TIS THE SEASON

There is so much huha going on in the news and in the blogs about Christmas trees and Channukah menorahs that I decided to tell you a story.

When I was six months old I met Sydonia. She lived next door. Her family aren't Jewish, they are Ukranian, and I was well into my teens before I learned that our two races weren't exactly bosom buddies in the past.

See, our families sort of just merged. Sydonia and I ate lunch together for seventeen years until she went to Toronto to college. One day at my house and the next day at hers. Our two younger brothers D&D did too. Our Dads met often for coffee as their places of business were just up the street from one another. Our Moms always called each other Mrs. So and So, never ever by their first names.

We were inseperable. And today, we are still as close as ever, thanks to email and cheap phone rates. A lifetime of friendship.

Every year I was invited to help them decorate their Christmas tree. And then we went together to midnight mass. I painted Easter eggs and shared all the wonderful Ukranian food her mother so lovingly made.

And she came to my house to light Channukah licht. And was always at our Pessach seder. And she speaks Yiddish. And I learned how to sing in Ukranian...something about a zhabbeh (frog). Yahoooo I remember.


You wanna know how we did it?

We did it because our two sets of parents embraced each other. Encouraged us to be safe in our own ways while learning and exploring a different path. We were safe in their church. No one tried to convert us. We were the Jewish kids who came with the S. family.

The older I got and the more I thought about our friendship, the more I sat in awe of our two mothers. My Mom finished high school; got married when she was eighteen; was a child of Russian immigrants who survived the First World War and lived through the depression; and who, herself lived through the Second World War.

Sydonia's Mom had her own story, rather similar.

And these two women were smart enough to let us merge and yet be ourselves. I don't know how they did it. Perhaps by embracing our differences and not demanding we be similar.

Mrs. S. has been gone for a very long time and I miss her and think of her always.

Now, what would have been the big deal if that airport would have put up a nice tree and a little menorah? What would happen if television embraced all religions equally?

And what would have happened if Bubbie Channah and Mrs. S. would have been the leaders of Israel and any major Arab country in the region?

Now that is something worth pondering.

In the meantime, Sydonia, put a little ornament on the tree for me, and if you feel a little draft near your tush, it's just me dropping in to say shalom.

Have a great day...stay safe...and thanks for dropping in.