L'Shana Tova Tikka Teyvu
Sep. 7th, 2002 07:20 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
heidiI spent last night at Rosh Hashana evening services - I haven't gone in 5 years in the evenings because of Harry (well, the year before that, because we were visiting relatives with young children and they didn't want to go so late) - and this year, I'm glad I did. The service has changed - this year, of course, there were additional prayers created in the wake of 9-11, and I wish Harry had been there because we also sang God Bless America which is one of his favorite songs to sing. He heard it so much on the radio last September, he knows all the words and signs on key, which is more than I can do.
Sitting next to Aaron in services is always a challenge, because he sings everything - and he's just terrible. I have no voice, but at least I sing softly when in public. Him - not so much.
The most interesting thing they did was - as we're a reform synogogue and don't observe the rules against turning on electrical things during Shabbat - was with the sirens. It's Shabbat, so there was to be no Shoffar-blowing; instead, they had a recording of sirens - from Israel and from New York - in the same cadence of the responsive shoffar blow. I'm sure that other synogogues have done this over the holiday, so I'll try and find it online and link to it.
We live close to a hospital and a fire station, so we hear sirens with regularity and always think nothing of it. But the way this was set up, and knowing that these were sirens heading to save people from destruction, was so emotionally resonant to me. I hope they do it again today, but perhaps doing it too often would lessen the impact.
Part of me wants to go back and look at posts from a year ago - mine and others. LJ postings, things people said on Yahoogroups, things posted here, which is pretty much a real-time conversation among Parkies during the hours and days after the attacks. And other posts from times long past are bubbling into my head - especially the various discussions of PTSD as it applies to the books - characters like Sirius, especially. I know it's generally against netiquette to post things that have been posted in other forums without permission, but I'm not going to say the poster's name or where it was posted.
that after going through a war, they should be
more traumatized (or something to that effect). Have they ever been
through a war? I haven't, but I have relatives in Yugoslavia, and
guess what? Even after everything that's happened, they still joke,
laugh, tease, etc. If they didn't - yes, even a mere week after it
all ended, or, heaven forbid, *during* - they wouldn't be able to
survive. The laughter, joking, *pretending* everything is fine even
for a minute is what gets them through the day.
In the months before 9-11, this might've made sense to many people as a concept, as a summary of what others have gone through. The person who posted that lives in NY, and IIRC she either saw one of the towers go down or at least got caught in the smokecloud afterwards - and I wonder if she feels the same way now. There's an article on Salon about appropriate and inapropriate responses to this horror - clearly, some things are (like people who sent fake!anthrax as a joke last fall) but others are more on the line - like the statement above. It was a perfectly personal assertion to make when she made it - but could anyone imagine anybody saying something like that now without a tonne of qualifiers and links to personal experience?
We, as a nation, now have this personal experience - but it's ebbed and flowed, unlike people in 24/7 war zones like Yugoslavia was and Israel is - and it's changed the things we do and the things we say in ways far to subtle for the press to make bold pronouncements about, or for surveys to pick up in their questions.
And I pray that this year will be more peaceful than those past.
Sitting next to Aaron in services is always a challenge, because he sings everything - and he's just terrible. I have no voice, but at least I sing softly when in public. Him - not so much.
The most interesting thing they did was - as we're a reform synogogue and don't observe the rules against turning on electrical things during Shabbat - was with the sirens. It's Shabbat, so there was to be no Shoffar-blowing; instead, they had a recording of sirens - from Israel and from New York - in the same cadence of the responsive shoffar blow. I'm sure that other synogogues have done this over the holiday, so I'll try and find it online and link to it.
We live close to a hospital and a fire station, so we hear sirens with regularity and always think nothing of it. But the way this was set up, and knowing that these were sirens heading to save people from destruction, was so emotionally resonant to me. I hope they do it again today, but perhaps doing it too often would lessen the impact.
