How to have a not-normal Yom Kippur
Oct. 3rd, 2017 10:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
drwexStart here: https://whatever.scalzi.com/2017/10/02/2017-word-counts-and-writing-process/
John Scalzi talks about how living in 2017 America has affected his writing process. The way in which the ongoing horror show affects his ability to focus, to create, to detach from the clamoring needs of a house on fire. He talks about how he's political by nature (yep) and despite being privileged (yep) there's no easy way to build a Faraday cage against this stuff. More to the point, if you're a caring human being you don't want to. More below.
Next here: https://www.kameronhurley.com/ongoing-national-horrors-cant-unplugged-go/
A woman, with a disability that could kill her if she loses health insurance, holding onto the idea that the only way out is through.
So, Yom Kippur. On one side, it's a religious observance. The holiest of days in the Jewish holiday cycle. The day on which the Book of Life is closed, and the fates of every person are sealed. Philosophically, it's also the day on which some Jews fast and pray and not only do we ask G-d for forgiveness for our own transgressions, we take responsibility for those committed by others. We safeguard our fellow humans as best we can from G-d's displeasure. Jews who follow the behaviors and patterns of this holiday will often wish each other a "meaningful" fast. That is, observe the strictures of the holiday not because they're strictures but because they help bring meaning to your life.
Y.K. is also supposed to be a day of introspection and reflection. Can I tell you just how hard it is to do that kind of internal work when you are worried that millions of your countrymen are without power, or water, or medicine and your government is ignoring them because they're "uppity" brown people?
And in case there was any doubt, I'm also not OK with pleading for G-d to preserve a pile of shitbag Nazis who would like nothing more than to exterminate me and all my kind. I'm not a big fan of punching them and I'll clench my jaw and extend rights of decent treatment and free public speech to them. But that's my limit. I am not going to lie to myself by saying I want anything more.
So, what to do? I don't go to synagogue anyway. But I fasted - partly to see what would happen and partly because I could. I know there are lots of people who would like to be able to do that, but whose bodies, medical situations, or other obligations prevent them. So in part I fast to stand in for those who cannot. Partly it's that I recognize I do very few things that are hard for me and I was hoping that having the experience would help me move toward some level of meaning.
Instead I got a lot of headache and not much else. But I did realize that this is not a one-off. As Ms Hurley says, anyone who thinks that the 2018 elections are going to bring any relief is fooling themselves. I think I have the majority of the self-care routine down. What I lack is some way to survive four years of constant shock treatment.
Lots of good stuff written these days about the way this Administration is deliberately keeping the population in a state of shock and keeping us terrorized in order to stifle effective resistance. I'm reading and thinking, but don't have anything to say, yet.
John Scalzi talks about how living in 2017 America has affected his writing process. The way in which the ongoing horror show affects his ability to focus, to create, to detach from the clamoring needs of a house on fire. He talks about how he's political by nature (yep) and despite being privileged (yep) there's no easy way to build a Faraday cage against this stuff. More to the point, if you're a caring human being you don't want to. More below.
Next here: https://www.kameronhurley.com/ongoing-national-horrors-cant-unplugged-go/
A woman, with a disability that could kill her if she loses health insurance, holding onto the idea that the only way out is through.
So, Yom Kippur. On one side, it's a religious observance. The holiest of days in the Jewish holiday cycle. The day on which the Book of Life is closed, and the fates of every person are sealed. Philosophically, it's also the day on which some Jews fast and pray and not only do we ask G-d for forgiveness for our own transgressions, we take responsibility for those committed by others. We safeguard our fellow humans as best we can from G-d's displeasure. Jews who follow the behaviors and patterns of this holiday will often wish each other a "meaningful" fast. That is, observe the strictures of the holiday not because they're strictures but because they help bring meaning to your life.
Y.K. is also supposed to be a day of introspection and reflection. Can I tell you just how hard it is to do that kind of internal work when you are worried that millions of your countrymen are without power, or water, or medicine and your government is ignoring them because they're "uppity" brown people?
And in case there was any doubt, I'm also not OK with pleading for G-d to preserve a pile of shitbag Nazis who would like nothing more than to exterminate me and all my kind. I'm not a big fan of punching them and I'll clench my jaw and extend rights of decent treatment and free public speech to them. But that's my limit. I am not going to lie to myself by saying I want anything more.
So, what to do? I don't go to synagogue anyway. But I fasted - partly to see what would happen and partly because I could. I know there are lots of people who would like to be able to do that, but whose bodies, medical situations, or other obligations prevent them. So in part I fast to stand in for those who cannot. Partly it's that I recognize I do very few things that are hard for me and I was hoping that having the experience would help me move toward some level of meaning.
Instead I got a lot of headache and not much else. But I did realize that this is not a one-off. As Ms Hurley says, anyone who thinks that the 2018 elections are going to bring any relief is fooling themselves. I think I have the majority of the self-care routine down. What I lack is some way to survive four years of constant shock treatment.
Lots of good stuff written these days about the way this Administration is deliberately keeping the population in a state of shock and keeping us terrorized in order to stifle effective resistance. I'm reading and thinking, but don't have anything to say, yet.
no subject
Date: 2017-10-03 08:42 pm (UTC)Read this
Date: 2017-10-03 08:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-10-05 02:00 am (UTC)...but I initially read this as Friday cage and maybe that would be possible. One day off per week. I wonder. :)
no subject
Date: 2017-10-05 03:07 am (UTC)