I’m in Buffalo
moocowinthecity I’m in Buffalo, until 8:00PMish tonight (I think) at which point I’ll be in the air returning to NYC.
2007
Update from Midtown
I’m currently in Midtown Manhattan (it feels weird typing that, since normally we just call it The City) but I figure for the intents and purposes of location we can go with something more than the usual vernacular.
So this morning I woke up, groggy, and got a ride to Hicksville Station and managed to get on a non-peak Penn Station express train which meant I only had to go through Jamaica Station, Woodside until I got into The City.
From there I took the 3 to Fulton Street Station; the exit that I took actually took me up through an older office building; and there was a door there that I need to go back and photograph (I forgot I had my digital camera with me…); just looking at the door and you can tell that there’s definitely memories there; mostly a scene from the 80s, two gay investors from wall street meet up for a goodbye before the weekend starts…not at all a premonition, more like a foreword to a new piece I want to work on. It was a cool door.
Anyways, I then walked about four steps and I was at the New York State Department of Licensing which also houses the Secretary of State office for Apostilles. I made my way through various layers of insecurity, showed my ID a few times and got on line to get my Apostille written up and sealed.
Upon handing in my apostille application and of course the money that goes along with that I did what one does in government offices: I sat and waited. About an hour later I had two Apostilles attached to both of my Birth Certificates.
I then caught a late lunch with 
kaygigi in Battery Park as we caught up and reminisced about Israel (we met at the Citadel Hostel in the Christian Quarter). It was fun, I’d missed hanging out with her.
Currently I’m sitting at Penn Station, in a Starbucks, catching up on work before I take a train to Jamaica and then take the AirTrain to JFK so I can fly back to Buffalo. The only plane I was able to get was the one that lands at 10:30pm-ish; from there heading to my apartment; then dropping of my labs in the morning, then in the evening getting back on a plane and heading back to NYC for my meeting on the 16th. I’m pretty sure the people at the Buffalo airport think that I just like riding on planes or something; I’m starting to get weird glances (‘it’s that guy again’) but maybe it’s just my dashing good looks.
Now excuse me…back to watching New York’s Finest…I mean…doing work…back to doing work…yes…working…that’s what I’m getting back to…work…right…
Update from Midtown
I’m currently in Midtown Manhattan (it feels weird typing that, since normally we just call it The City) but I figure for the intents and purposes of location we can go with something more than the usual vernacular.
So this morning I woke up, groggy, and got a ride to Hicksville Station and managed to get on a non-peak Penn Station express train which meant I only had to go through Jamaica Station, Woodside until I got into The City.
From there I took the 3 to Fulton Street Station; the exit that I took actually took me up through an older office building; and there was a door there that I need to go back and photograph (I forgot I had my digital camera with me…); just looking at the door and you can tell that there’s definitely memories there; mostly a scene from the 80s, two gay investors from wall street meet up for a goodbye before the weekend starts…not at all a premonition, more like a foreword to a new piece I want to work on. It was a cool door.
Anyways, I then walked about four steps and I was at the New York State Department of Licensing which also houses the Secretary of State office for Apostilles. I made my way through various layers of insecurity, showed my ID a few times and got on line to get my Apostille written up and sealed.
Upon handing in my apostille application and of course the money that goes along with that I did what one does in government offices: I sat and waited. About an hour later I had two Apostilles attached to both of my Birth Certificates.
I then caught a late lunch with
kaygigi in Battery Park as we caught up and reminisced about Israel (we met at the Citadel Hostel in the Christian Quarter). It was fun, I’d missed hanging out with her.
Currently I’m sitting at Penn Station, in a Starbucks, catching up on work before I take a train to Jamaica and then take the AirTrain to JFK so I can fly back to Buffalo. The only plane I was able to get was the one that lands at 10:30pm-ish; from there heading to my apartment; then dropping of my labs in the morning, then in the evening getting back on a plane and heading back to NYC for my meeting on the 16th. I’m pretty sure the people at the Buffalo airport think that I just like riding on planes or something; I’m starting to get weird glances (‘it’s that guy again’) but maybe it’s just my dashing good looks.
