Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa & A New Year

So, Hanukkah started a couple days ago - it officially started at sundown on December 17th.

As a person lucky enough to be bestowed honorary Jew status (I'm not kidding - this is a thing), it was amazing to note that of the many many human beings with whom I interacted yesterday, there was only ONE person (out of easily 50) who knew it was the beginning of Hanukkah! He even knew enough to "Mazel tov" me!

I find that kind of pathetic and a little gross given the fact that you can turn on the radio right now and hear Christmas music 24 hours a day if you so choose. And the fact that all you have to do is look at a calendar and it tells you that Dec. 17 was the beginning of Hanukkah...

It's not that I mind Christmas music, I actually adore it! Takes me back to my youth when we'd attend Christmas Eve services at our local Methodist church. It was so pretty, and we'd get all dressed up and everything was sparkly and the CHOIR and the ORGAN!! OOooooo, I loved it!

The Jews, however, get kinda screwed. No tree, no observance of their particular religion by the masses (unless you live in Swampscott or Marblehead!) and they have to listen to Christian people gush on and on about all of their parties and gifts and the big tree and the stores piping in Christmas music and the red and the green everywhere!

It's not that one is better than the other, that's not what I'm saying. I'd just like a little more awareness of what other people do! And I think KUDOS to the Jewish who put up with our bombardment of Christmas everything and they don't complain one iota! Nope!

I've been in cahoots with a number of Progressive Jewish people that celebrate both! 

We did in my household. I had a pretty tree and the menorah sitting right there next to it. We had Seder dinners and Easter dinners. We had matzoh ball soup and then a turkey! We had a glass full for Elijah and Christmas cookies for Santa. Temple and Church.

Why not? Who does that possibly hurt? Nobody.

I'll bet you that a good number of Christians don't know the fundamental difference between Judaism and Christianity. There really are very very few differences. And the differences are really semantics and interpretation. If you've read the Torah and the Bible (which I have) you easily recognize one in the other.

I've also studied Zen Buddhism, Hinduism, Shamanism, Taoism, Atheism (that one scared me the most) and Agnosticism.

Theoretical Physics, Biology and Philosophy are really my favorite "religions" as science and the desire to be ethical and tread lightly has guided me pretty unfailingly throughout my life.

So yesterday I went around wishing everyone 

"Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Kwanzaa or whatever it is you celebrate!"

And it brought a smile to every single person's face! No one can get mad about wishing you a happy whatever-it-is-you-do to make your home fires burn brightly!

So, enough with the bashing of other people's beliefs. That is one of the most amazing things about the United States of America. We have freedom of religion. There are not many other places like that except some of the more developed countries in Scandanavia, Europe and some of the Island nations.

In most of the rest of the world, you are told what to believe, when you can do it, and how much OR you get shot, bombed, raped or pillaged in some other horrible way.
(which, it turns out some of my heritage is German Jew)
Even in India (which, as I've said, I think Indians are some of the loveliest, gentlest humans I've known as I've journeyed around our planet) they have a caste system. If you're born in a low caste, that's where you remain. No hope of advancing your cause. None. There are people that sleep on the side of the road in some parts of India because they literally have NOTHING to their name. Just the clothes on their backs and sometimes even those get stolen or ripped off them.

I'd just really like everyone to be nice to each other and just pay attention to the comfort of others. Even in the grocery store! Don't block the damn aisle! In the street - slow the F*CK down! It's icy and slippery and not everyone wants to go 80 miles per hour in a 40 mile-per-hour zone!! Jeeeez!

You know, I've been flipped off on Northern Lights Boulevard because I was GOING THE SPEED LIMIT??? Baffling.

And people here will speed UP just to slam on their brakes at a red light.

?

Anywho, I'm being very much a Pollyanna and do-gooder and I understand that some of you probably roll your eyes at my naive attitude.

Thing is, I'm not naive at all. I like to always try to see the good in humans whether they're homeless, drug addicts, a stranger that dresses oddly or eats weird food, a foreigner (I've been a foreigner and it's not fun when the natives treat you unkindly like the men in Morocco)...

You really just never know the motivations of others, so stop being a jerk! Just let them have their bad day and move on. Maybe they just lost their puppy dog and he found out his wife is cheating on him and she just found out she has cancer.

Especially in this season of giving, one of the best things you can do? Give someone a break or the benefit of a doubt. It works miracles.

Now, for your viewing pleasure, the video below. This makes me giggle and carry on like a cackling fool! Hope you like it!

Thanks for reading & Merry Ho Ho and Mazel and all that rot.

