a small day

[quietann]

It appears that this day will be small. I will do minimal things that I know are on my plate, and little else. I am battling fatigue/depression again, for unknown reasons.

Funny OTD: Mama rat and babies got moved into a large multi-level cage yesterday. Babies are not climbing yet but they will be within 3 or 4 days. When I put them in, they were wandering around the floor of the cage, and mama was frantically trying to round them up. As of last night, she'd solved the problem by moving them all into the wire basket hanging from the top of the cage.

They can't crawl out of it, but they can fall out of it. Luckily, baby rats bounce. But this does mean rescuing the fallen ones and returning them to the basket occasionally. (Mama will do this when she notices before I do, of course.)

Baby rats cheer me up.

I do not want to go to Yom Kippur services at all, but when the time comes (Sunday night, Monday) I will do some minimal attendance. The only part that resonates with me much at all is Yizkor (the memorial prayer) on Monday. I will fast as long as my blood glucose values stay OK.

I just don't "get" large-scale denial of normal everyday pleasures for religious reasons. The first few years I paid attention to it, I tried so hard to get into it, and it's Just Not My Thing, OK? Pesach is easier; it's more of a game to try to avoid chametz for eight days, and the substitute foods are tasty enough that I'd eat them even when it isn't Pesach. And I like matzah enough that I'd probably do OK even without the "imitation chametz."

Comments

[vvalkyri.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure what i'm doing about yom kippur. i'll fast, and I won't go dancing even though I want to, and i'm not really spiritually moved toward a day of repentance just now . . . and yet still i feel i have to go. but no, this year I'll probably not stay the whole day, even though I've not yet heard the shofar .

[ailsaek.livejournal.com]

Well, I have chronic guilt feelings anyway, so mortifying my flesh once a year to purge it (ha!) works just fine for me.

[(Anonymous)]

Hi,
I don't want to seem to be proselytizing on behalf of self-denial for Yom Kippur -- my best friend has Crohn's and fasting for her is just stupid, she can either spend the day feeling too sick to pay any attention to anything else or she can eat and focus on the rest of the services. But for me, the fasting is a way to be reminded, sharply, of the pleasures life grants. I often try to keep the restrictions against "bathing for pleasure" and "anointing" -- and sometimes it's really those deprivations that shake up my world-view, more than the hunger, which bad adolescent dieting practices kind of permanently trivialized. 26-hour thirst and services, however, is a dreadful combination. But sometimes it gets kind of trippy and liminal, and I wonder if the point is like the point of "ordeal" rituals in some other religious practices, to induce trippy and liminal new ways of thinking.
LMW

[marmota.livejournal.com]

I just don't "get" large-scale denial of normal everyday pleasures for religious reasons.

At least it's a yearly observance and not a life choice. Ascetics (and for that matter, hedonists at the other extreme) tend to miss the point... denying a comfort or pleasure is a focus of will, a way to draw attention to a given moment. Comfort breeds complacency, and being a little on edge for a while increases awareness of that point in time. If you're always comfortable or never happy, then it's lacking contrast.

Skipping food is something a lot of religions use to heighten awareness of a given day; be glad that Judaism is one that understands that not all such practices work for all metabolisms?

[awfief.livejournal.com]

Well, define "large-scale". Some may say that limiting your diet for 8 days is large scale; you seem to be saying that eating nothing for 24 hours is large scale. I think something like Ramadam is more of a large-scale thing, not eating anything except one huge feast meal per day for a month is kinda nuts.

I see a 24-hour fast and an 8-day restriction as the same scale; or perhaps the 8-day one is a bit larger, because I tend to forget it's still Passover.

[quietann.livejournal.com]

Perhaps this is just a reflection of my issues around food, but "not being able to eat at all" is much worse than "not being able to eat certain foods."

As far as Ramadan goes, I've heard that a lot of people actually eat two meals, one at sunset and one just before sunrise. It's still nuts, but... I am sure that Muslim doctors have figured out a way to make it work for diabetics.