on compassion, love, and forgiveness (classic comedy concepts!)
on compassion, love, and forgiveness (classic comedy concepts!)
thank you for being, and reading
dear fellow beings,
welcome to today. i’m glad you are here.
yesterday was yom kippur, the jewish day of atonement.1
it is time when observant jews (and maybe others!) reflect and offer apologies to those they have wronged.2 in that spirit, i offer to you an apology for any wronging of you that i may have done. and i also thank you for all the righting of me that You have done. one such righting is receiving this writing. thank you.
and now, the funs of the day!
1) a brief scene3:
SOMEONE: “i hate political correctness!”
POLITICAL CORRECTNESS: “i actually prefer to be called ‘compassion’”
SOMEONE: “but that makes it harder for me to say that i hate it”
COMPASSION: “i understand”4
2) a brief thought:
the best revenge is forgiveness.5
and if someone else has already said that before me,
please take the best revenge on me.
3) another brief scene:
“let’s try and make it so that everyone has everything they need”
“but isn’t that unfair to the people who ALREADY have everything they need?”6
thank you for being here, for being you, for being as loving and forgiving and understanding and thoughtful and caring as possible.
PS also, thank you for coming to “liz and myq give advice” at union hall this sunday if you’re in the NYC area. thank you for asking any questions that you have, if you’d like to receive any advice from us, on the show or otherwise. feel free to respond here always. i’m always happy to receive and share.
PPS as a follow-up to the first compassion nugget i shared today, here is an assessment of the term “politically correct” that i found valuable, from a linguistics professor i know named Lauren Squires.
all the best to you, yours, and all, all. much love.
a silly thing: the meal that breaks the fast after a day of not eating for this holiday could be called YUM kippur.
in my family, here’s how the most recent three generations address this concept…
my grandmother: "if i thought it was a sin, i wouldn't do it!"
my mom: "if i do something wrong, i aim to apologize at the time"
me: "sorry to everyone! just in case!"
a weird thing: when i started thinking today about what i might share in this week’s dispatch, i thought about yesterday being yom kippur and it occurred to me to share this little scene that i composed about compassion, and then when i searched through my records to find it, i saw that i first tweeted it ON THIS VERY DAY two years ago. so, that is (as advertised) a weird thing. sometimes when coincidences like this happen, i say “there IS a universe!” and i believe that in fact there is. glad we are it.
forgiveness-revenge is a dish best served warm, i think.
this is a conversation inspired by discussions of forgiving student loans, i believe. i hope it makes sense!
If you weren't vegan, you could have named it Yum, Kipper, which sometimes is served for breakfast or break fast.