Dear Feastlings,
Today was the first day of the year 5786 on the Jewish calendar- for those of you who celebrate it, Happy New Year. For those who don’t I wholeheartedly recommend taking our new beginnings where we can get them. As embittered as our interactions have become with one another the more our planet shrinks, any opportunity to start over is fine with me. If you do the Judaism thing, Yom Kippur- the Day of Atonement- is far more important spiritually than the New Year, and there’s nothing like kicking off a new beginning with a few thoughts about all you could have done to make your immediate world a better place, or better still, the world writ large.
Not to get overly introspective today, mind you- I’m just trying to squeeze out another new menu for October and organize this week’s end-of-the-month wine tasting- but when your new year has a more spiritual bent than watching the ball fall in Times Square, you can’t help but pause and evaluate what you’ve been up to.
Anyone who knows me knows that my leanings aren’t all that religious, but I don’t think I’m alone in feeling rather buffeted about by all the vitriol bouncing around the globe these days, and I reckon my New Year’s resolution should be something culled from Kurt Vonnegut, like,
“Hello, babies. Welcome to Earth. It’s hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It’s round and wet and crowded. At the outside, babies, you’ve got about a hundred years here. There’s only one rule that I know of, babies — ‘God damn it, you’ve got to be kind.’” Or, more succinctly,
“We are healthy only to the extent that our ideas are humane.”
I’ll tuck those into my pocket for the coming year, and please remind me to pull them out and dust them off if you notice me not living up to them. I’m just a guy writing menus and stressing out, so I’m inclined to forget. That said, here’s some love for you all, and a wish for a new beginning where everyone remembers more often than the previously did to be kind.
This wouldn’t be a suitable Feast email if I didn’t include a link to something we’re doing, so here’s what’s on this week’s agenda,
but if you don’t come away from this thinking you’ll come to the tasting, come away remembering the little chunk of love we’re sending, and the hope for a better new year. Happy Whatever It Is You Celebrate.
Love,
Doug