Now excuse me…back to watching New York’s Finest…I mean…doing work…back to doing work…yes…working…that’s what I’m getting back to…work…right…
Aliyah & Travel Update
Okay, so here’s the deal:
Apparently the Apostille people/Secretary of State people operate out of the New York Licensing Building at 123 William St, New York, NY 10038; they of course open and operate at inconvenient times; which means I head out and take the train to The City from The Island at some time closer to 7:00am than I would like it to be. From there I get the Apostilles affixed to both of my (new) birth certificates since my old one can’t get one (see two posts down) which then make them valid internationally to any of the countries that signed on at the Hague convention.
I was not able to work it so that I could get a flight that would allow me to be in Nutrition class on Thursday; however I sent an email to both of the professors and while I fully expect to have whatever penalty applied to my grade at least they know what’s going on.
My flight leaves from JFK at 8:30PM (thom413/kaygigi I’ll have some time to kill in Mid Town before I head to the airport, so call 347-706-0009 if you want to grab a cup of coffee) and I land in Buffalo at 10:00-ish PM Thursday evening, from there I head to my apartment and do laundry (I really, really, really need to do laundry). Then on Friday morning I drop my labs off (which I’ve completed and are the only reason I’m flying back to Buffalo since they need to be handed in without loosing too many points). Friday Night I fly to JFK.
My meeting with the Shaliach (Emissary) is on Monday the 16th at 4:00PM. Words cannot express to you how tired I am from all of the traveling…they also can’t express how overjoyed I am that I have my meeting.
I now have to hunt down my Rabbi though, and get the letter from him saying that I am, in fact, a Jew.
So that’s where we stand…and it’s now 3:14AM; and I need to get at least five hours of sleep so I can face the sun tomorrow without scowling (too much).
Aliyah & Travel Update
Okay, so here’s the deal:
Apparently the Apostille people/Secretary of State people operate out of the New York Licensing Building at 123 William St, New York, NY 10038; they of course open and operate at inconvenient times; which means I head out and take the train to The City from The Island at some time closer to 7:00am than I would like it to be. From there I get the Apostilles affixed to both of my (new) birth certificates since my old one can’t get one (see two posts down) which then make them valid internationally to any of the countries that signed on at the Hague convention.
I was not able to work it so that I could get a flight that would allow me to be in Nutrition class on Thursday; however I sent an email to both of the professors and while I fully expect to have whatever penalty applied to my grade at least they know what’s going on.
My flight leaves from JFK at 8:30PM (
thom413/ kaygigi I’ll have some time to kill in Mid Town before I head to the airport, so call 347-706-0009 if you want to grab a cup of coffee) and I land in Buffalo at 10:00-ish PM Thursday evening, from there I head to my apartment and do laundry (I really, really, really need to do laundry). Then on Friday morning I drop my labs off (which I’ve completed and are the only reason I’m flying back to Buffalo since they need to be handed in without loosing too many points). Friday Night I fly to JFK.
My meeting with the Shaliach (Emissary) is on Monday the 16th at 4:00PM. Words cannot express to you how tired I am from all of the traveling…they also can’t express how overjoyed I am that I have my meeting.
I now have to hunt down my Rabbi though, and get the letter from him saying that I am, in fact, a Jew.
So that’s where we stand…and it’s now 3:14AM; and I need to get at least five hours of sleep so I can face the sun tomorrow without scowling (too much).
My Birth Certificate Has Expired…I am now…John Doe..or Adventures in Government
So, I arrived in NYC bright and early this morning…I am not a morning person; if I could exist totally during the hours of darkness I would…I’d prefer to date a Vampire, actually…it would make things so much easier…but Government likes to get up early to show the American People that they’re eager beavers so I was up on a plane a 5:55am heading for NYC.
