Samain and the Winter Solstice Moon
Sunday gratefuls: Gabe and his beef stew. Gabe, Ruth, Jon. Jon and the zoom today. Family circling the wagons. The kitchen. The pause. Holiseason. Winter Solstice and the beginning of Yule on Tuesday. Christmas Eve present: Launch of the James Webb Telescope. That guy under the porch eating my neighbor’s chickens. (see pic) Seven lean years. Seven fat years? Kate. That sweety.
Sparks of Joy and Awe: Mountain Lions, our neighbors, too.
Tarot: Ten of Vessels, Happiness. wildwood
Took Jon, Ruth, and Gabe to Benihana. Not because I like it, I don’t, but because Gabe loves it. You can’t not have a good time here, he said. What a joint. All tepanaki tables. Could use a refresh. The latest reservation they had yesterday was 3:15 pm. Yet, the place had full tables. A perfect spot to contract Omicron. Not my brightest idea this year. A Hanukkah gift from me to Gabe.
And, it’s expensive! The food was ok. There was the usual clanging spatulas and forks. Food cooked in safflower oil right there. That’s what Gabe likes about it. Our cook spent most of his time talking with the nubile young lasses, three of them. A lot of smiling, joking, hair caressing. Even Ruth had that, oh my gosh he’s cute smile on her face.
In the morning I studied the Tree of Life Tarot spread. Luke Coaciello and I will have lunch on Monday. My first ever experience as a Tarot card reader will follow. I’ll have to use my notes because the Tree of Life spread has many, many permutations. It’s a spread that lays out the cards in the same structure as the Tree of Life. The cards’ meanings get changed, heightened, intensified by the sephirot on which they fall. 72 different Tarot cards and 10 sephirot.
I’m mildly excited to put my growing knowledge of Tarot to use. Have no idea if I’ll ever do another reading after this one.
Zoom call today with the sisters and Jon. Talk about how to help Jon through this crisis.
Gabe has begun to blossom. He cooks on his own, asks if he can help when he’s up here, thinks of others. Not sure what prompted this change, but it’s refreshing and encouraging. He thinks he might want to work at Benihana. Here he is the Benihana hat. A boy in his happy place.
Ruth has become a go to babysitter, making cash. Gives her a bit of freedom. She claims she’s going to help pay the insurance on Ivory, the Rav4 Kate and I gave to Jon for her to drive when she gets her license.
Sad that Sarah and Paul will not make it out here for Christmas. Looked forward to seeing them.
I sent out a letter yesterday about my idea for linking faith communities to the needs of the New Builders. I’ll close with a copy of it.
Rabbi Jamie, Luke,
Here’s the link that set me thinking. The New Builders. Levine is with Foundry Group, based in Boulder. At the time I didn’t realize the woman with him was the CEO of Sistahbiz A Denver based business accelerator for Black women. In my initial thoughts I imagined creating something like Sistahbiz. Not necessary.
Another key player here is EforAll, the Colorado extension of a Massachusetts business accelerator. Levine connected with EforAll through the story of a woman New Builder in Lawrence, Mass. Now they’re here, too.
This feels like a big opportunity to me. It’s the sort of thing I used to do in Minnesota. Get an idea, get some folks together, make something happen.
Rabbi Jamie mentioned getting Levine to come give a talk. Great idea. Putting New Builders into the CBE book club. Ditto.
Here are some baby ideas that I have. Others will occur to you two, to others.
First, I worked for two years on building a Minnesota equivalent to the fundacion grupo social in Bogota, Colombia. Here is their mission statement: Contribute to overcoming the structural causes of poverty to build a just, supportive, productive and peaceful society.
Google translate will help you if you don’t have Spanish like me.
This work included staff from Northwest Bank, the Roman Catholic Church, community organizations, and many Christian denominations. We failed because of the recession of 1988. Could still happen. The fundacion provides banking and business services to the poorest of the poor. And, was a while ago anyhow the 10th largest corporation in Colombia.
Second. A sit down with Levine, Sistahbiz, EforAll. Talk about how the faith community might help. Then, a sitdown with interested people from the faith community. Idea: create a way for churches and synagogues to contribute both capital and expertise for Black New Builders. I don’t know what it would look like. Might by a fundacion style banking institution. Might be something like S.C.O.R.E. Might be direct loans and/or investments.
Third. Minimalist. A public relations campaign to Denver Metro synagogues and churches about the possibilities.
Fourth. At some point the Denver Economic Development Office, the State’s too, should be brought into the conversation. Both will be flush after passage of Build Back Better.
There are lots of possibilities here. The aim, imho? Create a permanent, institutional presence that supports the small business dreams of Black men and women. That understands the structural dilemmas facing Black New Builders. That works at the roots of these problems.
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