In June 2019 I graduated from the JOIN for Justice community organizing fellowship. After a grueling (and powerful) month-long writing and editing process, I discovered the story below and shared it at our graduation ceremony.
I am 30 years old.
Our Christian society tells me that time is linear and values progress - that at 30, I should be an educator, no longer a learner.
In JOIN we made my first Jewish calendar. The calendar marks years. In 5778, I was 29 and the idea of creating my own Jewish blessing felt impossible. In 5779, I turned 30 and Aviva taught me that creating blessings is holy work. Time and learning feel linear.
In JOIN we made my first Jewish calendar. Molly taught me that we celebrate trees in the winter month of Shevat. My body is learning the cycle of the seasons. I can see trees with bare branches and sense the coming spring. Time and learning feel cyclical.
In JOIN we made my first Jewish calendar. In Tishrei, the first month of the year, I will leave Boston. Emet taught me that when our Jewish ancestors moved, they brought garlic to plant wherever they landed. As my Boston story ends, a new story will begin. I don’t know where it leads, but I will bring plenty of garlic. Time and learning feel open ended.
Assimilating into Christian America stole my experience of time and learning as simultaneously linear, cyclical, and open-ended. Our Jewish calendar brought me back. I am an educator, and a learner. I make progress, and return to my roots. I am 30, and my story is just beginning.
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