Saturday, September 22, 2007

Yom Kippur

It's Yom Kippur today.

You know me, I'm a total atheist, so while I'm all for keeping holidays, for cultural reasons and (mainly) because some of them are fun, I'm also totally opposed to keeping any holiday or cultural tradition that makes my child cry.

Which this one, at least the way mr. delagar was insisting on keeping it, was doing.

It's a day of reflection, a day when we're supposed to look back on the past year and forward on new year, considering what we got wrong and how we might get things right, so okay, that sounds fine, except for how she's nine, and she can't really be expected to do that, and nothing else, all day long.

"I can't read books tomorrow?" she asked woefully. "I can't draw? I can't go to the library? I can't play with my pop beads?"

"Tomorrow is not a day for playing!" mr. delagar thundered.

She burst into tears.

At which point I had to bite my tongue hard to keep from intervening. Because, you know, if I had wanted a fundmentalist for a husband, I would have fucking married one.

Where did this guy come from?

5 comments:

CB said...

don't you have to fast for Yom Kippur?

delagar said...

Yep, that's supposed to be part of it, but the kid doesn't have to fast b/c she's under 13, and mr. delagar can't b/c he's a diabetic, and you know me, I don't do that stuff.

Anonymous said...

So how'd it go?

Kudos to you for not bellowing back. I'm generally not able to hold my tongue in those situations.

CB said...

cools..I'm noticing a lot of fasting going on around this time of year. I believe that the Muslims just finished a fasting holiday.

Y?

delagar said...

Yeah, it's also Ramadan. I don't think the Days of Awe and Ramadan always line up, but they did this year.

Tonks, I just shut up, but that was b/c I knew mr. delagar wouldn't actually follow through -- he's big on imposing draconian rules, but he sucks on follow through. And that's what happened -- he *said* she couldn't do anything but contemplate her past misdeeds and future changes all day long, but in actual fact, he pretty much let her do what she liked all day. (Which was what I itched to *tell* her, during that uproar the night before -- don't you know your father yet? Just shut up and do what you want, child! That's how he works! Except, you know, that would be subverting him. Which maybe I shouldn't exactly do...)