Dexterity Experiments R --> L

I promise that I am not abandoning this blog. It has been a bizarre yet wonderful few weeks and I will do my best to articulate them very soon-hopefully later tonight. For now, I'll leave you with my new goal. Call it an experiment, really. I am going to attempt to train myself to become ambidextrous. The daily work grind is leaving my dominant hand feeling overworked and unappreciated. Starting today, I will try to fight my instincts and, whenever possible, use my left hand first.

In other news, it is my birthday. I'm setting the bar really low and hoping to eat, drink, be merry, and get to bed early enough to be rested for my 16 hour day tomorrow.

Cheers!

Death, dismemberment, and a walk in the park. Just your typical Wednesday afternoon.

I spent the greater part of my day learning about all of the benefits that will accompany my new job with the government, along with my protection from harassment and various other workplace unpleasantries. I am now a Teamster member for life, which is great because I love rights and a good collective bargain every now and then. Later in the day, I had some time to walk around Pioneer Square and reflect upon my new position as a civil servant.

I realized that the meeting was indeed very informative and I now have enough literature about my employment to create a small textbook. At the time, the meeting seemed rather upbeat, but in retrospect I realize how taken aback I am by the casual tone in which one benefit was discussed: Accidental Death & Dismemberment insurance, or AD&D as it is playfully abbreviated for those who use the phrase with enough frequency. AD&D comes as a separate entity to life insurance, although really, at the end of the day, both forms of compensation are reminders of our fragility and our mortality.

From what I've been able to understand so far, LIFE INSURANCE is the government's (or any other corporation's) way of saying, "Your life was worth something, $X, in fact. You = $X. Now your loved ones can have $X instead of you. It's close enough, right?"

AD&D INSURANCE is a bit more like saying, "Oops! That wasn't supposed to happen. Here is $X for the whole of you (remember You = $X), OR $X (whole) ÷ Y (loss of various extremities) - Z (loss of workplace ability e.g. typing) = x (new worth)."




This may be a rather morbid way of quantifying the goals of insurance, but isn't insurance all about quantifying us? It gives us and our massive amounts of stuff a numerical value. I do find it somewhat disturbing that my hands are now worth a value inasmuch as that value contributes to my work performance. Even worse, this value exceeds many families' entire gross annual income around the world. AD&D really gave me a new perspective on the phrase "it costs an arm and a leg," but at the end of the day the trade-off just doesn't seem worth it. A topic of discussion for my next Teamster meeting, perhaps?

Secular Seder

We live in a world radicalized and polarized by religion. The terrorist bombings in Moscow early this morning represent merely one manifestation of the power religion has to guide-and misguide-global citizens who identify most strongly with an ambiguously written text of their god(s). The past thousands of years have witnessed wars fought in the name of religious persecution, religious freedom, religious imposition, religious conversion, and religious rejection. I realize that religion is a personal and complicated issue for every individual, but I often wonder how much international inter- and intra-religious strife is caused by attempts to conform to a few people's often strict interpretations of a certain religion, without leaving much room for error- or worse, leaving so much room that all actions become dignified or redeemable.


As a Jewish woman of Russian descent, I can safely say that my ancestors have been involved in the vast majority of these religious wars, most often as the group being banished, forcibly converted, pogrom-ed, or simply killed. I am the first to defend Judaism in the face of Antisemitism and I proudly celebrate many aspects of Jewish culture, from the music to the food. However, I, like so many Jews around the world, live by my own moral compass rather than that of the Torah (or any other realm of Jewish law). I grew up going to a school in a predominantly Jewish neighborhood. I have been to Israel and was even Bat Mitzvahed in Jerusalem (reading phonetic Hebrew, mind you). I lived in Prague, a fairly hostile city to religion and Judaism in particular (Neo-Nazism is making a frightening comeback all throughout Europe and U.S. KKK leader David Duke is a household name for many Central Europeans). All of these experiences have strengthened my connection to the rich, beautiful, and tragic history of Judaism while further distancing me from any form of religiosity.


This all brings me to tonight, the first night of Passover, and my first ever "Secular Seder". Tonight, I decided that the most important part of my favorite Jewish holiday was not really about religion at all, but about gathering and remembrance. My Seder consisted of Trader Joes tamale appetizers, homemade matzoh ball soup and charoset, Hot Toddies for dessert, and the company of wonderful people. I celebrated my Pesach very casually with one of my dearest and oldest friends Alexa, her boyfriend Logan, and our friend Kirsten (the latter two are not Jewish, but wanted to share the culinary and emotional experience). We had many laughs, told the story of Passover (somewhat butchering the story and using many ellipses), found no afikomen, sang no songs, asked none of the four questions, and recited no prayers.


It was a bit unconventional, possibly sacrilegious to some, and exactly how I wanted my night to progress. Will it be my new Passover tradition? Probably not. I still love the more traditional Seders I attended with my family growing up. However, this is just another way I have been able to do "being Jewish" with my own rules and my own priorities.