What To Give Up For Lent

     Page Two Hundred-Nine.
     I'm sometimes surprised by people's lack of knowledge concerning world religions, or their own religion even. A while ago, I found myself trying to educate a friend on the fact that Jews don't give up anything for Lent. He simply wouldn't hear my explanation. He just "knew" that Lent is an American secular season which is practiced by anybody who wants to express their appreciation to Jesus for dying on that cross 2000 years ago. He recognized it's origins in religion, Christianity specifically, but was convinced that nowadays religion had nothing to do with it. I was stunned by his ignorance.
      Along similar lines, quite recently I found myself talking with a devout Protestant about Martin Luther. I was explaining to her that prior to 500 year ago, there was no such thing as Catholicism or Protestantism. Every Christian was what we would refer to today as Catholic. Then this priest, Martin Luther, came along and virtually invented the Protestant movement. Her response? "I'm going to ask my minister about this. He knows so much about church history, he's just so smart." I thought to myself, "Why didn't this woman learn about the Reformation in 7th grade world history?"
     One day, a few years back, an acquaintance couldn't understand how Jews could believe in God if they didn't simultaneously believe in Jesus. "You see, Jesus is God, so if they don't believe in Jesus then they don't believe in God." Maybe I simply know really uneducated people. Perhaps that's it.
     I believe that if comparative religion were required learning, world-wide, we'd have much less war.

On Decorating For Rosh Hashanah

     Page One Hundred Twenty-Two.
     Right now I'm sitting at my dining room table, writing this blog. Besides my computer, the other things on the table are many decorations for Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, which is in a few weeks. The reason they're here is because I'll be using them in a couple days to decorate one window at the beauty salon which I manage. Decorating a window for Rosh Hashanah is mostly no big deal. But if you remember from a couple blogs ago (page #119) the salon is almost exclusively African-American. However, here's the thing: my boss, Alma, knew what she was getting herself into when she asked me to be the manager. She knew that my world view is a bit odd, overly embracing and quite rebellious.
     Last spring I decorated one window for the Jewish holiday of Purim and I decorated another one for St. Patrick's Day. Of all things, I didn't do one for Easter because one of our two windows was broken at the time and the other window was set with something that Alma and I both liked, though I don't now remember what it was. (Also, that was the week that I was hosting the Passover Seder at the church, and was cooking for 260 people. So, I took the entire week off from the salon anyhow.) Alma, the beauty salon and I are all in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, an unusually ecumenical and integrated community. If I can't get away with decorating a black beauty salon for all the Jewish holidays in this city, I can't do it anywhere. And I want to.
     It doesn't go unnoticed either. Last spring while the windows had their St. Pat's theme, some drunken bar hopping patrons who were staggering by, were overheard to say "why do those ni****s have their salon decorated for St. Patrick's Day?" (The salon is on a street heavily occupied by popular restaurants and bars.) But also, earlier this summer, I received word that my windows had been nominated for the best decorated windows in Cleveland Heights. So there you go.
     Actually the salon clients love it. Alma is a devout Christian as are many of her clients. They love the fact that I embrace and then talk about my Jewishness because Jesus was Jewish. So they're fascinated by our holidays. As far as I'm concerned, anything which keeps my creativity popping is good. And doing those windows for various holidays, Jewish and otherwise, definitely pops my creativity.