You know, when I started this blog it was really, honest to goodness, so that my friends and family could keep track of me while I spent the year in the War-Torn Middle East ™ without my having to spam the inboxes of whoever I decided really, really, really wanted to read about my big adventure doing laundry (ohh, but Israeli laundry. How very exciting.) And little by little I’ve discovered that other people are reading it, which is both nice and strange, in that who-am-I-speaking-to-and-why kind of way. Now, with this Jew*School thang, I wonder if there won’t be even more traffic this way. I just decided to give up any illusions of anonymity and put my professional (old, outdated) website in a more findable place than wherever I had had it buried. You know, whatever, you win, it’s me.
Part of me really does want to hide anything that could trace me to my “real identity” (not that I know what that is or where I left it) so that I can have the freedom to be my real, unenlightened, couth, dorky self and not have to qualify every offhand comment that might be accidentally misinterpreted. But then I think about AKMA’s wise comments to me a year-plus ago about the value of blogging for clergy-to-be (n’sh’Allah/b’ezrat Hashem). He argued that it was good for baby ministers and rabbis to get used to, well, getting misinterpreted, and figuring out how to speak casually yet responsibly in a public space. And he’s probably right. So even though I’m having flashes of having to defend blog entries at the interview for some pulpit job–after some board member found this site and became enraged about sub-point 17b from something three years earlier–I guess I’m going to risk it. Will my future potential employers or, more importantly, my future potential congregants care that I painted my toenails an ugly shade of yellow? Who knows? But I’m pretty certain that I can’t possibly become good clergy if I don’t risk exposure, if I don’t put myself out there and tell the truth insofar as I have discerned up ’till now (truth subject to change without notice) and let the chips fall where they may. So, Okay, let’s see how this goes (*deep breath*).
I guess I’m here, I’m outed as a blogger, hey. I’d still love to know who’s out there, so if you read this thing, please do quit the lurking and comment every now and again, K?
And hey–Hodesh Tov! Rosh Hodesh Elul starts this evening, kicking off a month of serious contemplation in preparation for the High Holy Days. Maybe this is an appropriate post in the season of finding the hidden and revealing it (to yourself, to God, to those around you.) Yidden, may your tshuvah be fruitful and your time to actually do the work of making tshuvah actaully be abundant this year. And so it begins………
Welcome! — lwj
I have quit reading news.google.com. I’m sticking to this blog.
Leon Suskin posting anonymously
Interestingly I found your professional website (googling for “egalitarian sephardi”) in the same week I found your blog (linked from somebody else’s, I don’t remember whose). Where can I get a copy of your book?
Howdy, Simon–
I dunno where you live, and if you have good local indie bookstores around, but a lot of them, or some, or something carry it (as well as some of the big chains, but better to support local folk if you can). If not, Powell’s has a fantastic website. The link to YR is here:
http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/biblio?inkey=62-1580050573-0
Kol tuv, be well, muchas gracias.
I live in Jerusalem. Do any of the bookstores here stock it?
Ann Lamott has a wonderful line somewhere (I think it’s in “Bird by Bird”) about how writers have an obligation to tell the truth as we see it. I suspect this is even more true for those of us hoping to connect meaningfully with God. Making sense of the (our) world with our words is a holy act, if you ask me.
And hodesh tov to you! May your tshuvah be fruitful.
Hey, Simon–
The guys at Pomerantz said that they were ordering some ASAP, so check there in a week or two……
Hey Danya,
Okay, I’ll come out of the lurking closet. I started reading your blog ’cause AKMA mentioned it the other month. I’m a progressive Christian feminist/womanist (and also a lesbian), and find I have a lot in common with other women who are both serious about their religion and spirituality and are feminists. I’ve really enjoyed your blog so far. Thanks for doing it.
Peace,
Liane
Hey, Liane–
Yay, lovely to hear from you. Christian feminists are some of my favorite kinds of people (esp. the ones that hang around AKMA’s universe). Look forward to dialogues in the “comments” frame…