2002-12-26 - 5:11 p.m.
CHAPTER SUMMARIES
Defining moments? Life is surprisingly short on definition. Moments of summation? More likely, especially if one counts the chapter summaries.
Christmas Day was a chapter summary. Moments in which one sits by a Christmas tree while listening to a CD of the music from �Fiddler on the Roof� are oddly seteroty0pic but a summation all the same�as is the shock on a niece�s face when, in church, she realizes her Jewish aunt knows most of four verses of �Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.� I�m not sure I live in a melting pot but my life is a bizarre stew.
The surrealistic montage of the holiday season became busier after marriage but it pre-existed my marriage. In my childhood even almost-all-Jewish student choirs sang Christmas carols. It was the American thing to do, I guess. Our lives were not completely separate from the larger culture. They just were different at the core with a mere glaze of Christmas.
And then I married into a Christian family. By the time I became a part, some were Lutheran, some were Methodist, and a few were Catholic but all�except my husband�were Christian. Being not quite anything, my husband had no religious traditions to add or subtract other than a preference not to attend church.
Each year has brought different accommodations. One year, my children made a Jewish star and dredl ornament for Gramma�s Christmas tree. One year, we said �ha-motzi,� the Hebrew blessing over bread, after Jesus had been invited to the table. Most years my children open one �just because� present from under the tree as their cousins pile up the loot.
I know what Tevye the Milkman and my grandparents would have thought of all this. It seems an insult to Tevye to have him here, even if he is a fictional character. But here he is, being drowned out by musical Santa socks.
Yes, I expect this chapter will go on and on. I expect no surprises. But if you want the Cliff notes, you�ve got �em. Just take one �Fiddler on the Roof� CD and pop it in next to the wreath while gnawing on challah and drinking eggnog.
L�chaim!
LAST YEAR: From Cheerios to Destruction
LAST FIVE ENTRIES:
Driving Distractions
Take a Number
Cooking Day
I�m Tired
Too Good
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Copyright 2006 by Ellen |
