We’re a few days away from Rosh Hashanah and all that comes along with The Jewish New Year and the holidays that follow.
Social media has been buzzing for weeks now with comments and conversations about holiday plans and meals.
I suppose that those who still send out hard copies of cards are hard at work filling them out and sending them via snail mail to those on their mailing lists.
Alongside the meal plans, recipe exchanges and conversations about where people are celebrating have been quiet talks about forgiveness.
Forgiveness.
Some of those conversations are simple and some are hard.
I sometimes wonder if those that appear to be the hardest to have would actually be the easiest.
It is Easy To Stay Angry
I’d like to say I am low maintenance and that I forget and forgive with ease, but it is not true.
I tend to remember those who have really hurt me and have found it is not hard to stay angry with some people.
Yet I have also discovered there are some people it is really hard to stay angry with.
Some of them may not share DNA with me but I think of them as family and I suspect they might feel the same.
Regardless I pay attention to those people because it seems to me not only am I supposed to but it would be foolish not to.
Got Dylan’s Wedding Song playing on iTunes and I am thinking again about what an amazing wordsmith he is.
It is impossible not to appreciate how he can tell a story in only a few lines.
You breathed on me and made my life a richer one to live
When I was deep in poverty you taught me how to give
Dried the tears up from my dreams and pulled me from the hole
Quenched my thirst and satisfied the burning in my soul
and
The tune that is yours and mine to play upon this earth
We’ll play it out the best we know, whatever it is worth
What’s lost is lost, we can’t regain what went down in the flood
But happiness to me is you and I love you more than blood
What I see is a thank you note from him.
Appreciation for being shown what can happen when you are woken up from a Rip Van Winkle like slumber followed by a ‘forget the past look to the future.’
It is impossible not to appreciate how much depth is here and the picture he painted so easily.
What Comes Next
I’ll remember 2016 as being the year that tried to kill many of the singers and celebrities of my youth and the one of the cyberstalker.
I’ll think of it as the year of the craziest presidential election I have seen and the one that has divided families and destroyed friends.
I can’t support Trump or believe in the multiple reasons why some people have told me they are going to vote for him.
There are a few who I know well enough to believe they think he will make a better leader than Hillary.
I can’t agree but we are mature enough to agree to disagree and I can accept they think he will be better.
What I can’t accept are the patronizing comments from some of the folks I have encountered who tell me that people like me will need to ask for forgiveness for voting the wrong way.
Especially when they demonstrate no understanding of policy nor ability to illustrate why one tax plan is superior or inferior to the other.
I am not impressed by the MBA or JD that follows your name.
Those letters represent a certain amount of achievement and ability to turn in assignments and pass tests.
But they don’t prove you have a command of real world issues or understanding of politics.
Especially when you couch your comments by saying things like the “liberal agenda” or parrot simple talking points you have heard on the radio.
Understanding requires substance and not regurgitation.
So no, I won’t ask for your forgiveness nor offer mine because sometimes it is ok to disagree.
Focus Elsewhere
Besides my focus is elsewhere and upon other things.
We’ll deal with whomever is elected and the country will continue on and so will we.
And regardless of who is elected there are certain challenges that will continue and I can’t lose my focus or forget.
So I’ll keep working upon finding solutions and doing what needs to be done.
My focus is upon today and the tomorrow that will come, but forgiveness, well that is on my mind too.
