November....

...already?!  Wow!  What happened to October?  Well, for half of it, I was in the fabulous production of The Mousetrap at Citadel Theatre in Lake Forest.  We closed to full houses, and, boy, what a fun run it was!  Our audiences had the best time and I'm so happy that folks came out in droves to the theater and made their hearts happy by sharing a couple of hours with us.  Feeling so much gratitude for my life in general, especially when looking at all of the horror going on all over the world.  My god, what humans do to each other....it's hard to fathom.  I decided to take a break from the news today because I couldn't face starting my day with a broken heart.

I will share that when I was little, I used to have dreams of being carted off in a train boxcar to parts unknown for a fate beyond comprehension because I'm Jewish.  These dreams are coming back to haunt me again.  I've been reading about the rise in antisemitism, which seemed to foment during the time of the orange terror who sat in the White House who gave everyone with hate in their heart a loud voice and a platform and the idea that it's okay to not only hate, but to show how much you hate people who aren't like you by shooting them, hurting them, calling them awful names, calling for their annihilation, shaming them, and a myriad of reprehensible things.  A dear friend once asked me, "Why is it always the Jewish people who are targeted?"  I honestly have no answer for that.  Why is anyone targeted?  What the heck are people so afraid of?  I try to live my life as an example of how I want to be treated yet I find that sometimes, it just doesn't matter how kind or sympathetic or empathetic you are.  My old neighbor who lived across the hall from me in my old apartment knew me for 16 years, found out a few years into our across-the-hall friendship that I was Jewish, bent over backwards to say he knows Jewish people and they're okay (like they wouldn't be?), then went out of his way during the pandemic to say very hurtful things about Jews and money and WTF was he thinking????  I try to overwhelm people with kindness, but I'm not going to lie - that one was a hard one to find my way through without saying all the nasty things that had collected in my mind over the years of hearing his racist and abhorrent talk against all non-white, non-Christian people.  But then if I unleashed all those thoughts, what would I be?  

Sorry.  This is not the blog I intended.  I guess I had to get some of this out.  Whoever you are, whatever you believe in, I hope love and understanding and embracing what is different from you are the overriding themes for your life to help make our world a better place to live.  If someone scares you because of their color or their religion, find the courage to talk to them.  I think you'll find out they're just a human being like you, someone who just wants to go about their day happy, healthy, and unafraid.  The Golden Rule is a beautiful thing.  You can't go wrong with it.

​Here's a fun picture of the fab folks I got to play with for two months :-)