I was born of a human mother on April 26, 1951. My mother was born of a mother from the same species some twenty-one years earlier. My mother’s mother has a similar origin, and this goes back awhile until we get to my great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great grandmother, who was an ape. She too came from a mother, and as best I can tell, it is mothers all the way down to the original Virgin Birth: the Big Bang some 13.8 billion years ago.
I’m a late bloomer and didn’t do much for most of these 13.8 billion years, but in the last four decades I managed to earn rabbinic ordination from Hebrew Union College and a PhD from Union Graduate School, create a synagogue, work as a management consultant for Fortune 500 companies, teach Comparative Religion at Middle Tennessee State University, author the Roadside Assistance for the Spiritual Traveler column for Spirituality & Health magazine, host the magazine’s weekly podcast, Essential Conversations with Rabbi Rami, found the One River Foundation, get initiated into the Ramakrishna Order of Vedanta Hinduism, and publish some thirty or so books. Today I am a freelance holy rascal making my living writing and talking. I know, I can’t believe it either.