11-12-2023
Oy what a month it’s been. I could have named this article “It Sucks Being Old”. First, we are approaching winter in Minnesota and the regular shifts in weather are predicted by the often-excruciating pain in my lower back and well, the rest of my body. Nothing new there, but it is trying. My beloved wife is in the other room with her own pain. She doesn’t deal with pain well, so I’m listening to a steady “ummm…ummm… and it hurts me when it’s hurting her like that. While mine is ongoing, her pain comes in daily attacks for 3-4 hours.
Then there is the aftermath of the war overseas. As I view the bias all around me in the press and officials, the anti-Jewish hate that is spreading all over the land, well, it hurts my soul. Online calls for the return of the ovens. Really? Hate on both the right and the left of the Jew. People I once called friends declaring one sided biased rhetoric with absolutely no concept of the sheer complexity of it all. The Red Cross refuses to even demand to see the hostages taken on October 7. It’s obvious how the Shoah happened.
Will I stop wearing a kippah? Um no. I’m a Jew and will be me just as I am. I now know better who I cannot trust to hide me if we descend into another Holocaust. Being trans and gay when it wasn’t cool has given me great antennae for danger. I wish it were not so, but it is what it is. And we as Jews will not sit quietly. Am Yisrael Chai.
In other news, next Monday is Trans Day of Remembrance. My Rabbi reached out to me to make some comments in honor of the day at Friday night’s services. It will be so good to be among my peeps again. I hardly go anymore, simply because negotiating the pain and steep stairs is just too much for me. I’m alone (well me and my wife but she doesn’t talk much) most of the time, so being there with the people I love will be a special treat, pain be damned.
Anyway, this was an update from a moment in time, the ramblings of an old woman. Pain is increasing so I’d better bring this to an end. Short and sweet.
Shavua Tov and Love y’all; Jessica aka Yiskah Rachel
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