Samain and the Choice Moon
Sunday gratefuls: Ruth and Gabe. Jon, their father. Leo. Luke. The Snow and cold. Warmer though this morning. The beauty of the Arapaho National Forest after a Snow storm. All those cars in the ditch yesterday morning. Thai 202. Really good food. Last night with Ruth and Gabe. Blizzaks on Ruby, her sure footedness in the Snow. Hanukah. The dog menorah. Hanukah presents. Puzzles for Gabe. Resist earrings for Ruth. Money. Hanukah of 2016, of blessed memory for Ruth and Gabe. The coffee table piled high with gifts.
Sparks of Joy and Awe: Family and Friends
One brief shining: Ruth took four purple candles out of the box, Gabe wanted them his favorite color, starting from the right she placed them one, two, three, then lit the shamash and set candles for the third night burning, setting the shamash in its position of prominence in the center, ready if the others wink out to relight them, and finally we got to the presents, but the lights which cannot be blown out then had to burn until done, meaning we couldn’t leave for dinner for another half an hour.
Ruth came up around noon yesterday, just before Vince got to my driveway. Not sure how much Snow we got, maybe 8-10 inches. Vince had an Arctic Cat with green fenders, pushing snow back, back, back to the edges of the driveway and beyond. So good to have a reliable Snow plow guy.
Today would have been Jon’s 55th birthday. The impact of his death still reverberates through the hearts of Ruth and Gabe in ways I cannot discern. Thus in mine as well. My son is near the end of the probate journey then he’ll serve as custodian of Jon’s estate. And, of course, Jen has both of them at home full time now.
Death is an end for only the one who has died. They check out forever from Hotel Life, which, unlike the Hotel California, you have to leave. The living though. Death goes out in ripples like a boulder thrown in a pond. Not a gentle moment of leave taking but a violent fall into the emotional center of the soul. At least for some.
Antisemitism. The old hatred. Burnished and polished by those who need scapegoats for their own fears since ancient times. Pogroms. The Holocaust. Ghettos. That synagogue in Pittsburgh. Weirdly, the Greek Orthodox Church here in Denver which sits very close to the Jewish Community Center. A while back some antisemites mistook it for the JCC and vandalized it instead. Guess they missed the crosses all over its buildings.
Whenever conflict flares in the Middle East, conflict that involves Israel, antisemitism increases in the U.S. It is difficult to be clear about how one feels about the current war. Just ask the former President of Penn State. I’m pro-Israel, anti-Hamas, pro-Palestinian, and anti the violent, disproportionate response of the Israeli government in Gaza. How do you make those distinctions in a succinct manner? Especially during a protest. Of course pro-Palestinian. The poor benighted Palestinians have not had a good experience for a long, long time. Even preceding 1948.
