Legacy

What a few people know about me is that my last name is Catholic, my family is culturally Jewish, and I am an agnostic. I didn't have a bat mitzvah, we do not go to temple, and I jsut don' have a religion.

But for one year, I went to temple almost every day. I was four, and I was at Jewish preschool. I do not remember anything about the preschool other than saying prayers before snack time (it was easy to remember because it seemed like singing) and one kid being the "Shabbat Kid" every time. I was always the last one because it was alphabetical, and when it was a snow day on my day, I got really mad.

Flash forward almost ten years. Yesterday, we went to our friends' house. It was Shabbat last night, and they did the traditional prayers. (Our friends are Reform Jews) The two little girls, Leah and Anna, knew all the prayers, when I didn't. Mom and Dad remmbered them somehow, and TrisChimp hung back.

But then I recognized one. Brought back memories somehow. And I certainly recognized the Shabbat Shalom song that Leah and Anna sung near the end.

If possible, Anna shouted, "HEY!" in between all the verses even louder than I used to. But she can't beat my brother. No one can.