Monday, September 20, 2010

the similarity of the differences

yes, i've made no secret of the fact that at times
our differences can drive me nuts. frustrate me, and
make me pull my hair out.

and then there are times i love the differences.
they make me laugh and delight me.

there was a moment recently that made me laugh
and wish i had it recorded.

he grew up jewish.
i grew up catholic.
neither of us practice either faith any more.
and both of us only retain bits and pieces of
all those things we had learned so long ago.

since it was yom kippur the other day, i asked
him about it. what exactly it was.

when he answered 'the jewish new year.' i rolled
my eyes.

nooooooooo that was rosh hashanah, i said.

'oh yeah.' he said.
and then corrected himself to tell me of the day
of atonement.

this all led into one heck of a religious conversation.

you've got an addle brained ex-catholic talking to
an addle-brained ex-jew.
we both know just enough to be dangerous.

the conversation ended with me jabbin' him with one
of those 'YOU people....' comments and him jabbin'
back with 'at least WE...' comments.

i think i like those moments so much because there is
such total acceptance. we couldn't joke like this if
there wasn't. and when we actually share our stuff that
we grew up with, in the differences, i see our
similarities.

in those times, i see how alike we are.
in those moments, the differences actually aren't
differences at all. and i love that part.

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