New Year's Resolutions? Why Bother?

By the time January 1st rolls around I've already celebrated Rosh Hashonah (Jewish New Year) and Advent (beginning the Christian liturgical year). Plus, it doesn't matter for how long I've been away from academia, its rhythms thrum deep, so I always welcome September as yet another new year.

Add my sloppy but well-intentioned practice of a daily Examen and nightly 10th Step, and creating new or strengthening ongoing resolutions on January 1st seems redundant. Still, as a chronic maker-of-lists and begin-again-er, I do exactly that on the first of January, knowing full well the absurdity of characterizing these intentions as resolutions.

In reality, such as it ever is, I create a list of hopes and wishes. Some come to pass and most don't, which has finally got me asking, "Whose will is it anyway?" And so during morning (written) prayers on the first day of 2015, I found myself scrawling, "Why bother?"

Turns out I'm not alone, something I know enough to assume but was happy to discover empirically while reading Fran Rossi Szpylczyn's first post for 2015, "#Why not? A New Year's reflection." Four paragraphs into her post, "So why bother setting up some unrealistic expectations that will only send me swooshing down some giant slide o' shame by January 10th anyway? Why bother?" Please read the entire post to see how she's embracing the spiritual practice of curiosity in 2015.

As for me, enough with the grandiose plans. I'm inviting myself to be present one day at a time...each hour or moment-to-moment, if that's all I can muster. Amen to that and, while I'm at it, dayenu.

Take a page from my book...

One 2014 Resolution I Hope to Keep: Return to Iconography

Created c. 1996

For one thing, I don't generally get too twitched about making New Year's resolutions on or around January 31. By the time January rolls around, I've already observed the beginning of two new years: 1) Rosh Hashonah; and 2) first Sunday of Advent.

Typically, my new year's observations include deep cleaning; plowing through tolerations; taking stock of what I've done and failed to do during the previous year; repentance/teshuvah/making amends in some form; and contemplating what might be next. By the time January rolls around, I'm ready for yet another do-over.

At this point (i.e., 1:30 PM on January 31, 2013) I can't remember what I resolved to do for 5774 or how I planned to embrace this new liturgical year. And, my so-called retreat at the monastery completely threw me off track. Actually, that last bit of whinging isn't completely true because when I finally gave up on my mortal flesh keeping silence and started talking with people, I ended up talking about art.

When one woman let me play with her Inktense pencils, I felt a painfully deep and tightly coiled inner something start to release, both physically and emotionally. I spent less than two minutes futzing with these pencils and saw icons emerge in my mind's eye, something that hasn't happened for years.

Inktense pencils morph into either vibrant or subtle watercolors when whatever is drawn with them is brushed with, uh, water. The intensity of the color seems to depend on the amount of water (duh?) and the size and use of the brush. All this is to be discovered because I immediately went online to order my very own set, which arrived on Saturday.

So, on my To Do list for this afternoon or tonight while binge-watching crap on Netflix: sorting through and ditching art supplies I know I won't be using. Acrylic paints top the list.

Never liked that medium, although it was certainly easier than egg tempera to use and clean up. Of all the icons I've painted over the years, I have either tossed or given away ones I've done with acrylic.

(I have, of course, kept and treasure the Christ the Teacher icon I received from iconographer Peter Pearson as partial payment for line editing I did on A Brush With God and Another Brush With God. These are wonderful workbooks for beginning and advanced iconographers.)

What I loved about egg tempera was the rich dimensionality that became possible, especially as layers were added using the "Byzantine float" method. Decades later, I can still hear iconographer Vladislav Andrejev, with whom I also studied, saying in his deep Russian accent, "puddle and push; puddle and push."

Neither puddling nor pushing possible with acrylic, so I stopped painting icons. In all fairness, I stopped for a lot of other reasons as well, but my frustration with acrylic medium was a key factor -- and a great excuse.

Now? No more excuses.

Got my new pencils, will clean out my acrylic paints as a symbolic and real way to move forward, and then...move forward. Returning to iconography is one New Year's resolution I hope to keep.  You're invited to hold me accountable!     

Happy New Year!

What the . . . ?

L'Shana Tovah! 5772

My great and groovy advice for Rosh Hashonah:  


If you're going to eat taiglach, make an appointment with your dentist now.

One Teensy Resolution for 2011

According to the maintenance guys in my apartment building, the preponderance of gnats in my apartment is due to its proximity to the trash room.

This makes no sense to me because the trash room is all the way down in the basement and the gnats seem to come in through my 10th floor windows. (No, Eugene did not bring in gnats.)

