I board the bus yesterday and say to the driver, "Happy New Year." She says, "It's early for that." I say it is Rosh Hoshanah, that is, the Jewish New Year. She looks as if this smells bad to her, and says, "I don't know nothin' about that," which can be translated, "Nothing about that funny business." It is a funny business, a new fangled holiday by a funny people out of the mainstream. Is this a little how a Jew might feel in a place like this?
The bus driver is telling me about the pool house she wants to put up around her pool, and the money she wants to spend to do this and do that, and the lottery she would like to win, and this and that and the other. She is Christian. Like me. Like everyone else. Christianity is in the water here, the hard an ancient teaching diluted into superstitions, church on Sunday, and the phrase "Jesus saves," even though nobody knows anything about Jesus, or what he's supposed to be saving them from.
Saturday, September 18, 2004
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4 comments:
That's why I love living in a metropolitan area (Washington DC)...the diversity...we get days off of school for Rosh Hoshanah, no matter what religion we happen to be. People are generally accepting of any differences...my school happens to be 30% Jewish, so what do you know.
"Anonymous" : )
Thanks, Anonymous, for reminding me the world's not totally crazy.
I remember back at school that we had 2 jewish boys in my year, and their parents wouldn't allow them to join in with our assemblies (not sure if you have the same thing: all year meets together at beginning of day and sings/prays/gets lectured etc.) as we sang Christian hymns!
I don't think I actually know ANY Jewish people. At all. Oh dear.
We had that back in Catholic school. Everyone had to go to Mass, but it was liek ocne every two weeks, and people who didn't want to go skipped out. No one there would admit to being Jewish. It was sort of shameful in northwest Ohio.
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