Hanukkah a PS.

This morning I posted a statement that mentioned both, the Feast of the Virgin of Guadalupe and Hanukkah. I concentrated on Guadalupe and said very little about Hanukkah managing to misspell the word. I was much gratified to read a column in the New York Times by David Brooks where he digs behind the "fun" parts of the celebration and presents the all too human realities of the story. I urge you to log on to the New York Times and read the full column. I want to tempt you to read the whole article by sharing a couple of paragraphs:

Tonight Jewish kids will light the menorah, spin their dreidels and get their presents, but Hanukkah is the most adult of holidays. It commemorates an event in which the good guys did horrible things, the bad guys did good things and in which everybody is flummoxed by insoluble conflicts that remain with us today. It’s a holiday that accurately reflects how politics is, how history is, how life is...

But there is no erasing the complex ironies of the events, the way progress, heroism and brutality weave through all sides. The Maccabees heroically preserved the Jewish faith. But there is no honest way to tell their story as a self-congratulatory morality tale. The lesson of Hanukkah is that even the struggles that saved a people are dappled with tragic irony, complexity and unattractive choices.

Please read the whole article and then ask yourself what myths and legends in your own religious or national history should be looked at with the same honesty with which Brooks looks at his own celebrations.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/11/opinion/11brooks.html

Peace!

Ignacio Castuera