My apartment is large and I do not have food out and around. All chocolate is wrapped until right before eating. Nevertheless, the gnats have an uncanny ability to show up.

Last year (i.e., the other day) I watched one gnat traipsing across the inside of my living room windows. In that moment, I resolved to stop swatting and squishing them in 2011. They're teensy, don't live that long anyway, aren't filthy like flies (or turtles) and I admire their feisty ability to find my nostrils.

That's it! My New Year's resolution!!

I'll probably get back to regular exercise at some point but wanted to start (very) small.

5771

5771 . . .
Shofar, so good!

The Tashlich Scene at My House

God will take us back in love;
God will cover up our iniquities,
God will hurl all our sins
into the depths of the sea.
Micah 7:19

The Betta Boys are honored
to participate
in the Rosh HaShanah custom of tashlich
which, from their perspective,
beats being featured in the meal
for Yom Kippur's break-the-fast.

Not quite ready for 5771

"Holy crap!" is probably not the expression such news should prompt, but that's what zipped through my head and out of my mouth when I discovered how early Rosh Hashanah would be this year.

The Jewish new year, 5771, begins at sundown on Wednesday, September 8. I am so not ready for this, a sentiment that's guaranteed to generate predictable comments like, "What do you care, aren't you Roman Catholic now?"

These types of remarks used to cheese me off and still do, except I've learned to use them as opportunities to flog my book, Why Is There a Menorah on the Altar: Jewish Roots of Christian Worship...kind of like I just did.

I've also started suggesting a visit to Jewcy: What Matter Now might be instructive. A tour through that fabulous site reveals variations of self-definition among contemporary Jews. After decades of inter-everything marriage, it's looking to me like self-definition trumps the rulebook written during antiquity. Not to mention that identity and faith and religion do not necessarily overlap; certainly not neatly.

In fact, I do care that Rosh Hashanah is sooner rather than later. It doesn't matter how long I've been baptized or in what Christian church I hold open my hands and lift them to receive the host, the rhythm of the Jewish liturgical calendar still has the power to shape my daily life.

During the High Holy Days I'm invited to contemplate the year just finished and how I might discover and live according to God's will in the year ahead. Not sure I'm ready, willing or able to do this in a few short weeks. And of course I'll contemplate all this yet again when the Christian liturgical year begins at Advent ─ which also seems to be arriving very early this year.

Feast of Mary, Mother of God? World Day of Peace? How About the Feast of the Circumcision?

Many centuries before today's Holy Day of Obligation was established as the Feast of Mary, Mother of God, it was known as the Feast of the Circumcision. Here's why: Jesus was Jewish.

According to Torah law, Jewish boys must be circumcised eight days after birth as a sign of the enduring covenant God made with his Chosen People (Genesis 17:10-14).

That's right, my dear sisters and brothers in the Lord, Jesus had a bris. I want to encourage you to remember and celebrate this event. Doing so cannot help but strengthen awareness of your Jewish heritage. It also provides a great excuse to have lox, sable, whitefish, bagels, and cream cheese for blunch -- if you need an excuse.

As you might imagine, I'm working on shtick about why the name of this feast might have been changed. It seemed to be working just fine from the 6th to the 20th century.

5769

5769...
Shofar, so good!

L'Shana Tova! Pass (on) the Taiglach

My mother recently went on and on about the Rosh Hashonah honey cake she's baking for the Korean women she's teaching to read and speak English. "It's a real gooey mess to make," she told me. Proudly.

And my first thought? Good thing she's not baking taiglach for them. Taiglach, a pile of fried or baked honey-coated sticky tooth-cracking dough balls studded with nuts and candied cherries is dental work waiting to happen.

As I write this I'm wondering if anyone has checked the correlation between pushing taiglach and having a dentist in the immediate family. Bet there is.

Happy 5769!

New Years

In my world, there's no apostrophe between the "r" and "s" in New Years. This is because each year from September through December, I have at least three opportunities to start the year anew. Take this years, for example.

Shortly after Rosh Hashonah, I realized that 5768 was probably not going to be a terrific year. Did I get upset? Certainly not. I knew another new year would begin in 80 days. Indeed it did and so far I'm liking Year A, Cycle II. But what if I'd thought this liturgical year was a bummer? No big whoop. Another new year would begin in 29 days.

In any event, I'm not all slappy happy excited about new years eve 2008. My year-end festivities haven't been the same since I began using Quicken to organize all my tax data and last night I vacuumed the one and only cat who would let me. Welcome to my world.