Upon arriving home, Mom and I make our way to the County Clerks office in Mineola. I go in as Mom Circles around, because there’s no parking. I wait on line, and finally get to see a clerk. The clerk takes my Birth Certificate and looks at it…puzzled, walks to a computer, walks back to me and goes “Your Birth Certificate is too old…it’s from NINETEEN EIGHTY FOUR!!” to which I respond “I’m well aware of the year of my birth, what do you mean it’s too old?” to which he responds “IT’S FROM NINETEEN EIGHTY FOUR” to which I respond “THEY ONLY EXPIRE WHEN YOU DIE WHAT. DO. YOU. MEAN. IT’S. TOO. OLD!?!” and he goes “IT’S FROM NINETEEN EIGHTY FOUR” and at this point I realized that I was going to get no where, so I said “then what do I need to do” and he goes “You need to get a new birth certificate” and I was like “Well FUCK does that mean I have to go back to school too!?! Do I at least get to keep the same set of parents, or is this some kind of random selection thing!?!…if 1984 is too old…what year are they going to give me!? I LIKE BEING FROM 1984!” to which he directed me to go from Mineola to Manhasset (which is where I was born) to go get a New Birth Certificate.
So Mom and I get into the car and drive to Manhasset, and I go into THAT clerks office, and fill out all the forms to get a birth certificate and a transcript printed/copied on the spot on a special, longer sheet of paper, which contains the new registrar of vital statistics signature (because apparently it’s too much work to keep the OLD registrars signatures on file, which is why my birth certificate is too old and why they can’t certify it)…only to find out that my birth certificate (The county’s copy) was DESTROYED because someone stamped all over the document, in pink ink, “payment received.” My fellow rogues will get why I started laughing…and then almost cried…HOWEVER, I made friends with a lovely grandmother named Alice who went to get the Microfiche of my un-destroyed birth certificate, and about an hour later I had what I needed…to drive back to Mineola to get them both certified (I was taking no chances).
So I get back to Mineola, run into the clerks office…have them certified in record time…one minute and then I had to wait half an hour for the clerk to go get change she owed me when I paid her for the certification (it cost $10.00…I paid with a $20.00)…and apparently I CAN get the Apostille in NYC (hahaha, this isn’t actually confirmed yet…this is just what they told me); so I’m doing that bright and early tomorrow morning and hoping that jetBlue doesn’t dick me over when flying back to Buffalo.
This does however mean that I can now avoid Albany.
After the Apostille I just need the letter from my Rabbi; I even have the check all written out for the Aliyah Organization: $50.00 to open my file, $50.00 for my plane ticket…
…at least if I was dealing with Bureaucracy in Israel I’d have Israelis to look at; and really…I’m very easily distracted by shiny objects, so I think I’d probably be okay…but there was no eye candy today, my friends…oh there was no eye candy…
…more updates as I have them.
My Birth Certificate Has Expired…I am now…John Doe..or Adventures in Government
So, I arrived in NYC bright and early this morning…I am not a morning person; if I could exist totally during the hours of darkness I would…I’d prefer to date a Vampire, actually…it would make things so much easier…but Government likes to get up early to show the American People that they’re eager beavers so I was up on a plane a 5:55am heading for NYC.
Upon arriving home, Mom and I make our way to the County Clerks office in Mineola. I go in as Mom Circles around, because there’s no parking. I wait on line, and finally get to see a clerk. The clerk takes my Birth Certificate and looks at it…puzzled, walks to a computer, walks back to me and goes “Your Birth Certificate is too old…it’s from NINETEEN EIGHTY FOUR!!” to which I respond “I’m well aware of the year of my birth, what do you mean it’s too old?” to which he responds “IT’S FROM NINETEEN EIGHTY FOUR” to which I respond “THEY ONLY EXPIRE WHEN YOU DIE WHAT. DO. YOU. MEAN. IT’S. TOO. OLD!?!” and he goes “IT’S FROM NINETEEN EIGHTY FOUR” and at this point I realized that I was going to get no where, so I said “then what do I need to do” and he goes “You need to get a new birth certificate” and I was like “Well FUCK does that mean I have to go back to school too!?! Do I at least get to keep the same set of parents, or is this some kind of random selection thing!?!…if 1984 is too old…what year are they going to give me!? I LIKE BEING FROM 1984!” to which he directed me to go from Mineola to Manhasset (which is where I was born) to go get a New Birth Certificate.
