Sorry for interrupting any on-going conversations. Like I've written only a few dozen posts ago, I actually skim and-try-not-to-skip, so I know I'm interrupting, and I am sorry about how it seems I'm ignoring, and yet, it's that time of year again, and, yeah, still (and probably forever) in a risk of sounding a bit strange:
On Sunday evening (as most of you clever people probably already know) starts the Jewish holiday of 'Yom Kippur', which means 'Day of Atonement'.
This is a day of soul searching, of trying to better define our faults to ourselves, and try to accept it upon ourselves to become, at least a little, better people. A day of repenting past wrongs we did, looking and finding it in our hearts to forgive wrongs done to us, and trying to remember to learn from this process in the rest of the days of the year. The holiest day of the year for practicing Jews.
On a rough division, there are two kinds of wrongs people can do: against G-d, and hurting their fellow human beings. In Jewish tradition, if the person committing a sin against G-d is truly sorry for what they did, repenting and taking it upon themselves to try and avoid repeating it, G-d forgives those sins.
The deeds which hurt other people, though, are not so 'easily' and personally forgiven. If somebody did anything to harm another person, they would not be able to cleanse themselves from that deed, no matter how much they'd pray and be sorry and repent and try to do good in the future, unless they make amends with the person who was hurt by that deed. As long as peace between people is not achieved, the 'sin', so to speak, is not 'erased from the books' above.
Regardless of the date in the year, I'd hate to think I'd offended somebody, anybody, in any possible circle of my life, in so many circumstances. I don't think that the attempts of becoming a better person than one already is, is something that needs a date or a certain holiday for it, of course. It's just that, for me, having a certain day in the year to stop my daily runnings around, and think of nothing else but the really important things, is a good reminder of the order of priorities I'd like to have in my life.
(Well, I wish that were true. Frankly, I spend more time thinking about how much a sip of water would be just what I need, and wonder how long I have left until the fast is over and I can start hydrating again, than about the actual important stuff. And in between comes the whole being responsible for two insisting-they-are-not-too-young to fast by now ('all the kids in school are fasting right until the end') and more-and-more-able-to-take-care-of-themselves and yet still needing their adults' attention, in their way, very lovely kids, so mostly the important soul-searching stuff has to be pushed aside by the practical and urgent stuff. But still.)
So, since Monday will be, for me, this day of at least trying to perform some soul-searching, of trying to create a new start in my on-going effort of 'becoming a good human being, or at least a slightly better one', I would like to ask all of you here, if I offended anybody, or hurt any of you lovely people, to tell me about it, and give me the opportunity to apologize, fix it if possible, and also learn from my mistakes, and try to not repeat them (there are so many new ones to practice, why repeat old ones, you know?).
In case I offended anybody, and can't communicate directly with them about it (for whatever reason, especially with my ongoing practically-absense from the board in the last few - I'm not even sure how to call it, years? ice-ages? whichever-you-may-call-the-time-units-that-measure-the-lifespan-of-planets?), I can already say that I'm truly sorry. I can honestly say that I didn't mean to - you're all so considerate and thoughtful and generally all-around lovely, that there's absolutely no room for such a thing here. However, I might have had a slip of a keyboard, or mistaken somebody's intentions, or many other possible so forths. Y'all are so understanding, you probably tried to find excuses for me and didn't take offense anyway, but I want to make sure, all the same.
Please don't get me wrong - I'm definitely not trying to go around in a 'holier-than-thou' show off, or force my personal beliefs on others, or make statements which may be understood as criticizing anybody else's beliefs (or lack thereof) and way of living. If anything, being around here, among such a rich versatile group of kind and clever people, has exposed me to a lot more ways of choosing to lead one's life than I've ever had a chance to see before, and has shown me much more of the beauty and richness that is the world we live in.
[Edit: this is especially true these last recent years, pre-Covid19, with my oh-so-short time-not-in-front-of-students-or-kids, computer time and internet access, which gave way for too many opportunities to unintentionally miss stuff or seem to ignore (undeliberately!) people or their posts. And even more so during the hectic Covid19 in-front-of-a-Zoom-screen-for-way-too-long times. And even more than that now, when things seem to go on some sort of back-to-routine sort of times.
Sometimes in absence you can hurt people just as much as when you're present. Or even more so, only differently.
And at the same time, you guys are always so there-for-anybody-who-needs (including little me - even when I don't get to get to the board, let alone post, I still know that you're there, that no matter what, if I ask, you're there for me, even after all my absence and lack of giving back).
So this is a chance to also post: Thank you.]