"There are emergency exits in the Southeast and Southwest sides of the room..."
Every year, a temple comes to the Planetarium to celebrate a Havdala service. (I hope I spelled that correctly.) They have done this for many years -- since before I worked here. In fact, Jennifer, an ex-Planetarium director, comes to perform most of the science end of the program. The rabbi and other members of the temple do parts of the program, as well.
Basically, a 'standard' program is done, about stars and planets and stuff, and then the religious folks come in and talk about how it relates to the Jewish faith, and then an actual service happens. Part of which is the lighting of a big candle.
This ALWAYS makes me nervous. It's big and smoky. I am always afraid that the sprinklers are going to kick in.
The rabbi, David, lit the candle this year, as he always does. My gut clenched up, like it always does.
I need to set a little bit of the scene now: He is on one end of the room, standing behind a lab table. I am on the opposite side of the room behind the control panel. On the table is the lit candle.
Rabbi David says, "Wow! I bet this would look great in the middle of the room." To me, he calls, "Would it be OK if I moved the candle to the middle of the room?"
I yelled across to him, "I guess so. We've never done it before, but we can try." I actually thought this might be better -- in the middle of the room, the ceiling is WAY up there, nice and far away from the flame. "Before you do, I want to remind everyone that there are exits on both sides of the room." Everyone got a chuckle at this, which is what I intended.
So David picked up the tray with the lit candle, turned to carry it around the table, and the candle tumbled right off the tray he was holding. I watched it disappear behind the table.
The next thing I see is David and another person stomping away behind the table. I just put my head in my hands -- I couldn't watch.
(Damage report: There was not much -- it appears that they just managed to scrunch some melted wax into the carpet.)
David then says, "I think maybe I'll just keep the candle up here."
"I like that idea," I told him.