Sunset Approaches

I was going to write about Shabbat, but now Shabbat is almost upon me and there's no time to write a lengthy thoughtful post. So I just thought I'd share some quotes I collected today. I love quotes and have been amassing them for 10 years (wow, I can't believe it's been that long). I must have 4 or 5 hundred by now.

This first one reminds me of a conversation I had with a French friend of mine some time ago, about how traveling can change one's perspective and how essential yet difficult it is to apply that wonder to the every day world around us.

"The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one's own country as a foreign land." -Gilbert K. Chesterton


This one reminds me of what I'm constantly struggling for in my life. Finding motivation is such a struggle, but it's a reminder that not acting has its consequences.

"We must all suffer from one of two pains:
the pain of discipline or the pain of regret.
The difference is discipline weighs ounces and regret weighs tons."
-Jim Rohn


And this is my favorite of today. It makes me smile, reflecting on the philosophizing I do so often.

"We are a species that needs and wants to understand who we are. Sheep lice do not seem to share this longing, which is one reason they write so very little."
Anne Lamott in "bird by bird"


Shabbat Shalom!

Happy New Year, World!

So a goal for myself in being here (here being my parents’ house in University Place, WA), was/is to write. I know I have a lot to say, but doesn’t everybody? I know I’m a decent writer, a good communicator, but what do I have to show for it? An NYU Masters degree from a program I often think wasn’t too worth it, with not even a thesis to show for 3 semesters of debt? But I suppose that’s just me being pessimistic.

It’s the new year, and I haven’t made any resolutions. (How is this week any different from last week anyway?) I’m notorious for making goals I never keep. But that doesn’t mean I can’t attempt another one, right? So here goes... starting today I’m going to try to blog every day until I find myself no longer living at my parents’ house. There will be no parameters, just a blog post every day. Woo-hoo! So here goes...

Today, aside from continuing to fight a hellish stuffy head cold I’ve had for 5 days, I’ve been thinking about the state of the world. Ha ha! Just a little thing like that, right? I watched a video sent to me by a friend about how both the wealth and life expectancy of people, pretty much across the world, have increased significantly in the last two hundred years. Incredible, huh? I want to embrace that optimism, I really do. I want to shove the statistics into the faces of all those cynics I know. But, thing is, I’m one of the cynics too. My educated mind asks, do those income amounts reflect inflation? Is a longer life expectancy something we even want, in a world where we consume resources like they’re never-ending? Our quality of life may be increasing, but at what cost? Will we even have an earth we can live on?

But somehow, the hopeful idealistic activist in me can’t help but want to work to change the world. Maybe it’s naive, but I think I can make a difference. Or at least I think it’s worth trying, because what else am I going to do? So I’m going to search for the most fulfilling work that helps people, no matter where it takes me. I’m going to let myself be brought to tears by organizations like Falling Whistles, and believe that the money they raise is really helping children. And not imposing some sort of western we-can-solve-the-world’s-problems mentality⎯ damn, can’t keep that educated cynicism down.

Ah well, we all got to work from somewhere, right?

Good Stuff in the World

"We hear every damn day about how fragile our country is -- on the brink of catastrophe -- torn by polarizing hate and how it’s a shame that we can’t work together to get things done, but the truth is we do. We work together to get things done every damn day." - John Stewart

I like this quote. It reminds me to be positive and cultivate amazement about all the ways people are suceeding all the time. Parents raise their children, incredible organizations help people in need, books are written, songs are sung, planes takeoff into the air, friends give each other advice, love is shared, 3-year-olds have birthday parties (like the one I attended this morning), and each of us wakes up each morning.

Let's celebrate our successes!

The Amazing Waffle Iron

My mom bought a waffle iron when she and my dad were living in a greenish duplex in Greenlake in Seattle, before I was born. It was $1.00 at a garage sale. This waffle iron has been cooking waffles for us for 28 years. I'm in a nostalgic mood, being home after adventures across the country and across the world. It's nice to know that as so much changes, there are simple delicious things that stay the same. Here's to blackberry waffles, maple syrup, warm sunday brunches, and beautiful Northwest mornings with people you love.

