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 |
