From Elsewhere (A Secular Place)

from a note to a friend about the idea of going away over YK (I'm likely not; watch, I'll find religion. lol.). I added some returns to make it easier to read.

As you know, part of me digs the spiritual, and I dig taking the month before the holidays as a time for introspection and thinking about how things have gone and where I want them to go and all that s, but I have stuck around and been around for holidays because it might be my [relative]'s last for about five years, now ...

... (today's 7 years since my grandpa died; I think of him every day, and was thinking jahrzeit is stupid [for those who remember the dead daily], so I looked up what it's all about, and I learned folks who go to pray in public say [a memorial prayer that's actually an affirmation of faith; kooky Jews] the mourner's Kaddish, in addition to lighting a candle.

(And I learned that lighting a candle is a custom from other faiths, but I kind of like the idea of singing a song that makes you feel like (ooh, child, things are gonna get easier ... ), and I like the idea of shining some light, figuratively or literally, on a day that might otherwise have some extra boo in it.

And that's me. I learn what it is and take the parts I like and make them mine, sometimes in my own way. And I don't believe God's a man with a beard in the sky, but when we all get musical goosebumps, that's bigger than all of us, and if anyone wants to call that God, that's fine with me, 'cause I totally believe in that.