A Real Pain

Unsurprisingly, we never went to shul. That could be the name of our collective, family biography. Truly, it sums up the entirety of the Schwartz Jewish experience over the course of my married life. We just didn't quite manage to get our shit together. It was a crazy, busy June. There was Max's family reunion mid-month, and Lyra's dance trip to Disney World at the end of the month, which meant we were on vacation for nearly half of the month. (Can't complain about that!)

However, Max's family reunion DID provide some great Jewish learning opportunities for the family, as we were interfacing with the more devout side of Max's family- the East Coast Jews. We met a rabbi- who happened to be a long-lost cousin of Max's father, who we only discovered recently through ancestry.com. (There was an entire branch of the family unbeknownst to Ralph because apparently his mom just ran away from home and created an entirely new identity, then died without ever telling anyone her true background story...) So anyway, he's recently reunited with these cousins, and we got to meet the New Jersey contingent.

Let There Be Light!

To bring you up to speed to where I currently am religiously, I consider myself Jewish. When I met my husband, he was Jewish. I was not Jewish then. Also, we both were/are Atheists. I had dated an Orthodox Jew (now THAT’S a wild tale for another post- mostly because he was also a cage fighter into MMA) towards the end of college, so it wasn’t anything unfamiliar. (Is it bad to admit that I’m actually leery of dating Christians?) I’m not trying to be religionist, if that's a thing you can be while dating. But I'm not sure if it is? Inclusion is necessary, but when you’re sussing out who you’re going to marry, you want to be sure you’re on the same page, in all of the ways. I think for me, it’s more about what Christianity has come to represent in America; it’s become this hateful, political, evangelical thing. And if I see a reference to Jesus Christ on your dating profile- it’s NEXT! (But that’s for another blog post, and maybe I’ll be proven wrong throughout the course of this project!)