Breathing

I bought this painting a few weeks ago from a friend, but only took possession today. Due to poor planning, I had to bring it home on the train, which earned me a few odd looks. (It's 30"x24"!) I really love it. 

Places to go

I think I posted these before, but I couldn't find them in the 10 seconds I looked, so here they are again.

Places I've been

Places to go

The sad part is, for an American I'm quite well travelled, but for a European I'm quite pathetic.  Even worse, the more places I see, the more I want to see, so "Places to go" will never get smaller!  Not that I'm helping--my next six trips are all to places I've been before.

Places I want to go, in no particular order:

• Mojácar, Spain
• Istanbul
• Moscow
• Cairo
• Sydney
• Kerala
• Yellowstone
• Victoria, BC
• Athens
• Black Forest
• Dublin
• Norway (Aurora Borealis/fjords)
• Mount Rushmore
• Inside Passage
• Galápagos Islands
• Taj Mahal
• Machu Picchu
• Beijing/Great Wall
• Fallingwater
• Bar Harbor, ME
• Giant's Causeway
• Havana
• Tokyo
• Bilbao, Spain
• Nicosia
• Sainte-Chapelle
• Lewes, East Sussex (bonfire night)
• Marrakech
• New Zealand
• Quebec
• Belize City
• Rio de Janeiro
• Bangkok
• Shanghai
• Kowloon
• Taiwan
• Dubai
• Vienna
• Austria
• Florence
• Berlin
• Krakow
• Budapest
• Walt Disney World
• Mauritius
• Madagascar  
• Kruger National Park
• Tunisia
• Nice
• Iceland  
• Hyderabad
• Malta
• Andalucia
• Seville
• Melbourne
• Trans Siberian Railway

 

What I believe

You knew someone was going to challenge me as to what I do believe about Judaism.  Since Maimonides listed 13 things, I guess I should do the same.

1. I believe in marking the shabbat, to differentiate between the workweek and the weekend.  I don't believe in the orthodox interpretation of "work," but I also believe it has to be more than just not going to work.  Ideally it's a day set aside for friends and family, and doing things that are pleasurable, not chores such as shopping and cleaning.  (That's what Sunday is for.)
2. I believe in Friday night supper.  Partly for the above reasons, being with others, lighting candles, expressing gratitude, and eating--what better way to mark the shabbat?
3. I believe in not eating wheat during pesach.   Again, I don't accept the Orthodox interpretation of "wheat" as any grain, and I'm perfectly happy eating oatmeal, although I will avoid making cakes or breads using wheat-free substitutes, because I think that violates the spirit (if not the letter) of the law.  I also believe in a communal seder, although I don't celebrate pesach for two days, and I don't take the last day off work.
4. I believe in fasting for Yom Kippur.  Yes it's unpleasant, but once a year is a small sacrifice, and doing it as a community is amazing.  In addition to Yom Kippur and Pesach, I also take a day off work on Rosh Hashanah, and I mark Purim, Shavuot, Tu B'Shevat.
5. I do go to synagogue on Tisha B'Av, which marks the destruction of the two Temples, although I don't fast. My synagogue also remembers the Holocaust on this day, which is important to me.  (There is a separate Holocaust Memorial Day but Tisha B'Av is the historical day of mourning for Jews, and so seems more appropriate to me.)
6. I believe in being an active member of my synagogue.  No I don't go religiously (pardon the pun) and yes, I never intended to sign up for security duty at my synagogue, but I still try to go often enough to be recognised.
7. I believe in publicly displaying my faith in the form of a mezuzah outside my front door.
8. I believe in recognising the anniversary of someone's death (a yahrzeit) by lighting a candle.
9. I believe in tzedakah, or charity.  Sadly, this hasn't always been the case, but I am working on it.
10. I believe the ability to make something "holy" (separate) is what separates humans from other animals, and that the act of doing so not only connects us to our community, but to our soul.
11. I respect--although I don't understand--the biblical dietary laws regarding what is kosher.  As a vegetarian, it is largely an ecumenical matter, but I think the current interpretation of kosher is facacta.
12. I support circumcision (although I suspect this is largely because I'm American, not Jewish).
13. I believe in Israel's right to exist (but then again, I always believed that).  I don't necessarily agree with their politics, but I respect it as a democracy.

