Music as Religion

Yesterday was Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year. Neil an I went to services at a new place in our quest to find a synagogue where we feel at home. Rosh Hashana is one of the two most important holidays of the year and we took a risk by going to services ad an unknown synagogue. Sadly, the risk did not pay off. The services were terrible for so many reasons I don't even want to go into it on my blog. Suffice it to say that I left the service feeling angry that I was deprived of the spiritual growth/fulfillment that I usually feel on Rosh Hashana.

Yesterday afternoon, after services, we drove to Charlottesville, VA, to see the Dave Matthew Band play in the band's hometown. The drive through rural Virginia took about 2.5 hours. We saw big beautiful Southern homes, stopped at a general store that had been in business since the 1800's and generally enjoyed ourselves.

At the concert, we were on the floor of the arena in the 14th or 15th row - great seats. The concert was incredible. The band played some new songs, I was close enough to see the facial expressions on Dave Matthews and most of the other band members. It was awesome. During about the fifth song, as I felt my chest pound with the rhythm and sang along to a song about how we all fade away, I realized that the concert was more of a spiritual experience than anything I felt that morning. That maybe music is my religion.

On the drive there Neil had told me part of what he doesn't like about music is how it transports him to the time and place where he first heard the song. I think it's the transportative quality of music that I love so much. When I listen to a favorite song, it brings me back to all the people I've listened to it with and all the places I have heard it. It's truly a spiritual experience. Hearing music live only heightens the power of the experience. It may sound cheesy, but there is nothing that can make me fell more alive and inspired than hearing my favorite band in person. This does not mean I am abandoning Judaism. We will try another synagogue for Yom Kippur and hopefully it will have more to offer. But it's nice to realize that I can also turn elsewhere for my spiritual fulfillment.

Culinary Magic

Most people who know me also know that I am not a genius in the kitchen. In fact, I mostly despise cooking. Part of the reason for this is sheer laziness, but in addition to my preference for having other people cook for me, I find cooking to be very stressful. I do not know how to look in the fridge, pull some ingredients together and make something. I have to follow recipes and the recipes have to be explicit. A "pinch" of salt is not clear enough. I stress and worry that if I do not measure everything exactly, it will come out wrong. I have similar problems when I try to knit, which has resulted in my completely giving up the hobby. I know some people find cooking and knitting to be relaxing, but to me, they are two endeavors that make me want to pull my hair out. If I have a loose stitch in a scarf I'm knitting, I will unravel the whole thing until I fix the mistake. Other people think such blemishes are charming, to me they are endlessly frustrating. I am sure this says something about me as a person, but I like to think I am not this kind of crazy perfectionist in every area of my life...

Anyways, my new friend Debbie gave me cooking advice the other day. She told me that all good food starts with sauteed onions. This sounded reasonable to me, I love sauteed onions. She also said that I should pick foods of a variety of colors and put together ingredients I like. This is very little guidance, but for some reason, I decided to take a risk and go for it. Last night, I sauteed an onion and started adding things until I came out with a really delicious pasta sauce. I had never successfully made sauce from scratch with no recipe before and this sauce was so good that Neil must have said yum at least ten times while eating his bowl of gnocci. It was like a miracle. I threw this food in a frying pan and it turned into sauce. I am sure I sound ridiculous to those of you who can cook, but this was a major breakthrough for me. Who knows, I may even be ready to try improvised cooking again soon. So long recipes, hello culinary magician!

Satisfaction

I find it amazingly satisfying to recycle. Every time I take the bag of newspapers and plastic bottles to our building trash room and empty it into the separate recycling containers, I feel really good. Additionally, while we didn't get rid of our cars in order to be environmentalists, I am really happy to adopt that title. I feel glad about the money we are saving by not having a car, but even moreso, I am glad that we are doing our part to lower polution. It all sounds a little goody two-shoes, but that's how I feel. To add to the cheesy factor, I think I feel this way, in large part, because of Al Gore's movie.