So Mom and I get into the car and drive to Manhasset, and I go into THAT clerks office, and fill out all the forms to get a birth certificate and a transcript printed/copied on the spot on a special, longer sheet of paper, which contains the new registrar of vital statistics signature (because apparently it’s too much work to keep the OLD registrars signatures on file, which is why my birth certificate is too old and why they can’t certify it)…only to find out that my birth certificate (The county’s copy) was DESTROYED because someone stamped all over the document, in pink ink, “payment received.” My fellow rogues will get why I started laughing…and then almost cried…HOWEVER, I made friends with a lovely grandmother named Alice who went to get the Microfiche of my un-destroyed birth certificate, and about an hour later I had what I needed…to drive back to Mineola to get them both certified (I was taking no chances).
So I get back to Mineola, run into the clerks office…have them certified in record time…one minute and then I had to wait half an hour for the clerk to go get change she owed me when I paid her for the certification (it cost $10.00…I paid with a $20.00)…and apparently I CAN get the Apostille in NYC (hahaha, this isn’t actually confirmed yet…this is just what they told me); so I’m doing that bright and early tomorrow morning and hoping that jetBlue doesn’t dick me over when flying back to Buffalo.
This does however mean that I can now avoid Albany.
After the Apostille I just need the letter from my Rabbi; I even have the check all written out for the Aliyah Organization: $50.00 to open my file, $50.00 for my plane ticket…
…at least if I was dealing with Bureaucracy in Israel I’d have Israelis to look at; and really…I’m very easily distracted by shiny objects, so I think I’d probably be okay…but there was no eye candy today, my friends…oh there was no eye candy…
…more updates as I have them.
Sex, Religion and all those other things you’re not supposed to talk about…you’ve been warned.
I’ve been talking to a Gay Guy for a few months now. He’s Jewish, Chabadnic, gorgeous (amazing six pack, he works out constantly). He has a daughter from when he was trying to live a straight life style (he goes back and forth between being bisexual and homosexual, since I’ve met him) and he wants to meet me the next time I’m free in NYC: the problem is that I’ve come to find (after talking to him on the phone tonight) that I think that he wants to do the Jewish version of ‘witnessing’ where you attempt to make a fellow Jew “more religious” which I find just a little more than annoying.
The problem is, that we read the same book (essentially) and our individual understandings of it are so vastly different that I’m not sure what he thinks he’s going to be able to accomplish by speaking with me (if it’s with the intent that I believe he has).
I can’t be described as Conservative, or Reform or Reconstructionist at this point…there’s parts of each that I like and parts of each that I dislike, and I’m also a fan of Jesus; I don’t believe he’s God, or the son of God, or that he rose after death…I do think, however, that he was an amazing human being who inspired countless, that he deserves our respect and that we’d all do well to listen to what he had to say.
He believes that only Rabbis understand God and know God and it’s our job to listen to them and follow them blindly. This isn’t something that I can accept for myself: I know God, I have felt him in love, I have felt him in the heart beat of another man as I’ve laid on his chest, I have felt him when I thought I was standing alone when I stared down hate in an alley on my way home as three men moved in to intimidate and accost me, and I have felt him when I came up against the Klan on the High Holy Days, I have felt him when I fell at my Grandfathers grave in mourning and when I was at the Western Wall beating my chest with my fist in public admission of transgression…I have felt him when I have had to walk a dangerous path, and I take that deep breathe before I take the first step…I don’t need a rabbi to tell me what life is about: that’s why I have one, to figure it out for myself. I also reject the implication that I’m not smart enough to study something and figure it out on my own.