Some things I don't believe:

1. I don't believe most of the Orthodox method of celebrating Judaism, but then again, most Orthodox Jews don't celebrate Judaism that way, either--they just refuse to acknowledge that they are progressive/reform.
2. I'm conflicted about Hanukkah.  It was an Israeli war of independence (one of the few successful ones) and perhaps that should be celebrated, not some nonsense about holy oil. That said, almost every culture has some sort of festival of lights and gift-giving during the winter period, and so taken that way, it's perfectly acceptable.
3. I haven't yet celebrated Sukkot, which is is a shame because a) it's one of the three major festivals in the bible, and b) it's part of the annual cycle, and c) it's a reflection of an agricultural past.  I also haven't celebrated simchat torah.
4. The counting of the Omer seems silly to me.

The elusive now

I am forever seeking, chasing, grasping the elusive now, only to find it constantly slipping away. I want it, but in the wanting I lose it; I find it, but lose it in the recognition. In writing about it I only crystallise its absence, tracing the shape of a hole.

That is the gift others give me: a moment of calm, a moment of excitement, a moment of joy--the moment of the elusive now. I cannot hold it on my own; there is always too much to do, too much to plan, too much to worry about.

If I could express what a relationship is to me, it is a fixed point in time. It is a chain linking me to my past. It is the knowledge that there is something outside of me, and that it is more important than I am. And in that act of selflessness, I gain everything. My senses leap to life, the past and future disappear, and I am in the elusive now.

It won't last; I wouldn't want it to. There is too much to do, too much to plan, too much to consider. But it is enough to know that while I can't catch the elusive now, at any moment someone, anyone, may give it to me.

T-shirts

I've been wearing t-shirts since 1998, when I was posted to northern California for 6 months and realised my winter clothes in Los Angeles were not warm enough for summers in San Francisco.

I've always bought Hanes t-shirts, and even while I've been in the UK I've continued to buy my clothes in the States (primarily because it's so much cheaper).  But recently -- through a lack of planning -- I was forced to purchase some t-shirts in the UK, and I found them to be less soft, more scratchy, and they made me feel much more manly.

It took me a while to realise that what I was experiencing was not some primitive, barbarian need to wear inferior clothing.  It was the memory of my father's t-shirts, which my brother and I occasionally wore as nightshirts when we were small.

There are many ways to measure a man, but the only way for a man to measure himself is against his father. 40 years ago, his shirt swallowed me whole. Today I know, even though he isn't here and these aren't his shirts, I still feel like a man.

What Jews believe

It's mind-boggling that for a 5,000-year-old religion, it wasn't until the 12th century that anybody set down what Jews should believe! (And even then it was ignored for several more centuries.)  Maimonides was a Sephardic (Spanish) rabbi at the time when European Christians were taking back the Iberian peninsula from the Muslim Moors, so you can imagine the religious conflict, and the need to set out a defining set of beliefs to set themselves apart.  Unfortunately, while the Christians and Muslims can squeeze their 'elevator speech' into a single statement of belief, Maimonides came up with 13:

1. G-d is the Creator and Ruler of all things. He alone has made, does make, and will make all things.

2. G-d is One. There is no unity that is in any way like His. He alone is our G-d. He was, He is, and He will be.

3. G-d does not have a body. Physical concepts do not apply to Him. There is nothing whatsoever that resembles Him at all.

4. G-d is first and last.

5. It is only proper to pray to G-d. One may not pray to anyone or anything else.

6. All the words of the prophets are true.

7. The prophecy of Moses is absolutely true. He was the chief of all prophets, both before and after Him.

8. The entire Torah that we now have is that which was given to Moses.

9. This Torah will not be changed, and that there will never be another given by G-d.

10. G-d knows all of man's deeds and thoughts. It is thus written (Psalm 33:15), "He has molded every heart together, He understands what each one does."

11. G-d rewards those who keep His commandments, and punishes those who transgress Him.

12. The Messiah will come. How long it takes, I will await His coming every day.

13. The dead will be brought back to life when G-d wills it to happen.

Needless to say, I completely reject all of them.

Summer

I know I schedule way too much, but I can't help it--there's too much I want to do, and never enough time.  So here's what I've got going on for the next four months. 

June
8 Dress Rehearsal for Queen's birthday parade (I couldn't get tickets for the actual parade)
9 Comedy Store Players, Regents Park
12 Moody Blues in Manchester
15-16 Up north (Peaks district?)
20-25 in London (babysitting a hotel)
24 Steve Winwood (will have to miss this one :-( )
29 Mindy Smith in Leeds
30 Chagall exhibit in Liverpool?

