Cold morning (plus cat report and book review)
Woke up at a ridiculously early hour for a Saturday (6:30 AM), and have mostly been catching up online. Both here and on Facebook, people are talking about what a cold morning it is. I just opened the blinds to discover that what I thought for a moment was frost on my balcony railing is actually ice. The neighbor's roof is all frosted over as well, and it's gray and foggy outside. I had this idea I might take a walk this morning but perhaps I'll skip it for staying inside and warm.
I know it's really winter when I start using the snowflake icon.
In feline news, Sophie has stopped treating Spanky as a spooky stranger, and they're friends again. She's expressed some curiosity about his poor ear, but I'm watching to make sure she stays away from it. She is otherwise up to her old tricks, straddling his back and cleaning his neck and shoulders. He is indulgent...until he's not.
Night before last, I finished reading Thirteen and a Day: The Bar and Bat Mitzvah Across America by Mark Oppenheimer, a survey of Jewish rite-of-passage culture in America. Oppenheimer's got a congenial narrative voice that carries the reader through the book at a pleasantly informative pace. He travels the country, attending b'nai mitzvah in search of the essence and the state of the phenomenon, from Connecticut to Alaska to the Deep South, discovering children, adults, converts and gentiles participating in ritual and reflecting on what it means to be Jewish and b'nai mitzvah today. The author is thoughtful and insightful on the subject, at his best, I think, when he dives deep into what he's observed and how it translates to a larger American and religious experience. I quite enjoyed this book and recommend it.
I want to post about my emotional and intellectual reaction to the book a little more later, in light of a) my own bat mitzvah, b) recent personal experience and c) in light of mcjulie's recent series on her religious evolution, but I want to process my ideas a little more.
And now, on with the day. A hot shower and a toasted bagel await me.
I know it's really winter when I start using the snowflake icon.
In feline news, Sophie has stopped treating Spanky as a spooky stranger, and they're friends again. She's expressed some curiosity about his poor ear, but I'm watching to make sure she stays away from it. She is otherwise up to her old tricks, straddling his back and cleaning his neck and shoulders. He is indulgent...until he's not.
Night before last, I finished reading Thirteen and a Day: The Bar and Bat Mitzvah Across America by Mark Oppenheimer, a survey of Jewish rite-of-passage culture in America. Oppenheimer's got a congenial narrative voice that carries the reader through the book at a pleasantly informative pace. He travels the country, attending b'nai mitzvah in search of the essence and the state of the phenomenon, from Connecticut to Alaska to the Deep South, discovering children, adults, converts and gentiles participating in ritual and reflecting on what it means to be Jewish and b'nai mitzvah today. The author is thoughtful and insightful on the subject, at his best, I think, when he dives deep into what he's observed and how it translates to a larger American and religious experience. I quite enjoyed this book and recommend it.
I want to post about my emotional and intellectual reaction to the book a little more later, in light of a) my own bat mitzvah, b) recent personal experience and c) in light of mcjulie's recent series on her religious evolution, but I want to process my ideas a little more.
And now, on with the day. A hot shower and a toasted bagel await me.