Writing the good read
I understand that people of some faiths have problems with issues like marriage equality and abortion. I understand that those people may have the strongest belief that their faith is the one true faith, and that people who are gay are going against God’s law, that people who have abortions are killing a human being….
I really don’t know how it happens sometimes, how it ends up that I read a book from the pile next to the bed, and the next one I pick up relates to it — matches it in theme, style, subject. I don’t stack them up that way. Sometimes if there is a large number…
A few years back I picked up a really interesting book, Mystics, Mavericks and Merrymakers: An Intimate Journey among Hasidic Girls by Stephanie Wellen Levine. Essentially the published version of an academic thesis, Levine spent a year living among the young Hasidic girls of the Lubavitcher community in New York. I grew up in a…
The first day of spring may have arrived two months ago now, but today was the first really warm spring day in the Seattle area. The thermometer topped 70 degrees for the first time — briefly — and outside smelled of cut lawns and the lemony smell of things blooming. Let’s say tomorrow is the…
I need to come back to the issue of fair. I struggle almost daily with the fact that I can’t see “fair” in the world, that there isn’t an evident balancing out of good and evil. I want to see the people who do wrong brought to justice and those who do right rewarded. But…
Almost exactly six years ago, I stood on the bima at our synagogue and at the age of 40, was called to the Torah as a Bat Mitzvah. A little late, but I got there. My Torah portion was the Song of the Sea of Reeds when Miriam and the women sing with joy as…
I have to admit that when I read today’s NAIEW Words Matter Blog Challenge topic, I had to go to may quote book and look for one. I don’t usually remember quotes, except from movies, a few books, and things my mother repeated over and over in my childhood. So I looked under some of…
A few questions and comments: First, if this was a church or synagogue, would you still be opposed to this? Think hard before you answer. Be truthful. If so, you’re being hypocritical. Are you one of those people saying, “Anywhere but there”? Do you say you have nothing against mosques in general? You aren’t alone…