Mmmm, iced coffee at the Diesel is so good. It has a chocolatey taste. Speaking of tasty drinks, I recommend the apples-and-honey vodka shot, which was invented by Dr. J. last night.
After excessive sturm und drang I sent out my dissertation progress report. I am now procrastinating my little heart out over making my presentation, which I have got to practice tomorrow for my advisor, who takes no prisoners where presentations are concerned, and any members of my lab who would have liked to watch the Christians get mauled by the lions. I mean, who are working on adhesion and motility and might have constructive criticisms to offer.
Preparing for a presentation is a thousand times worse than actually giving it. I hope I will be saying the same thing on Friday afternoon. Gulp.
Happy Rosh Hashana to all the Chosen People! And to the High Holiday gate-crashers, like me, as well.
Question: Has there ever been any group in history that didn't consider itself to be the Chosen People? Like, was there ever a tribe who sat around their yurts saying to themselves, "Dude, how cool are the Gormblang tribe! I heard they were chosen by Schmendrick the Yak God as his special favorite tribe . . . man, I wish he'd picked us! Well, hey, props to the Gormblangs, anyway - I reckon Schmendrick knows what he's doing, being God and all, so who are we to argue with His Will? I guess I'll just maybe go see if the Gormblangs need someone to do the washing up."
All the ancient language seem to have a word for themselves which means "human" and a word for furriners that means "not quite human".
So while I love many aspects of Judaism - not least of which are honey cakes, Seder, and my friends - and I support the right of Israel to be a nation, the whole "God said I was super special" and "By the way, God also said I could have this land" is a bit . . . thin.
But, hey, maybe I am just bitter because I wasn't on God's e-vite list.
After excessive sturm und drang I sent out my dissertation progress report. I am now procrastinating my little heart out over making my presentation, which I have got to practice tomorrow for my advisor, who takes no prisoners where presentations are concerned, and any members of my lab who would have liked to watch the Christians get mauled by the lions. I mean, who are working on adhesion and motility and might have constructive criticisms to offer.
Preparing for a presentation is a thousand times worse than actually giving it. I hope I will be saying the same thing on Friday afternoon. Gulp.
Happy Rosh Hashana to all the Chosen People! And to the High Holiday gate-crashers, like me, as well.
Question: Has there ever been any group in history that didn't consider itself to be the Chosen People? Like, was there ever a tribe who sat around their yurts saying to themselves, "Dude, how cool are the Gormblang tribe! I heard they were chosen by Schmendrick the Yak God as his special favorite tribe . . . man, I wish he'd picked us! Well, hey, props to the Gormblangs, anyway - I reckon Schmendrick knows what he's doing, being God and all, so who are we to argue with His Will? I guess I'll just maybe go see if the Gormblangs need someone to do the washing up."
All the ancient language seem to have a word for themselves which means "human" and a word for furriners that means "not quite human".
So while I love many aspects of Judaism - not least of which are honey cakes, Seder, and my friends - and I support the right of Israel to be a nation, the whole "God said I was super special" and "By the way, God also said I could have this land" is a bit . . . thin.
But, hey, maybe I am just bitter because I wasn't on God's e-vite list.
posted by Joolya at
4:57 AM
2 Comments:
Yeah, I agree. All the business about being Chosen and given Israel is hard for me to relate to. I heard something funny on NPR last week (or was it this week? how time flies...) about jewish women and guilt. I think you would have laughed. A lot of it was by women who said whenever they were happy they were terrified a giant anvil would fall on their heads. One of them even took it so far as to talk about what it would take to orchestrate such an event- an airplane carrying something large and heavy would have to drop it at exactly the right moment... and yet, because the jewish faith teaches you that God has chosen you to be hard on, you should expect such miracles, if you dare to be happy.
That did make me laugh! Not least because I have used the "anvils falling on head" metaphor myself, although not in exactly that way.
I just think a lot of unpleasantness in the world could be avoided if everyone stopped harping on how Chosen their particular group is, and how that entitles them to things (religions, nationalities, races, etc.).
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