Hearing Men’s Voices halted by order of the Police
When I arrived for a brotherhood event tonight after driving through deserted streets in a snowstorm, I saw 6 cars neatly parked and thought how macho it was to get a good attendance in the midst of very difficult driving conditions. You will see in the following that the local police also thought we were being a little macho…a little too much macho.
In another first for Hearing Men's Voices, Temple Israel of Sharon Massachusetts brotherhood Hearing Men’s Voices session was temporarily closed by the Sharon Police Department. We heard a siren and noticed blue lights flashing through the window. Soon came the dreaded knock at the door. Puzzled, we looked at each other. This occurred while we were discussing “Why don’t men seek health care?” One of the facilitators had just reviewed a study that gave the most common reasons men give for not going to the doctor, which were very similar to the ones the attendees had given. Somebody then mentioned that he didn't go because his mother said that he would be okay if he just had some chicken soup. This induced a tremendous amount of guffawing and suddenly things got out of hand.
We were asked in a polite, no-nonsense voice to get our cars off the street because they were an obstruction. There was some puzzled muttering as we slowly complied. It was slow because we had to dig out our gloves and hats out of the pile they were in and make sure that each person got their own shoes. The officer was heard to say thank you and a few people thought they heard him mutter under his breath “Don't let it happen again.”
It happened there was also a snow emergency. Parking was banned on the streets to facilitate snow plowing and sure enough there was a snowplow ready to clean up after we evacuated the area. Fortunately one of the attendees lived nearby and offered his capacious driveway which ended up holding six of our cars. We then stumbled back through the snow to get some more insight into our behavior as well as nosh on cookies accompanied by tea and coffee and schmoozing.
Aaron Ginsburg, Temple Israel of Sharon Men's Club