Part of me wants to go back and look at posts from a year ago - mine and others. LJ postings, things people said on Yahoogroups, things posted here, which is pretty much a real-time conversation among Parkies during the hours and days after the attacks. And other posts from times long past are bubbling into my head - especially the various discussions of PTSD as it applies to the books - characters like Sirius, especially. I know it's generally against netiquette to post things that have been posted in other forums without permission, but I'm not going to say the poster's name or where it was posted.
that after going through a war, they should be
more traumatized (or something to that effect). Have they ever been
through a war? I haven't, but I have relatives in Yugoslavia, and
guess what? Even after everything that's happened, they still joke,
laugh, tease, etc. If they didn't - yes, even a mere week after it
all ended, or, heaven forbid, *during* - they wouldn't be able to
survive. The laughter, joking, *pretending* everything is fine even
for a minute is what gets them through the day.
In the months before 9-11, this might've made sense to many people as a concept, as a summary of what others have gone through. The person who posted that lives in NY, and IIRC she either saw one of the towers go down or at least got caught in the smokecloud afterwards - and I wonder if she feels the same way now. There's an article on Salon about appropriate and inapropriate responses to this horror - clearly, some things are (like people who sent fake!anthrax as a joke last fall) but others are more on the line - like the statement above. It was a perfectly personal assertion to make when she made it - but could anyone imagine anybody saying something like that now without a tonne of qualifiers and links to personal experience?
We, as a nation, now have this personal experience - but it's ebbed and flowed, unlike people in 24/7 war zones like Yugoslavia was and Israel is - and it's changed the things we do and the things we say in ways far to subtle for the press to make bold pronouncements about, or for surveys to pick up in their questions.
And I pray that this year will be more peaceful than those past.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2002-09-07 07:03 am (UTC)Thanks for sharing - and regarding 9/11 - well - I was still a lurker then - but I remembered all the Y!Groups and all over responses... *trails off*
And I pray that this year will be more peaceful than those past
--I do hope that this is true as well...
Not much to say, but I just woke up and read this, and it gave my brain food for thought early in the day and for that, I thank you,
~Sabs
(no subject)
Date: 2002-09-07 08:45 am (UTC)Elia
(no subject)
Date: 2002-09-07 09:22 am (UTC)Second of all, I wanted to share my two cents on the laughing at personal horror thing. I've given a lot of thought to this, having been through a few personal horrors. I think it is very important to laugh at the world and that it's an excellent coping mechanism. When you have a personal trauma, it's kind of like an addition to your family. You know how you can complain and make fun of your mother as much as you wamt, but no one else is allowed? It's like that. Only people wo are *that* close can do the mocking.
Partly, this is because people who haven't experienced the trauma don't know where to stop the mocking bit. Again, like making fun of parents, you can make fun of your own, because you have an internal sense of the respect/love/whatever they are due, even though you mock them externally. There is no guarantee that other people have this respect. The same goes for traumatic events. If you have not experienced it, the levity is not in proportion to your loss, it is just in bad taste. It's like a yo mama joke, but it's a yo trauma joke [I revel in bad puns ;) ]
A nice combo example is my dad - he was in a plane crash a few years ago and was in a coma for quite a while. He had third degree burns all down his back and they had to completely build him a new knee, on which he now limps around. I regularly call him a gimp and tell him to avoid large flying objects, but if anyone else ever commented on his limp or whatever, God help me I would sit them down and tell him or her the ENTIRE story of the crash and aftermath.
Um, I hope that made sense. :)
hi
Hello, you don't know me, my names Rose... I was looking at Cassie's journal and linked here. I agree with you, I do hope that this year we can keep the peace. Shalom.
Oh, BTW, the Bad Place...*leaves me speachless at how much it rocks*
(no subject)
Date: 2002-09-07 05:38 pm (UTC)Meliel Tathariel
(no subject)
Date: 2002-09-11 12:49 am (UTC)