Pre-Christmas Eve ramblings

The thing is that “you” doesn’t leave room for individuality. “You” is a huge assembly line of people who are interested in Miss Nevada, Brittney Spears breasts, and really not much else according to a quick Technoarti search. I know enough bloggers to know that they’re not interested in that at all–well, maybe, some are interested in Brittney’s tits.

I want to believe that blogging can change the world and how we perceive each other. I want to believe that we blog to express who we are. Sometimes I feel that if I changed Couritng into an a pop culture blog I would have it made. But it wouldn’t be me. Though maybe the day of “me” is over and now it’s a collective “us,” not in the good sense but in the let’s all love this today and hate that tomorrow. And that’s ashame because it’s coming together despite our differences that make us a good and cohesive “you.”
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Can somebody explain why a Jew would think that a Muslim taking an oath to be “sworn” into congress would undermine our countries “Christian” values. I, a Jew, assume that all Jews ask for an Old Testament when being sworn into office for its religious meaning, the incredible symbolism that Jews can be full citizens–and I’m not going back to last year to rehash infamous, in my own mind,”Gratitude to Christians” post.

There is a third reason that a person would use a religious document of his own faith, even if he/she or me are agnostics. I had to testify as a representative of the nursing home, and the only bible they could find in The Bronx County Supreme Court was a New Testament. It just didn’t feel right.

It didn’t mean that I love this country any less than a Christian does. It meant that if I were too worship it would be with The Old Testament. It’s comforting though I have very little personal history with it.

My sister thinks we’re Consertative Jews and nobody has ever had the heart to tell her that since our parents didn’t belong to a temple until we were teenagers…We were almost killed the night she announced to my brother in law and I that she was half-Kosher. We had just begun driving away from Joe Stones Crabs below South Beach, and crabs are the most unKosher of foods because they define it. they’re pure scavengers.

My b-i-l was laughing so much he almost crashed the car. Stone Crabs are the single best food, especially at Joe’s with amazing creamed spinach and a to die for mustard sauce. She of course meant foods from pigs but she does eat pancetta.

I’m listening to Christmas music as I write this because I love it, and actually want my friends to play it, instead of rock, on Christmas to go with the homemade eggplant parmigiana, manicotti, and many other Italian foods. As they’re vegetarians and I basically am there’s never that pesky meat in sauce problem. That said I went to the building’s Christmas party specifically to eat Puerto Rican pork roast, the real name escapes me.

We’re a multi-cultural country. Why aren’t we celebrating that? The truest reason for my inability to leave New York is because I know of no other place except for Cambridge that embraces diversity without screaming “we’re diverse, we’re diverse.”

I have friends who are half East Indian Hindu and half Turkish Muslim. One had children with a Swede, the other South American. This is natural selection at its best.

We’re all American. I hope that we never lose respect for our roots while we forge what was and shall be again, an amazing country.

I am Jewish. As I have been planning a trip to Cancun, I have been reading Jewtopia It’s sickeningly true and I think very funny.

I use airline miles, and it will be a hotter day in hell if I’m forced to ever fly coach. I insist on oceanfront rooms at not oceanfront prices and except for last summer usually end up with a suite. My sister and I were trained to complain as an art form.

My friends used to think it classless of me because I would always ask for a doggy bag–hey at least two meals there, and would send back food if it wasn’t prepared exactly as ordered. And no beet could come within ten feet of my food. Now my friends do it more than I.

We learn from one another. I have learned from so many of you. To list each person would take a long time, and I would probably leave out a few key people and begin to obsess. So thanks for teaching me about America. I didn’t know the America outside NY, LA and South Florida, with NJ, Baltimore and a lot of New England. But you brought me into your worlds.

You taught me tolerance. I wasn’t, really. How could I be? I’m a real New Yorker who has the good fortune to live an over-priced life in the middle of Manhattan for most of the past 31 years, on January 2nd.

I really did feel superior when I began to blog, but so quickly learned that I’m not. I used to go to Europe all the time because of the history, and I felt at home in Britain. I still love it, but America is my country and I want to know it. I’m not being America-centric but I know other countries better than I know my own. It’s the political blogger in me that put in that last phrase. I find much more tolerance and true caring outside the political spectrum. The comments I got on my Gratitude post were amazing. Not in BIO, but in Pandagon, should really get the link.

Thank you. I’m able to tell my relatives and friends that many many people in red states don’t believe in the present administration and the war in Iraq and so much more. It feels good not to be a superior New Yorker.

Have a wonderful, Merry Christmas. Celebrate every holiday, or none