The Burrow

Monday was Yom Kippur. Senior year in high school I wondered aloud why turning down the corner of a pledge marker during the service was allowed, since it was obviously work and dealing with money.  Freshman year in college I broke the fast at an all you can eat chicken place. Junior year I sat on my bed and contemplated my life, then went out with TBG and had a great time, with only a modicum of guilt. I could always find a free place to pray with others as I aged, although the urge to do so has withered on the vine.   Not so the need/desire/opportunity/tradition that has me spending a good portion of today thinking about my life, my friends, my community, my country, the air that we breathe, and the coming AI Apocalypse. Where do I fit in?  What can I do better?  How scared should I be and what should I do about that? It's an interesting exercise, having nothing to do with bribing God to inscribe me in the Book of Life for another year.  I'm not living to...

Certain issues require top notch outrage.  Guns, reproductive rights, education, exercising the franchise .... these are Outrage 1.0.  I wax eloquent on those subjects and I expect that people will listen.  I'm expressing an opinion on topics of vital interest to every sentient being on the planet. Agree with me, disagree with me, but please engage with me in these important conversations; that is what makes our democracy flourish. And then there are those things which just make us nutty.  Asiago Bagels are a prime example.  Along with Blueberry Bagels, they fly in the face of what makes a bagel a bagel.  It's boiled dough with some stuff stuck on the outside..... as long as that stuff is a poppy or sesame seed or an onion.  Beyond that, they are some kind of gluten, but they are not bagels.  This is Outrage 2.0 And so, today, as TBG began to riff on Hat Discrimination, I took notes.  It was classic Outrage 2.0. laughed through every minu...

I went to church on Sunday.   I felt no strong pull to attend synagogue, despite the High Holy Days and Days of Awe which my family and friends are celebrating this week. I've been speaking to my heart this week, examining corners and wondering where the new year will take me, but I've been unmotivated to pray in public. There was nothing for me to say, there. Today is Christina-Taylor's birthday, though, and last Sunday was the second Sunday in September, the day on which a mass is celebrated in her name. So, there I was, at St. Odilia's, her family's church, two traffic lights away from the Safeway where bullets took her from us. Honestly, I'd rather have been at her 12th birthday party. But, the day and time were announced on Facebook, and everyone was invited. I rolled out of bed and through the shower and my closet without thinking too much. I was in the parking lot fifteen minutes later, leaving my car next to her parents' car, and in front of ...

The Chief Dispenser of Care at G'ma's pod-castle asked if we had plans for tonight. There were 2 other Jewish ladies in the Community and, if I had no objections, the pod-castle would like to invite the 3 of them to a special Rosh Ha'Shana dinner in a neighboring pod-castle. All on their own, in a decidedly un-religious-though-leaning-towards-Christian environment, they are going out of their way to give G'ma the kind of experience she had when she managed her own living space. They thought it would make her happy. Any doubts I had about the wisdom of this move have vanished. L'shana tova tikatevu - May you have a GREAT new year, filled with sweetness and joy.