A little music from Debbie Friedman to welcome in Passover

Gut Pesach!

Redeemed by Heather King

In my continued search, I'm currently doing a lot of reading on similar searches. Presently I'm reading "Redeemed' by Heather King. I've only just started, but she described me to a T. Isn't that what they say about AA meetings-'they told my story!' Well, King is a recovering alcoholic-like me-and in a series of careers-like me-not really appropriate for an introvert. She says:
"All my life I've been a bookish, easily overstimulated loner: it takes me a while to work up to any kind of human contact activity, then the activity takes place, then I have to go off by myself for a while and process it."

Actually, I really like my current career and intend to continue doing it, but I do need that decompression when I get home. I find it really hard (read nearly impossible) to go directly to a social event on a work night. I have to hole up in my room and read a little or take a little nap before any continued activity.

Friday Five-24 hours

RevHRod said “Yesterday I had the 24 hour flu. I had been told by the people who had it first that it really was a twenty-four hour bug. And so while I dealt with all the blech of the flu, I kept reminding myself that morning would come and I would feel a lot better.”

“This is certainly a strange way to start out a Friday Five but it made me think about what I might like to do if I knew it would only last for 24 hours. There are no reality boundaries to these imaginings. So here are the five things for you to consider...”

If you could dramatically change your physical appearance for 24 hours, what would you do
I’d be a man. A big man who could stand in the door of the subway and not let the female me pass and say “I’ll stand wherever I want to” As the man said to me when I suggested that he was blocking the door. After I waited for him to get out before I got on, being polite as I am, then realizing that he was indeed not getting out! I’ll stride around in a suit or work clothes and be powerful and feel how it feels to be the king as men seem to think they still are in some circumstances. (I still seem to be riled up about my subway ride! Can you tell?) I also just finished “The First Man Made Man” the story of Michael Dillon by Pagan Kennedy and I’ve been giving a lot of thought to this phenomenon.

If you could live in another place for 24 hours where would you go?
I’d go to the southern coast of Italy, to a small town where I would have an apartment and friends and know the language. And I would eat the delicious foods and have coffee and gelato in the courtyard. And watch the sea from the balcony of my apartment.

You get to do somebody else's job for a day...
I’d be a doctor, something I always wanted to be, from the time I was little.

Spend the day with another person from anywhere in time and space...
I’d probably hang out with Natalie Clifford Barney and Romaine Brooks and their (mostly lesbian) salon in England in the early 20th century because I’ve read so much about it and it sound like a lot of fun!

A magical power is yours. Which one would you pick?
Well, of course, the ability to give myself unlimited powers. I’ve had this figured out since I was a kid. Who wouldn’t?

Sometimes I think I need this

And a shout out to Roe for this one!

Friday Five Moving

Jigsaw Puzzle of Life by the McGarrigle Sisters (kind of describes me and BL)

"We are right in the middle of a move--only twenty minutes away, but we're still a mix of busy, excited, nervous and surprisingly full of grief about what we're leaving, for me at least. So this week's Friday Five asks about your experience of the marvels and madness of moving..."

1. How many times have you moved? When was the last time?
The last time I moved wasn't really a move. I moved out of my weekend house after selling my half to an ex. I had owned my part for about 14 years and used it a lot. It was in Orient, NY, a two and a half hour drive and it was getting too cumbersome in too many ways...

2. What do you love and hate about moving?
I don't like moving, really.

3. Do you do it yourself or hire movers?
The only time I've hired movers was when I moved to this apartment in 1980-Star Trek Movers-no really! I didn't own much at the time.

4. Advice for surviving and thriving during a move?
Ah, can't give you that. Not enough experience

5. Are you in the middle of any inner moves, if not outer ones?

I'm searching for my spirituality, still searching. I guess that moving in a direction.

Bonus: Share a piece of music/poetry/film/book that expresses something about what moving means to you.
I'm going to repost the McGarrigle sisters Mendocino which so reminded me of Orient. We had a little music group there, and that's one of the songs we sang and played. It really made me nostalgic. (Unless I can find Jean Redpath who used to come visit in Orient, NY.)

Don't forget to get your 'mass pass' to go the other way!

As we all know by now, the current draconian, 80 year old white celibate-or so we hear- head catholic man is coming to our fair city to screw up traffic and to spawn a host of demonstrations and tastless, yet funny souveniers. Here's one from Washington in their mass transit ad.

Show at MOMA

BL and I studied this picture for quite a while before before we figured out that the green things are Watermelons and not peas and the woman is the artist. They're floating in the dead sea. The watermelons are attached together like a huge string of pearls, albeit green. We wondered how the artist got in there. According the review, she's laying on the pontoon like assemblage, but it looks like she is a part of it. How did she get in there? Did she swim in and then emerge in the right place and situate herself. The reflection from all that green makes her hair look green. Some of the Watermelons have lost their tops. I think she's been snacking!

Friday Five-Revelation

With this Sunday's gospel reading in mind, that wonderful revelation of Christ to the companions on the Emmaus road. I wonder where you might have been surprised by God's revelation recently. (Hmmm, so that's what Emmaus means?)

So with no further waffle I offer you this weeks Friday 5:

When I first read this, I thought, not really...That's what I'm doing here. Searching for that Sign. Well. I'm still the searching agnostic in the woodpile of Revgals, alas. So you will find here plenty of waffling.

How has God revealed him/herself to you in a:

1. Book- I've read many wonderful books through my life, from To Kill a Mockingbird, on. I recently read, Eat, Pray, Love. But did I see the revelation of God, I can't say.

2. Film- I've seen many films of man's humanity to man, actualy not many as I don't go to many films for some reason, but I've seen more that leave me crying and sad like Gallipoli and Brokeback Mountain.

3. Song- I can't think of any.

4. Another person- Well, there is the beauty and love I see in my Beloved's eyes.

5. Creation- The buds popping from the the tree right now.

April Fool!

Synagoge-Should I go to the Retreat?

As I've said before, BL is Jewish and very active in her synagogue, and I'm Christian and ... searching. The synagogue she belongs to is CBST, the ONLY gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender and others shul in NYC. I really haven't been around the shul since a few unpleasant things occurred at the retreat last spring. Sue and I had heard that The head rabbi was now marrying a Jew and a non Jew (her wording-which I was trying to change.) We had also had heard from a member of the board that she was allowing couples where one was not Jewish to be buried in their cemetery (BL had been be nagging me to sign my will, and this was one item that was missing.) We spoke to the rabbi and she told us that there was no way that she would allow us to be buried together in the CBST cemetery-BL could, but no space for a non-Jew. Then I asked her about continually calling members of other religions non-Jews. She gave me a spiel about how there were so few Jews (in the world yada yada...) and she felt it was a political statement and intended to keep doing it.

Actually, I've been spiritually away since the head rabbi refused to marry us because I, a post menopausal woman and unable to bear children, was not Jewish. Yesterday we went to an adult Bat Mitvah of a close friend. I was so uncomfortable I could barely sit still. I had to meditate on my discomfort which is something I have learned to do. I realized that I was comfortable being 'other', but being told that you are 'other' and unwelcome in so many different ways was just too uncomfortable. I noticed unkind acts, like the man next to me who took up three chairs, yet was rarely in them. I was looking for things that were wrong.

The CBST retreat is coming up. I want my BL to go because she will have a good time and be amongst her friends. Should I go and try to detach, read my books, enjoy nature, put down my fists and stop trying to change the unchangeable? Or should I just stay home-and BK will probable stay home too?