I can’t agree, or accept, or even recognize any religion that asks you to lie, to deny who you are, that says no to love and that because a man and a woman can make a child then that’s the only option and that you should struggle against yourself and who you are when there are so many struggles out there that are actually valid and important (like the struggles against hunger, war, famine, poverty and hate): that, for me isn’t God…it’s the Antithesis…why would I ever hold the beliefs of a religion that would seek to deny my existence?
He keeps telling me that he was just like me, in the same way that the sixty year olds at the bar do when you turn them down when they offer to pay you $20.00 for a handjob…or the same way the know-it-all does when she tells you that she has all the answers despite the fact that her life is a total mess, and the problem is that I’ve never found anything but comfort, and hope, and acceptance from my interpretation of God. I’ve never found anything but inspiration; and there’s a certain feeling that wells in your chest that I can only call “Praise” when you get the message and you cry out in jubilation because you feel a presence, a feeling in your heart and when on Simchat Torah you dance with the torah held tightly in your arms, pressed up close to your chest in circles surrounded by your community, dancing with the crown of our people.
And I’m sick and tired of people saying “lie with a man like a man lies with a woman” because no Gay man does…we lie with a man like a man lies with a man not as a man lies with a woman…and apparently no one has read about what actually took place at Sodom and Gomorra, because if they did then they’d know that the whole thing was actually about rape and selling your daughters, the butt sex was really the least of the story…Cliff notes didn’t work in English class and they don’t work for Religion either.
He had many issues with his homosexuality and coming out…I didn’t. My only issue was that I was confused and didn’t know what to call how I felt, and I had so much mis-information that I thought I was supposed to date women and jerk off to guys…I lived in a bubble and rapidly expanded my horizons in the West Village of NYC as I began to discover that there were other options…I have never, for a moment, ever wished to be straight…I’ve often, in my prayers, said that if I had to live this life over again, I’d like to be Gay again…and I’ve also made mention to whatever higher power exists that being a bottom is great and has worked out very well so far, so no need to fix what isn’t broken…so I’m not sure how he thinks that we’re so incredibly similar.
It’s these kinds of movements, and many others in the Jewish Community that I just don’t understand and I think that the thing that upsets me most, is that because they drape themselves in Tefillin and wear a Yarmulke and grow a beard that people who aren’t Jewish think that they’re the religious sects…those are material things and are one way of expressing faith…but there are many other manifestations of faith…pouring soup at a soup kitchen or into the mouth of someone who is sick, massaging a person who has AIDS as they die in a Hospice to provide them with comfort (physical, and emotional because someone is finally brave enough to give them human contact), shouting in the woods until your primordial voice is heard, playing music on a piano are all equally as valid as ways of expressing your feelings, your praise, your prayers for and to God. If you can’t speak, or you don’t know how to pray then fall to your knees and cry: God will interpret the tears and know what you want to tell him. Their notion that God would ignore prayers from others because they don’t reference a supreme being in the right name or don’t dress the way that someone thinks they should is beyond asinine…and just because these people who are purporting to be religious wear beards and tzitzis and wrap tefillin doesn’t make them religious, or pious…for many whom I’ve known to be rapists, pedophiles, liars, cheats, and thieves it just makes them posers. Not everyone who looks like they’ve just walked out of 19th century Poland is a Rabbi or well educated.
I’m also against the whole “conversion” process, in many respects (I think the education is necessary): however, do you feel God in your heart? Then welcome home! if God is ready to accept us whenever we are ready to turn to him, whenever we are ready to turn from wickedness, from evil, from hate then there can be no intermediary, no gatekeeper…Jews have a very close relation to God, Secular and Non-Secular alike…almost every Jew I’ve ever met has a running conversation of some sort with the divine on, pretty much, a daily basis in our heads as we go about our day…you don’t need permission of clergy to open your mouth or your heart and talk to God. (some) Rabbis are great people, admittedly, and wonderful leaders in their respective communities and some do good, if not amazing, work…but at the end of the day, they’re humans, who got a degree and are working a job and have the same faults all the rest of us do.