July
6-7 Bournemouth? (Mary Rose in Southampton)
12-15 Manchester Intl Festival
19 Uncle George yarzheit (provide kiddush)
21 Folk by the Oak
27 Cirque du Soleil
28 Village Pump festival (may pass--too expensive--but Kate Rusby is playing!)

August
3-4 Up north (Blackpool?)
10-17 Israel
23-26 Edinburgh Fringe festival
27-3 Sep My mom visiting?

September
4-5 Rosh Hashanah
13-14 Yom Kippur
15 Thames festival
21-22 Up north (Ironbridge?)

In fact, over the next four months, I will be at home for 35 days and away from home for 84 days!!

The sad thing is I've only got three "free" weekends up north.  In addition to the Peaks District, Blackpool and Ironbridge, I still want to spend more time in the Yorkshire Dales, visit the Lake District again, go back to the Wirral while it was sunny, take a ferry from Holyhead to Dublin, visit northern Wales in the summer, etc.  However, all good things must come to an end, and I am hopeful that by October* I will have a new job and will no longer be travelling. :-)

* My company has a *3 month* notice period, which means I need to have a firm job offer by the end of June in order to leave by the end of September!

Israel itinerary

I worked on my itinerary for Israel:

Fly from Luton to Tel Aviv on Saturday 10/08, arriving 7:30pm
Rent a car, drive to Mitspe Ramon (2 hours)
Stay at youth hostel for 2 nights
Sun/Mon: Explore the Ein Avdat and Ramon Crater; watch meteors in the evening
Tue: Drive to Tiberias on the Sea of Galilee (4 hours)
Wed/Thu/Fri explore Galilee/Golan Heights (1 hour drive everywhere)
Sat drive to Tel Aviv (90 minutes) via Nazareth
Return car, airport by 6pm
Return to Luton at 11:45pm
Estimated cost:
Flight; £396
Car £136 + £21 insurance
Youth hostel  £104 for 2 nights B&B
Hotel in Tiberias: £200 for 4 nights
Petrol: £150
Meals: £200
Airport parking: £26
Total: £1,226

(I will see if I can get that under £1,000.  I love meteors, but this is kind of excessive.)

You might notice two things:
1) I will be there for 7 nights, but only have a hotel for 6.  The youth hostel is not available on the 12th, and in any case I hope to be out all night watching meteors, so in the morning I'll just sleep in the car and then drive to Galilee.  I'll be on my own so I can do stupid things like this.
2) I'm avoiding the coastal cities.  That's because I've been reliably informed that in August, the heat and humidity will be awful!  The desert at least will be dry, and Galilee should be slightly cooler.

Unfortunately, this also cuts across two other trips I had booked: The Bristol balloon fiesta, and the Edinburgh fringe.  I don't mind missing the balloon fiesta, but I will try to reschedule Edinburgh.  Then my mother will either be visiting end of August or mid-September.  (The High Holy Days are in early September this year, and I'm assuming my mother doesn't want to visit while I'm fasting and being miserable.)

I'm quite excited, and will put in my leave request tomorrow...

Israel in August

I've been talking about going back to Israel ever since I first went, four years ago.  I finally decided it was going to be this year; the only question was when.

This weekend I was cleaning house and found a note that Jess had made, suggesting we go to Israel to see the Perseid meteor shower.

It was a brilliant suggestion then, and still is today.  It's just a shame I'll be going on my own.

The Perseids peak Monday 12 August, and of course August is the hottest month, with average temperatures of 30C (86F) so I'm not sure I'll want to spend too much time in the desert.  Fortunately, the north of Israel is quite quite green (or at least it was before they had those devastating wildfires a few years ago) so I've plotted a circular route into Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, go into the desert to see the meteors, then past Massada and the Dead Sea into Galilee and the Golan Heights, and finally back to Tel Aviv.

Israel is so small, all of that will take about 10 hours to drive.

Of course, that also takes me straight through the West Bank and puts me on the border with Syria, so maybe I should rethink this...

I love rape

I love the sight of it, vibrant and exciting. I love the smell of it, fresh and raw. I love the thought of it, and look forward to it all year, and relish it while it lasts. I only wish there was more rape in the world. I think everyone should experience its transcendental beauty. They say it's even good for the heart. 

P. S. I'm sure this will get me on every watch list imaginable.