holy days

Well, I suppose it's ALMOST been the traditional 7 days of mourning before I posted again since the last tragedy to the opera world.

As I lay here telling myself that I should have turned the lights off an hour ago when I was actually a bit tired and my eyes started to burn from the hours spent looking at the computer screen today, I thought of a topic to write about since the high holidays approach.

Well, BEFORE that topic, I'll approach this one: religion and work.
When is it ok to request a day or two off because the upcoming holidays are the most important in your religion?
It's pretty much like working on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Good Friday, and Palm Sunday all rolled into one.

Well, maybe even more so. For some.

What to do? Well, this year, thankfully, I don't have to do much. It just so happens that I have the three evenings and one full day in question OFF from rehearsal/run-through/tech anyway--but that was a fluke, and if we were not doing so well with the rehearsals, we would have had a run-through.

So- what would I have done?
I'm actually not quite sure.
So maybe I'm not going to approach this topic. I'll just write that I'm glad that this year, at a time when I'm feeling the need for some closeness and spirituality and wisdom of the ages, I'm very glad that I can observe the high holidays without feeling like I'm the "other" whose personal beliefs made someone have to change a master schedule to accommodate me (hey, it's happened before and it didn't feel good--so I'm just thankful that this year and this time it's not like that).

The real topic to write about is fresh starts.
Yes, in just a few days I'll be entering a period where every year, we are encouraged to think back on the last year, think about the wrongs we have done to others, knowingly and unknowingly, and apologize, so that we can have a fresh start in the new year, and hopefully be written in the book of life for one more year.

The symbols of this holiday are especially meaningful to me.
Apples and Honey.
Ever since I can remember it's been just a once a year treat, and as such, a reminder of the sweetness of the year ahead, my childhood watching my mom peel the red apples for my dad and the green apples for me and my brothers, and the honey which came from anywhere local to where we were living that year.

Now that one brother is on the West Coast, the other on the East, parents Upstate, Me- well, everywhere and nowhere, and especially Special Someone in a very very far away country--it seems a comfort that a holiday where you don't necessarily need to be together, but whose essence brings people to think about the ones they love and the ones that most influence their lives, is just around the corner.

Shana Tova.