On Contemplating Your Navel...

The David. What a beauty Michelangelo created. At the possibility that you will think I'm full of shit
(which I clearly am), my husband looks this good. I am a lucky schmoo.

So, Matt Damon (LOVE) and this wonderful man named Gary started up the incredible organization known simply as Water.Org. No less than miraculous things are happening because of their simple mission to bring clean water and sanitation to third world countries where a child dies EVERY 20 SECONDS due to water-borne illnesses such as giardia (which I got just recently here in Alaska), dysentery and other painful, unnecessary diseases.

Watch Matt Damon and Gary talk about their work and the incredible things that happen when women and children have easy access to water...Children get to go to school, study, learn, have hopes and dreams. Women get to work at their jobs, to make money to help better the life they live. Pride happens, smiles happen, community happens. Instead of the women and children (who are the primary water providers for their families) having to walk miles and miles, back breakingly cart home gallons of water, just to SURVIVE, they instead are gifted with time and clean, sanitary water.

So, you there. American idiot. When's the last time you had to walk miles and miles and miles to drink dirty, virus and bacteria filled water?

Oh, never? Right. Never. Ever.

So, let's all get off our collective duffs and start helping our brothers and sisters who suffer. Take that stupid $5 half-caf, double mocha, grande ridiculous hipster stoopid coffee and your $100 designer fucking shirt and matching shoes (gimme a break) and make a donation to the people who need it.

And, same goes for you Republican, corporate greedy jerks. WTF? Why you wanna have all that cash and do nothing good with it except buy another island and another house and another this or another that?

You know, I used to scoff at the idea of tithing. I DO take issue with the riches that many of the large churches accumulate in the name of God or Jesus or whomever your Idol of the day might be.

Why, pray tell, do we not just directly give the $$$ or the water or the aid to the peeps that need it? That's kinda like getting rid of the middle man, isn't it?

And I'm not talking about only the third world countries here. We have many needy right here in the good old US of A. Homeless. Addicted. Mentally ill. Children, men, women, animals, the abused, the elderly, the orphaned...

The list is too long and too depressing. Ugh.

Also, too, when's the last time you read up on another religion other than yours? It's quite useful. And it gives you a perspective on where others are coming from - mentally, spiritually...I love me some Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, Christianity, and even Islamic beliefs. You can't hate someone until you understand them, right?

That old adage about judge not lest ye be judged, or the other one that you should never judge a book by its cover or even the one where we're told not to judge another until you've walked a mile in their shoes.

Well, let's get on with it, shall we? Don't get me wrong...headway is being made daily! I'm just impatient! I've always been that way...it's in me bones! Hey, don't judge me, dude!!  : )

I'm so sorry for being so ranty lately. Alaska and lots of healthy living and good therapy and relief from my depression has made me cranky. Ironic, I know. I don't purport to make sense! I'm just little old me.

Now's the Non-Sequiter Warning time!!! BEEP BEEp Beep!

Pitcher time:

I love this.
This was blatantly stolen from my dear friend Bob's facebook post a few days ago!
Thanks, Roberto!

Hee. My friend Karen says "the diabeetus" and "veedeo" and I love her for that! Photo from icanhazcheezburger.com.

My beautiful friend getting ready for a night on the town a few nights ago.
She's a keeper, that one and so lovely, right?

Approximately 35,000 walruses in need of a place to mate, have taken refuge in Northern Alaska. They can't find any icebergs to do their deed, so they've taken to a beach. Not a bad choice by the walruses, however, this speaks to CLIMATE CHANGE and our need to reduce greenhouse gasses. This, while interesting, is f*cked up. Photo is credited to NOAA/NMFS (and if you don't know what those acronyms mean, you should)

My co-pilot Phoebe! I love this picture of us.
She is currently gnashing her teeth and playing wildly with our other little doggie, Jax.

This is poor Jaxie trying desperately to stay awake! He's only 9 months old and just the sweetest, funniest, hilarious, smart ploopie dog. He's basically a small, white pig-sausage snort machine.  That farts. A lot.

COOKIES! And fruit. And pretty things. I am grateful every day.

The Chugach Mountains. I see them every day. Utterly paradise here. 

Phoebe passed OUT. She and Jax play and play at a thousand miles a minute and then they CRASH!
 I wrote on Twitter yesterday that Phoebe has two speeds. Asshole and Exhausted. This was E.
 And it never takes long for her to get back to speed #A. Oy to the vey.

My cute house. It's very fall-y right now. Chilly and crisp as a Jonathan Apple!