Jesus, and I cannot stress this enough, Fucking Christmas. You could not get any better definition of the religious hubris of tech if you looked it up in a Biblical encyclopedia. (Sutskever's post is so epically bad, it inspired my first cross-post!)
I negotiated with my son to give away all the little (and several big) plastic trinket-type toys we acquired to cheer us up over the course of the pandemic, in order to get his last big Hanukkah present. We talked about how our family doesn't believe in acquiring so much junk and how it's bad for the earth, but how we made an exception in hard times and now we're moving on. Feeling liberated!
If you think about meaningful ways to mark this time of year, and traditional rituals don't tend to resonate, check out Mt. Auburn Cemetery's solstice program if near Boston. I've led several funerals and spoken at beautifully inclusive events there over the years; when they reached out about this new project I took a group of Harvard & MIT students to celebrate end-of-term. I was so blown away I had to go back with family and friends tonight.
Videos here: https://www.mountauburnsolstice.org/
SOLSTICETFW you thought you had the afternoon to write, but the baby is sick and had to come home from daycare again just as you were getting started
The baby learned to crawl this week, and her favorite things to scoot towards are these pictures in my office:
#MeToo founder Tarana Burke (by artist Keith Knight kchronicles.com), and AOC.
As a @HarperCollins author I was dismayed to read that half the NYC office, which I've visited several times, is on strike. It must suck for authors whose books are about to come out but much solidarity with these workers. Donating to support the strike fund. #HCPOnStrike
https://neonliterary.substack.com/p/guest-column-what-authors-readers?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
Guest Column: What Authors, Readers, and Everyone Outside Institutional Publishing Should Understand About the HarperCollins Strike
In solidarity with the ongoing strike at HarperCollins, we’re handing the mic to Rachel Kambury, member of the HarperCollins Union and Associate Editor at Harper Wave and Harper Business.
Is Live Tooting a thing? Join me as I make it a thing Thanksgiving afternoon: posting about the Indigenous People's National Day of Mourning as I attend the annual observance w/my family; a former student who is now chaplain to MIT's Indigenous students; a big busload of our MIT & Harvard students, and thousands of allies. #MasksUpMayflowersDown #NDOM2022 #NoThanksNoGiving http://www.uaine.org/
Have been looking forward to meeting new folks on Mastodon, so shares/follows much appreciated!
United American Indians of New England - UAINE
UAINE is a Native-led organization of Native people and our supporters who fight back against racism and for the freedom of Leonard Peltier and other politic...
Watched Spaceballs with my kindergartner. Holds up, 35 years later. Not just as a surprisingly good primer on our family's heritage as nonreligious Jews, but as a political/social message. In Spaceballs, the villains (Rick Moranis, Mel Brooks, and a pizza) are never allowed to be wrong or weak. It's what makes them so funny, but also what makes bad leadership—and facism—both then and now. Vulnerability, imperfection, humanity, and absurd humor are still our best tools against dark forces, today.
“I can’t swear on the Bible there was no Judaism before, I can only say there is no evidence for it, and I can say we have some counterevidence for it...the second century B.C.E. is the more probable setting for the birth of Judaism.”
Riveting new archaeological analysis of Jewish history via new book “The Origins of Judaism (Yale U. press).” Fits well with my humanist rabbinic training! This excellent article=relevant to all interested in how modern religion evolved.
https://www.haaretz.com/archaeology/2022-11-15/ty-article/when-did-judaism-emerge-far-later-than-assumed-new-theory-suggests/00000184-7605-deef-a3cd-765584c70000
When did Judaism emerge? Far later than assumed, new theory suggests
Vast review finds no evidence that the Torah laws were commonly observed before the second century B.C.E., says Prof. Yonatan Adler. Not all agree
I'll write more about tech, religion, and humanism later. Just stopping by to say I just had this on a wing. 9 out of 10 on Hot Ones (the reality show). Pain! I have a dream to one day enter a chili eating contest, and I got my son to egg me on - he made me order this and cheered raucously while I ate. What's the spiciest thing you've ever tried?
