The Family that prays together...

Well, let's make that - "that prays period" will do me fine.

I did something I had been jones'ing for in a long while. Almost in the same way that a newly stopped smoker jones' when someone lights up at a party. I had been jones'ing for a good old-time-religion, tie-one-on, throw-another-gratitude-offering-on-the-barby, prayer meetin'

So off I went to a newish chavurah-type congregation that meets at one of the now not-so-used JCC complexes, near by. It was amazing. I hadn't felt the kinship to pray like that in a long time. The singing, the chanting, the shuckling and the bowing. Just what I needed to move thru to temple service with a bunch of similar thinking, G-d hunting, not over the hill, Jews. A bunch of folks just like me.

Families, extended and growing families. The Rabbi is a dynamic and thoughtful woman. A get-up-and-do-something-because-you-know-it-is-the-right-thing-to-do leader.

I felt like a neo-Hassid with a thru-and-thru progressive commitment to the Jewish people.

I felt good.

I felt G-d.

I cried as I sat with my talit conered hand in front of my eyes, reciting the sh'ma. I haven't cried in ever so long. Surrounded by a kahal that was singing my song, it felt so safe and right to cry at that point of the service.

I was home again after a long absence. Not from schule, because I have been looking for this experience for an age, but absent from a true spiritual experience that melds with my level of depth.

More, I am sure, to follow.

Waitangi Day, and Me

I am taking this opportunity to put down a little on what the Treaty of Waitangi means to me. It is an amazing part of being who we are, and the relationship we permit ourselves with the Treaty can be seen indicative as to the relationship we have with our nation, and with one another as citizens - or indeed tangata whenua.

This green and lush group of islands gave birth to us, and it shapes and forms who we are, and how we behave in the world. We are not big on litter, selfish motivation, or shirking responsibilities. And I believe that the treaty, in all it's strengths and weaknesses, is part and parcel of the shaping of New Zealanders as a group of people like no other. Distinct in our variety, yet striving for cohesive and open relationship with one another.

Today what was up until a very short time ago coloured with strife and even violence, is now being re-examined as a gateway to a new notion of nationhood. That what the day should signify is not what the treaty said, but what it did. To instruct the nation to celebrate at home, in their own communities, and intercommunities, to take heart in what is good and great about living in New Zealand today, and not on what is yet to be done.

• For this agreed arrangement therefore concerning the Government of the Queen, the Queen of England will protect all the ordinary people of New Zealand and will give them the same rights and duties (10) of citizenship as the people of England (11).

Pretty good for 1840, huh?

Imperfect as it is - and flawed as it is - it is still pretty good. Something to live up to, don't ya think?

So in a better effort to nail down what it is that this document day means to me, far from the fact and the act, I have signed up to receive an e-mail seminar on the Treaty. Sounds like fun to me.

Happy beginning day to you all.

Kia Kaha!