Lesser Holidays

As my sister Sue well described, we were all raised as bagel Jews -- that is, proud of our ethnic identity, but with no real sense of observing the faith. We had an electric menorah in the window of our house on LI, but it was more in the spirit of adding to the holiday cheer. We also did light a real menorah, again -- to have something to answer to the Xmas trees of our gentile friends. I knew there were Jewish holidays --like Purim and Simchas Torah, but we never observed them. In college, as I got close to Jewish friends, I learned, at least, what the holidays were, and their meanings. When the Ds were small, Wifey and I sent them to a reform temple and later the JCC, and they got a much fuller education than I did. I remember them dressing up for Purim -- a holiday I vaguely understood as having to do with a queen who used her "feminine wiles" to save the Jews -- paving the way for generations upon generations of Jewish women manipulating their men... I remember D1 saying she like Purim, because it "was like Jewish Halloween." I remember thinking how funny it was that we needed to relate a Jewish holiday to a paganized one to understand it. So, alas, Purim approaches. I really dig hamentashen, the Purim pastry. D2 is back at UF -- I doubt she'll celebrate -- although she may get lured over to Chabad of UF and have a hamentashen or two. D1 is busy as ever -- full time JMH dietician, and seeing private clients on weekends -- all while being a very dedicated dog mommy... Our new young lawyer Vince is a proud Irish American from LA, and he has asked all of us men to join him on Monday to celebrate St. Paddy's Day with him -- with a few adult beverages, and hearty and mirthful talk. I told him I'm definitely in. And so we mark the time, as the holidays come and go. My lovely mother's one year anniversary of leaving this earth is next month. If we practiced our faith, we'd be planning the unveiling of her headstone next week --11 months after her funeral. As it is, I'll swing by Matheson Hammock, and remember her as I look out on the Bay --my Dad, too. So maybe someday there'll be grandkids, and celebrating Purim at a Jewish pre school. That would be something.