So today I made it briefly into Portland to stock up for Passover. Not usually my favourite holiday. But I have to say it was so lively and exciting in the store, everyone talking and shopping and laughing - it was nice. It was my people getting ready for our day of freedom and it was cool.
There was also actually a selection to choose from - I have nice things to eat and KP Coke to last all 8 days! o/
It's interesting to me for all the recent pie fights, call out diaries and random bullshit that some people seem awful worried about what other people might think or do. Now I get it when dealing with people like the GOP fundamentalists who want to legislate us into The Handmaid's Tale, but don't pull that shit with the rest of us.
Why do I care about Pesach? Because I'm a Jew. A pretty serious Jew at that. But that doesn't mean that I think the world is 6000 years old or that something bad will happen to me if there is a Cheetoh under the carpet after Friday noon.
That's not what religion is for me - or a lot of other people. The funny thing is that a lot of people who don't believe go out of their way to make snide comments this time of year assuming that those ARE the things I and others believe. This time of year in particular.
Now, I don't have any love at all for Christianity, I make no bones about that. It has nothing to do with Judaism in any way shape or form other than uses our book in some really different and frankly as a Jew, horrifying ways. But that doesn't make any difference at all to what I believe or how I live my life. I just do my Jewy Jew thing in my small little town and life goes on. But I do get a bit steamed in sympathy when loud and proud atheists go out of their way to trash diaries about easter or Christian thought or social concepts - because it's rude asshattery.
The biggest irony of all the recently loud atheist diaries and comments is they don't know what the fuck other people believe, how they believe, why they believe or even how it affects their day to day life. They assume a lot - but they don't know because they aren't believers. That's fine - whatever. Like I said I am not a sky daddy kind of dude. But you don't know what I believe - hell other Jews don't know what I believe. Or what anyone else does for that matter. Your logic requires you to stop making asshat guesses based on the worst examples you can find. Jews, for example, we have a kind of a range thing from atheism to people stood at Sinai in fur hats - and everything in between. Your paradigm doesn't fit our culture, sorry. It's not based on a statement of belief, but on tribal status. It may be primitive, but it's ours and we didn't ask you. Keep it to yourself.
Chill out. Spring is here, there are things to do and bickering about who is mentally damaged and who is selfish isn't really getting us anywhere. It's also boring to read.
In the words of Sgt. Hulka - "Lighten, up, Francis!"
So I'm going to leave Mitzrayim on Friday evening as I do every year with Jews of every stripe - cultural to Haredi - they tried to kill us, we won, let's eat!
A kosher and joyous pesach to all!
Chag samayach!