Daily Archives: December 8, 2012

Sport
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Samhain                                                            Thanksgiving Moon

Watched two documentary type movies:  The Go Master and First Saturday in May.  The first about a Chinese go master who lived in Japan during the years of World War II.  The second about the Kentucky Derby.

On the surface of course these movies were, quite literally, worlds apart.  The quiet, almost religious world of professional go, played in tatami matted rooms with exquisite stone gardens nearby.  Asian.  Filled with deferral.  Lots of tea.  On the other hand, the white steepled haunts of Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky.  The long brass horns of the race track.  The equally brassy trainers and owners.  Big hats, sweet tea and Jack Daniels.  And, horses.  Large, muscled, fast.

Yes, those surface differences are there.  Surfaces matter of course, we all know they do.  Perception, as many political strategists say, is everything.

Yet.  The thoroughbred straining at the starting gate and the kimono clad go master gathering his first stones in his hand are the same.  A single focus.  To win the contest.  Rituals and traditions that surround both activities, though different in length of historical precedence. The time to prepare for excellence cannot be shortened.  Both represent central aspects of their particular cultures.

 

 

 

Commentary on Religion, Faith and Spirituality

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Samhain                                                             Thanksgiving Moon

It is the first night of Hanukkah.  I recommend this op-ed piece in the NYT to clarify the roots of this most well known of Jewish holidays and perhaps its most misunderstood.  We celebrate Hanukkah here and by mail with the grandkids.  Dreidels and menorahs and the evening lighting of the candle.  Kate recites the prayers in Hebrew.  Sometimes I join in.

Judaism has always felt right to me.  I love the sonority of Hebrew, the unflinching demands for social justice, the beauty of the torah scrolls and the long unwinding of Jewish history that they represent.  Judaism has an authenticity rooted in its long, well-documented history and in its adherents who, whether observant or not, often not, still retain its cultural stamp.

You can do much worse than basing your life on the Exodus story, the patriarchs of Genesis and their powerful wives, the story of Deborah, driving tent spikes into the head of an enemy commander.  These are powerful stories, people shaping and people making.

The holocaust, of course, burns with the most intense heat in near time history.  Its memory, which could have been paralyzing or demoralizing, found Jews and their allies worldwide declaring, Never again.  Out of that awful moment came, after a difficult birth, the nation of Israel.

While I may have differences with Israeli policy and strategy concerning Palestine, and I do, I fully understand and celebrate the homeland for this wandering people; fated, it seemed to live only in diaspora.

Jewish or not, lift a cup of cheer and good will each time you see a menorah over the next few days.  Celebrate this people and their often surprising stories of survival against long odds.  Hanukkah is one such story.