I am Jewish…I just have no idea if I even fit into any branch at this point in time, and I’m slightly disappointed that someone who I wanted to get to know (on a purely friendly level – he has a kid, a career, and a permanent apartment in NYC that he plans on staying in for another 29 years – and I’m just starting my Journey) doesn’t want to get to know me, but wants to try and ‘save me’ and get me to Join Chabad (and worship their dead Rabbi instead of God)…and since we don’t have hell anyway, I don’t know why he is fearful. I do not fear God as I would fear an abusive boyfriend…I love him in all the ways that he manifests himself: from beautiful mountains, to sunsets, to laughter to curling up in the arms of a lover.
Something about our conversation last night just bothered me.
I board the plane in a little less than twenty minutes for New York City.
Sex, Religion and all those other things you’re not supposed to talk about…you’ve be
I’ve been talking to a Gay Guy for a few months now. He’s Jewish, Chabadnic, gorgeous (amazing six pack, he works out constantly). He has a daughter from when he was trying to live a straight life style (he goes back and forth between being bisexual and homosexual, since I’ve met him) and he wants to meet me the next time I’m free in NYC: the problem is that I’ve come to find (after talking to him on the phone tonight) that I think that he wants to do the Jewish version of ‘witnessing’ where you attempt to make a fellow Jew “more religious” which I find just a little more than annoying.
The problem is, that we read the same book (essentially) and our individual understandings of it are so vastly different that I’m not sure what he thinks he’s going to be able to accomplish by speaking with me (if it’s with the intent that I believe he has).
I can’t be described as Conservative, or Reform or Reconstructionist at this point…there’s parts of each that I like and parts of each that I dislike, and I’m also a fan of Jesus; I don’t believe he’s God, or the son of God, or that he rose after death…I do think, however, that he was an amazing human being who inspired countless, that he deserves our respect and that we’d all do well to listen to what he had to say.
He believes that only Rabbis understand God and know God and it’s our job to listen to them and follow them blindly. This isn’t something that I can accept for myself: I know God, I have felt him in love, I have felt him in the heart beat of another man as I’ve laid on his chest, I have felt him when I thought I was standing alone when I stared down hate in an alley on my way home as three men moved in to intimidate and accost me, and I have felt him when I came up against the Klan on the High Holy Days, I have felt him when I fell at my Grandfathers grave in mourning and when I was at the Western Wall beating my chest with my fist in public admission of transgression…I have felt him when I have had to walk a dangerous path, and I take that deep breathe before I take the first step…I don’t need a rabbi to tell me what life is about: that’s why I have one, to figure it out for myself. I also reject the implication that I’m not smart enough to study something and figure it out on my own.
I can’t agree, or accept, or even recognize any religion that asks you to lie, to deny who you are, that says no to love and that because a man and a woman can make a child then that’s the only option and that you should struggle against yourself and who you are when there are so many struggles out there that are actually valid and important (like the struggles against hunger, war, famine, poverty and hate): that, for me isn’t God…it’s the Antithesis…why would I ever hold the beliefs of a religion that would seek to deny my existence?
He keeps telling me that he was just like me, in the same way that the sixty year olds at the bar do when you turn them down when they offer to pay you $20.00 for a handjob…or the same way the know-it-all does when she tells you that she has all the answers despite the fact that her life is a total mess, and the problem is that I’ve never found anything but comfort, and hope, and acceptance from my interpretation of God. I’ve never found anything but inspiration; and there’s a certain feeling that wells in your chest that I can only call “Praise” when you get the message and you cry out in jubilation because you feel a presence, a feeling in your heart and when on Simchat Torah you dance with the torah held tightly in your arms, pressed up close to your chest in circles surrounded by your community, dancing with the crown of our people.