Longing

I'm in a serious longing state right now... longing for community, for home, for partnership, for true friendship, for peace/wholeness, for connection, for looking into eyes that I say "I know you", for nature's embrace... many things which seem just out of my grasp at the moment.

I feel it's important to find a balance between recognizing the longing- living in it, loving/embracing it, and then working to make it come together. Ebb and flow... perhaps it's all one and the same. Different sides of the same coin. Different views of the same glorious mountain. Without all the views, all the perspectives, we wouldn't have a whole.

But how do I settle in the balance?


Desert Rainbow, all part of the oneness:

Remembering

I've noticed that a lot of my fellow bloggers have already written about it, but I'm adding in my experience. Today was Yom Hashoah- Holocaust Remembrance Day. For all my struggles to find a Jewish community, feel comfortable and at home within Judaism, I have never had trouble connecting to stories of the Holocaust. Reading both Anne's diary and Number the Stars in 6th grade deeply affected my life and when I visited the Anne Frank Museum in Amsterdam 7 years ago, I cried pretty much from the moment I walked in until I left.

I often take issue with how the Holocaust seems to be a crutch for many Jews- the penultimate victim narrative that we just can't seem to move beyond. And what I see as an excuse for Israel to do things I do not agree with. But to be here for Yom Hashoah was a moving experience. At 10 am, sirens were sounded, and for a few minutes, everyone just stopped. I looked out a window at Pardes onto a busy street and I all I could think of was that Improv Everywhere stunt where a group of people suddenly freeze in the middle of Grand Central Station. It was surreal- things started to get quiet just before the siren started, then, suddenly, the wail of the siren began and people froze on the sidewalks, cars pulled to the side of the road, taxi drivers opened their car doors, got out and stood still. It was eerie, as time stopped in remembrance for a few moments.

Then just as soon as it had come to a halt, life picked right back up again. People slung their backpacks over their shoulders, hopped on their bikes, and continued on their way. Cars continued on the road, everyone went about their business.

Of all the communities devastated by World War II, Jews are the only one who have not yet recovered their population. We were 18 million prior to the Holocaust, and today we are 13 million.

I heard a survivor speak today. Soon there won't be any left. I will remember, and I will tell stories.

What is culture?

What makes us different? Why are those differences important? Why is it important to maintain cultural heritage/traditions/rituals? Specifically I'm thinking about Judaism, but I think these questions could be applied to anything. Judaism has existed for a long time. Why is it important that it keep existing? (There is the whole argument that Torah is truth, which is a huge huge one, and I don't mean to discredit it, but for the purposes of this line of thought, I'm putting it aside for now.)

Should Judaism be maintained just because it's been around for 3,000+ years? There are other things in this world that have been done for a long time that I don't think should continue. What does it mean for something to have cultural value? How does culture enrich our lives? 4 years ago in France I participated in an intercultural training for young adults from over 10 countries. As others shared their customs and cultural stories, I found little in "American" culture that was meaningful in my life. So my default for speaking about my traditions/heritage/etc. was Judaism. That's where I felt I had something meaningful to add to the conversation, to share in an exchange. Ok, so there's value, so these practices do enrich our lives. But what does that mean for how we treat other people?

It seems we need to belong to something in order to live comfortably in this world. We search for a town, an ethnicity, a club, a religion, a school, a family, a cause, an organization that we can feel an affiliation with. These communities form our identities, we feel lost without them. Yet, continually, over and over, throughout history and everywhere today, these affiliations perpetuate judgment through an us/them mentality. "I'm a democrat and if you don't agree with me, you're wrong." We belong to something to be able to say the other side is less than us.
What is a world without affiliations? Is it a meaningless colorless world? How do we get to a place where we are all looking out for the other? Where we don't shove aside someone in trying to get to a holy site? Where we don't make half-joking-but-still-cruel comments about members of our own community behind their backs or even to their faces? How do we get beyond our insecurities?

I have some ideas, but I'm really curious to hear what you think.