Three Things Make a Post

OK, now off to Graceland.

Booklist Review!!

Surprised by God: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Religion.

Ruttenberg, Danya (Author)

Aug 2008. 256 p. Beacon, hardcover, $24.95. (9780807010686). 296.709.

Ruttenberg, who was recently ordained as a rabbi, decided at the age of 13 that she was an atheist. Then in the late 1990s, she experienced a spiritual awakening, taking what she describes as “a winding, semireluctant path through traditional Jewish practice that eventually took me to the rabbinate.” Ruttenberg writes that for her the work of the religious life has been about reconfiguration and reintegration, determining which parts she has outgrown and which could grow with her. The author, who lives in Los Angeles, lived for some time in Jerusalem. A tremendously satisfying memoir of spiritual awakening from the author of a variety of books and periodicals, including Encyclopedia Judaica.

— George Cohen

We’re in Little Rock now, which is supremely cute–its riverfront market area is, anyway. We’ve been strolling on President Clinton Avenue, and wandered into the Clinton Gift Shop, which includes paper dolls of the whole Clinton family (kind of scary, actually.) We camped last night in the Ozarks, which was very, very beautiful–very foresty and wet. Around dusk there were a slew of lightning bugs, which I haven’t seen since I was a kid. Happymaking.

This afternoon we go to Memphis. Memphis!!!

Greetings from Elk City

We’re somewhere in Oklahoma.

The last few days have included the Painted Desert, a petrified forest, a meteor crater, (all gorgeous, humbling, amazing), and God-bless-it Cadillac Ranch, which makes me totally, irrationally happy. There’s also been a lot of fantastic Wild West fakery and Texas kitch–including The Big Texan Steak Ranch. I’m going to be ordering cold salads anywhere I go around here, so why not do so in a place that’s amusing? And, indeed, four husky guys from Oklahoma were having a go at the free-72-oz-steak-dinner-if-eaten-within-an-hour challenge. We left when they were at the 30-minute mark, it looked like at least a couple of them were going to actually complete the thing.

Today is all about driving.

In other news, long, long, longtime lesbian activists Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon have gotten married. The photos are just wonderful.

Albuquerque

Is a fine place to sit on a summer morning and drink a frozen lemonade.

Day 2

What I have to say about the fact that my husband made me go to the Atomic Testing Museum: He is so going to Graceland. On the tour. And he will like it.

Hoover Dam was nifty, but it was too hot to run around and investigate properly. Most of what was exciting about today was the pretty pretty scenery everywhere. Arizona is purty.

Tonight we’re sleeping at Grand Canyon basecamp, and we’ll be camping inside the park tomorrow and for Shabbos–with plenty of water.

East of Eden

We set out yesterday on the Big Grand Adventure of Driving Really Far, aka taking our time relocating from the uttermost west (LA) to the slightly further east (Boston).

I still can’t believe that I’m leaving California after 11 years. I also can’t believe that I was a California resident for 11 years. But I was, and it was mostly great (tax rates nonwithstanding) and it’s sad to leave. On the other hand, I’m quite fond of the East Coast, and am certain that many good things will happen there, too.

We started off the day late–we had to load up the car, do the walkthrough with our landlord, run a few errands and the like. Our first order of business was to go out and give our feet a little dunk of Pacific Ocean. I got to say goodbye–for now–to this great body of water that has been my friend and teacher for the last decade-plus.

Now I have to go make friends with the Atlantic.

There was then a nice glut of LA traffic getting out of town (who are you people and where were you going at 2pm on a Wednesday?) but we finally got out into the pretty and the desert, through Mojave and Joshua trees, past purple mountains magesty (fo’ reals) and into the pretty desert. We were greeted at the Nevada border with, classically, a glut of tacky, blingy casinos and ads for things happening down the road.

We stayed over in Vegas, because neither I nor my sweetie had ever been, and hey, you gotta see it once, right? Well, no. But he wanted to go, so I consented. It is every bit as blinky and shiny and gaudy as I imagined, and not in a way that I, personally, enjoy. It was kind of like Eilat on steroids, but without the reason you go to Eilat (ie the sea.) Sure, the interior of some of the casinos are kind of hilarious in their decadent outrageousness, but I confess that I don’t really get the point of it all. Anyway, my sweetie and I wandered around for a bit, but we got pretty bored of sin city pretty quickly. What can I say? I prefer mitzvot.

