock the three bolts on my front door to keep the bad away and protect my little boy in our home.
Owning a place and being Noah’s father encourages me to think about my personal space in a different way. The earth is ultimately not ours at all. I know that. It is God’s. Yet I believe it does exist for me, and for you. I believe the leaves, the dust and the rocks call out to us to plant our garden or build our fence, to buy a place so we can control our environment in a way that reflects who we are; enables us to plant a tree, which nobody can uproot, for generations to come – for Noah.
Could I be as good a parent renting instead of owning? Of course. I have friends who prove this in a big way. But now that I own my condo, now that Noah’s bedroom is truly his, I have this notion we are just a little bit more alive.
When considering why I finally bought a place, I wondered why it was important for the Jewish people to have a homeland – the State of Israel. Clearly, Israel is our safe zone, a haven for any Jew. It is also there, and nowhere else, inside Jerusalem-stone hovels, that Jews can actualize our spiritual and creative way, to blossom in our own place, which nobody can take away.
And then, you know, I thought about all of these reasons just a little bit more and remembered the Jews of Poland, Hungary and Germany who also had warm, cozy homes and likely felt the same thing as I do today, until someone else felt otherwise. My belief in ownership, it seems, is an illusion. It is then a daydream that has prompted me to buy a condo, to own a place of my own.
I am 47 years old and just bought my first property. Something about it feels right. Something about it seems very temporary. Unlike the homeless, I am now “home-full.” $168,000 later, what does that mean?
[email protected] Sderot/Sudan? The address of my blog is: avrumrosensweigideas.blogspot.com.