And I’m sick and tired of people saying “lie with a man like a man lies with a woman” because no Gay man does…we lie with a man like a man lies with a man not as a man lies with a woman…and apparently no one has read about what actually took place at Sodom and Gomorra, because if they did then they’d know that the whole thing was actually about rape and selling your daughters, the butt sex was really the least of the story…Cliff notes didn’t work in English class and they don’t work for Religion either.
He had many issues with his homosexuality and coming out…I didn’t. My only issue was that I was confused and didn’t know what to call how I felt, and I had so much mis-information that I thought I was supposed to date women and jerk off to guys…I lived in a bubble and rapidly expanded my horizons in the West Village of NYC as I began to discover that there were other options…I have never, for a moment, ever wished to be straight…I’ve often, in my prayers, said that if I had to live this life over again, I’d like to be Gay again…and I’ve also made mention to whatever higher power exists that being a bottom is great and has worked out very well so far, so no need to fix what isn’t broken…so I’m not sure how he thinks that we’re so incredibly similar.
It’s these kinds of movements, and many others in the Jewish Community that I just don’t understand and I think that the thing that upsets me most, is that because they drape themselves in Tefillin and wear a Yarmulke and grow a beard that people who aren’t Jewish think that they’re the religious sects…those are material things and are one way of expressing faith…but there are many other manifestations of faith…pouring soup at a soup kitchen or into the mouth of someone who is sick, massaging a person who has AIDS as they die in a Hospice to provide them with comfort (physical, and emotional because someone is finally brave enough to give them human contact), shouting in the woods until your primordial voice is heard, playing music on a piano are all equally as valid as ways of expressing your feelings, your praise, your prayers for and to God. If you can’t speak, or you don’t know how to pray then fall to your knees and cry: God will interpret the tears and know what you want to tell him. Their notion that God would ignore prayers from others because they don’t reference a supreme being in the right name or don’t dress the way that someone thinks they should is beyond asinine…and just because these people who are purporting to be religious wear beards and tzitzis and wrap tefillin doesn’t make them religious, or pious…for many whom I’ve known to be rapists, pedophiles, liars, cheats, and thieves it just makes them posers. Not everyone who looks like they’ve just walked out of 19th century Poland is a Rabbi or well educated.
I’m also against the whole “conversion” process, in many respects (I think the education is necessary): however, do you feel God in your heart? Then welcome home! if God is ready to accept us whenever we are ready to turn to him, whenever we are ready to turn from wickedness, from evil, from hate then there can be no intermediary, no gatekeeper…Jews have a very close relation to God, Secular and Non-Secular alike…almost every Jew I’ve ever met has a running conversation of some sort with the divine on, pretty much, a daily basis in our heads as we go about our day…you don’t need permission of clergy to open your mouth or your heart and talk to God. (some) Rabbis are great people, admittedly, and wonderful leaders in their respective communities and some do good, if not amazing, work…but at the end of the day, they’re humans, who got a degree and are working a job and have the same faults all the rest of us do.
I am Jewish…I just have no idea if I even fit into any branch at this point in time, and I’m slightly disappointed that someone who I wanted to get to know (on a purely friendly level – he has a kid, a career, and a permanent apartment in NYC that he plans on staying in for another 29 years – and I’m just starting my Journey) doesn’t want to get to know me, but wants to try and ‘save me’ and get me to Join Chabad (and worship their dead Rabbi instead of God)…and since we don’t have hell anyway, I don’t know why he is fearful. I do not fear God as I would fear an abusive boyfriend…I love him in all the ways that he manifests himself: from beautiful mountains, to sunsets, to laughter to curling up in the arms of a lover.
Something about our conversation last night just bothered me.
I board the plane in a little less than twenty minutes for New York City.
The Internet Is a Scary Place…
I now have Barbie Girl by Aqua in Hebrew, Japanese and English…if I can find it in Tagalog and Arabic I’ll be able to die happy.
…I leave for NYC in a couple of hours to finish this birth certificate stuff…updates as I have them.
– M
- Tunes: :Aqua – Barbie Girl In Japanese – Aqua