Today will include the Hoover Dam, a weird museum my sweetie wants to check out, and on to the Grand Canyon. This is so the American trip.

More next time we have a few minutes’ wifi access, and hopefully crankiness of photo editing figured out by then….

ETA: Having about 30% success uploading photos. Better luck next time, but at least there are a couple up now.

If Only

This is the Google News page I wish I got to see in the morning.

Circumcise Me!

OK, not me–thanks. It’s the title of a movie. Yisrael Campbell is hilarious and wise-hearted and wonderful. You should make sure to catch this:

More info here.

Receiving Torah/Saying Goodbye

It’s been a busy time over here in the the land of three dimensions; our stuff has been packed and sent off to points east, and most of our furniture has been sent off to its new homes already–the remaining two or three items will be gone by today. We’re here through hag*, and God willing will get in the little green car and start trekking to the other big ocean on Wednesday.

Tonight I’m going to be teaching at two different institutions; the tradition is to study all night, and so I’m going to be on at 11pm at one place (the shul where I’ve been working all year) and 1:30 at another (the community that’s been my home base since I moved to LA). It will, God willing, be a very sweet evening filled with lots of nummy Torah; I’m really looking forward to getting some good learning from my friends, teachers and colleagues in at both locations.

Shavuot, happening when it does, often seems to be a time of transition for me–I seem always to be just leaving or coming back from someplace around now. I guess it’s a time of transition for all of us–out of Egypt, but not yet begun the new chapter necessitated by receiving Torah. God comes calling, and everything changes. Na’aseh v’nishmah (we will do and we will hear.) That is so often how our transitions happen, isn’t it? It’s about taking steps first, and then about understanding, perhaps later, what those steps might be about, what their implications might be for our lives.

Well, my first steps after receiving Torah are going to be, definitely, a little bit of wandering (more literally than spiritually, I think, this time–but who knows?) before I arrive to the next land designated for us, the Holy City of Boston. The wandering will even include a tent:

But generally, the tent will not be pitched inside a nice urban apartment. Nor, on the other hand, will it be guided by a pillar of fire at night–just our headlights. (I think, anyway–I’ll let you know if I’m wrong on this.)

I’m really going to miss folks here. I’m glad that I get one more hag here, for a little more celebration and time with folks. It’s not like I’ll never be back to visit. But after this Mattan Torah, there will be a new chapter for everyone–and mine will have me traveling on a bit.

*Shavuot, the holiday in which we receive Torah from Sinai, starts tonight and lasts through Tuesday night.

Packing

My living room is already stacked high with brown boxes, filled with books and linens and some art and the beginnings of the kitchen stuff. I’m hoping that by the end of the day, there will be a lot more filled boxes and a lot less stuff on shelves and in cabinets.

Moving is always a pain in the tuchus, and this time is no exception. We’ll be subletting for a couple of months while we find a place that we’ll actually want to live in, so I’m packing knowing that I might not see my stuff until as late as September. With the books, particularly, I’m finding this amusingly difficult. I have a close relationship with my library, and I have to figure out what (minimum) number of books I’ll ship to have on hand over the summer and which ones (most) to pack. I just packed my Shulchan Aruch, and I keep wondering–well, what if I have a halakhic emergency?? What if I have to look something up??? (Never mind that I subscribe to Spertus and thus have access to the Shulchan Aruch and a whole lot more there. Still.) And as I go through some of my other books, I’m having all these great ideas for teaching–I could plan such a great lesson around that essay there! But it’s time to let it go–the books will be waiting for me when I get settled, and teaching brainstorming can commence after that. I’ve got plenty of ideas that can last me in the interim.

It’s all a little surreal, still. I’ve been in LA for a long time, and I still haven’t totally registered that I’m leaving for good this time. In some ways, it feels like just another organization for another summer away or year in Israel. I’m trying to make time to see the (many) people that I adore, but there are too many people and not enough time. There’s never enough time with the folks you love the most, really. I’m just grateful that I have them at all.