I HAVE A draft of a personal essay about my relationship to Judaism that I keep meaning to get back to. I want to write about what it's like being "half" Jewish—and, according to some, not being truly Jewish at all, since my mother is a gentile. Of course this essay would have to bring in my dabbling in other religious traditions, i.e. Lutheranism, Unitarianism, and Zen Buddhism. I'm restless by nature, a spiritual seeker, but not a joiner, and that can be a problematic combination. In any case, this essay is a BIG one to tackle and I can never quite seem to find the right way to enter into it.
I hosted my first seder last weekend and loved it. It was the opposite of "order," which is what seder means, and there is much room for improvement. But I plan to persist. I don't know of any other holiday that quite combines so well history, tradition, interpretation, and the teaching of young kids.
Also, food. If there is one way I benefitted from being Jewish and Lutheran, it is from feasting on different occasions in various culinarily specific ways. My Jewish grandfather used to bring us fancy cakes shaped like lambs on Easter and my Lutheran mom made matzoh ball soup at Passover. I'm no food writer (for that, I recommend my cousin Colin's excellent newsletter, Salt Pig) but I celebrate the relationship between food and ethnocultural traditions.
Anyway, herewith, a rough-and-tumble comic about the seder.
To be continued, I guess?
Three Things That Kept Me Going This Week
- Ronnie Yates continues the fine poet-critic tradition with his review of Paul Hester's photographs in Glasstire. Yates just casually tosses around gorgeous phrases like this: ". . . the darkened monument behind, dumb with its riddle, seems almost unmoored, floating in space." And the photographs themselves are mysterious and unsettling, well worth a look.
- I finished Demon Copperhead last night, and the ending made me cry. I can't believe how long it took me to finish it (two months!), but that has nothing to do with the book and everything to do with my current reading habits, which need a lot of work.
- Michaela found a new show for us to watch as a family, Davey & Jonesie's Locker. We only watched the first episode, so I will reserve judgment for the moment, but that one episode was entertaining and extremely silly.
Hope you all have a wonderful early May weekend!
xo,
Claire