4.24.2008

I'm Only Jew-ish

(thanks and apologies to whoever - whomever? - I heard on the radio for that title!)

I live in a cohousing community, which is not as much naked hippie commune as people think, and no, we don't all live in the same house. But we do have a common house, where no one lives, but there's a kitchen and useful space for gathering. And we have meals together weekly, and tonight we had a mini-passover seder. With chicken curry. (Now you see where the "ish" comes in) And with a passel of small, impatient (is there any other kind?) children eagerly wanting to drink their grape juice, we chose the 2 minute haggadah. Have you seen it? Everything you needed to know, condensed: "We were slaves in Egypt. Now we're not. That's why we do this." (more thanks and apologies to who(m)ever actually wrote it!)

I'm technically not one of the chosen people - my dad is Jewish, my mom Methodist, neither are practicing, and I grew up around Hinduism and Buddhism and a mishmosh of other stuff. But. It was always something we celebrated culturally - I was one of those lucky kids, with all the presents and none of the services. And I've always been vaguely agnostic, though I went through phases - militant atheist, wannabe wiccan, and so on. As I get older (I'm halfway through my golden year - I turned 30 on the 30th!) I'm coming to realize that basically we know nothing, and there's an awful lot of inexplicable shit that happens. So is there something out there? I don't know. It's still no excuse for killing lots of people in the name of. But it is pretty damn amazing, when it comes down to it.

All in all, we had a grand old time, and ate yummy food, and the dog got the have the shankbone (which was really a dog bone). Let's hear it for the Jews!

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