Blue Boat of Youth and Young Adult MinistriesMy Favorite Links on Race
Race in America is a complex subject, but there are some great tools out there for you to start the conversation. We are called by our faith to work for justice, to create welcoming communities, and to honor our individual gifts, and confronting issues of race and ethnicity sit at the heart of that calling. Below is a hand-selected list my favorite links out there on the interwebs, perfect for jump starting discussions among folks of across all ages: Blogs Code Switch – This NPR blog is one of the best places for new takes on race and culture, particularly the intersection of race with other identities and issues (like gender and class). …
Questionable Reflections
Humor about Identity… Oil in Water or Watery Wine? Even when acting with intention to be respectful of the many ways in which we are different, we also love to laugh (in fact laughter is considered as being essential to good health). Unfortunately, humor is complex, different for everybody and often at least a little offensive to be effective. In the “documentary series” Funny Business, Rowan Atkinson claims that people can be funny in three ways: by behaving in an unusual way, being in an unusual place, or being the wrong size.[*] We’ve collected some example of Thanksgivukkah humor that tries to straddle the line between tastefully offensive and just not okay. Watch, read, laugh,…
Gratitude and Grief: Holidays are complicated
Faith Helps When I was a kid my Thanksgiving holidays looked a lot like the seasonal TV commercials. We would gather at my maternal grandparents’ house, all the aunts, uncles and cousins. The food was delicious and plentiful, the family squabbles were bearable and the grown-ups talked and laughed at the big table while us kids ran around playing together. Then, when I was twelve, everything changed. My grandfather died of a heart attack on Thanksgiving Day in 1997. Soon it was discovered that my grandmother had Dementia. My mother and her four siblings began struggling over what to do, and conflicts erupted. We stopped celebrating Thanksgiving with that side of the family. And that’s…
It’s complicated
It feels like a math equation that I just can’t solve: your family’s traditions + my family’s traditions – our budget x are we adults yet = ??? On Monday, my mom texted me about pie, or rather, she group texted me and my two brothers. She was making a list of the types of pie being considered, which sparked a fair bit of conversation as the list was substantial. Thanksgiving is one of those big deal holidays in my family. It is a huge gathering that spans multiple days with food, football, family and always some lively… well, let’s call them debates. It is exhausting. And I love it. But…
A Super Opportunity for Interfaith Sensitivity
A Once-in-a-Lifetime Opportunity … In More Ways Than One! One of the characteristics of being in the minority is that one is seen by society not for what one actually is, but through the lens of the dominant culture. It takes practice for us to see something that is non-dominant with simply our naked eye. This is how our country has seen Hanukkah – through the prism of Christmas. Because they usually occur so close together, it’s been easy for American culture to conflate the two and get the impression that Hanukkah is “the Jewish Christmas.” Retailers help the association along by tossing up some blue-and-white-and-silver along with the red-and-green-and-gold, hoping to assuage non-Christians who…
A Fine Mix
Rabbi David Kudan asks, Are We Right to Blend Hanukkah and Thanksgiving This Year?. His answer demonstrates the power of adopting an interfaith approach to finding meaning in mixed traditions. Re-posted from ReformJudiasm.org–Ed. As you’ve undoubtedly heard, the Jewish calendar and the secular calendar offer a strange convergence in the United States this year as Hanukkah and Thanksgiving coincide. The Jewish media has been full of humorous articles about combined menus (like this one from Jewish cooking expert Tina Wasserman) featuring foods like latkes with cranberry sauce, and the term “Thanksgivukkah” has been coined to describe the merged holiday. While this is all in good fun, perhaps we should take another look at the…
A Once in a 77,798 Year Celebration
Guest post by Stephanie Carey-Marron. – Ed. Yes, It’s Kinda a Big Deal You may have already guessed that Thanksgiving is a pretty big deal in Massachusetts, where the holiday began. That first meal between the pilgrims and the indigenous people? That happened not too far from my office. I’m writing from Boston, pretty close to Plymouth Rock, and the city and state are excited for the holiday, but maybe not the holiday as you know it. Mayor Thomas Menino declared November 27, 2013 Thanksgivukkah for the City of Boston. But, what’s Thanksgivukkah? This year, for the first time in our lifetime, Thanksgiving (November 28) coincides with the first day of Hanukkah (the evening…
Unequal Helpings – Thanksgiving History
A founding story of American Thanksgiving, reflected by the History Channel claims, ” In 1621, the Plymouth colonists and Wampanoag Indians shared an autumn harvest feast that is acknowledged today as one of the first Thanksgiving celebrations in the colonies.”(Read source here.) But that story isn’t the only one. Here we present a telling of the history of Thanksgiving from the Native American point-of-view.– Ed. What Really Happened at the First Thanksgiving? The Wampanoag Side of the Tale Reposted from Indian Country Today Media Network.com. Gale Courey Toensing 11/23/12 When you hear about the Pilgrims and “the Indians” harmoniously sharing the “first Thanksgiving” meal in 1621, the Indians referred to…
Once in this Lifetime – Celebrate Thanksgivukkah!
We’re making the mash-up! The Blue Boat of Youth and Young Adult Ministries is doing something special to celebrate the unusual confluence of Thanksgiving and Hanukkah, an event that is not predicted to occur again before the year 2070. We’re preparing food for the spirit and conversation since we’re locked in cloud-space and can’t give you somethin’ yummy for yer tummy. Wednesday, November 27 we present the special Blue Boat mash-up “Thanksgivukkah” section exploring themes, stories and ideas lifted-up by these holidays and their intersection. For some Thanksgivukkah might be nothing more than an inevitable quirk when two calendars collide – Thanksgiving being metered by the Gregorian calendar while Hanukkah follows the lunisolar Hebrew calendar….
Thank Goodness for Thanksgivukkah!
Coming to your household soon…
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