Rosh Hashanah has come (and nearly gone) again. I have not managed to make it to services for the holiday, but I am trying to maintain a sense of newness in all other things.
On Friday evening I met my sister and some friends at a Bosnian/Mediterranean restaurant to fete the new year. Then last night my friend and I threw a potluck party, ostensibly to celebrate the new year. But we'd planned it very late and most of our Jewish friends already had other plans (or didn't get the invitation in time.) So we opened it up and included anyone who wanted to come for a party. We had a small crowd and lots of food, including jambalaya which I now think is a required staple for any party.
The eclectic nature of our party led to some interesting discussions. We got around to talking about President Bush. Nearly everyone held him in tremendous disfavor, except for the guest who brought the jambalaya. Born and raised in Kansas, with close ties to New Orleans, his cultural centering contrasted with the sensibilities of those of us who grew up on the urban northeast or west coasts. Respect for his opinion kept the evening from becoming a Bush-bashing fest. Rather, I asked him if he could explain why Bush has such traction in certain parts of the country. He thought it had something to do with Bush appearing (albeit perhaps falsely) as an Everyman. We want a President we think we could go have a beer with, he said, not someone who's an academic lording his credentials above us. (paraphrased, but that was the gist.) Part of that makes sense to me - who wants a sense that they are being "ruled" by a president with nothing in common with them? On the other hand, would you not want someone with some sort of qualification to deal with the important issues that a president needs to deal with? The conversation turned to discussing what these qualifications might be, then wandered to gun control, then airline security...
It was invigorating and frightening to hear these other opinions. Invigortating in the sense that exchanging ideas so frankly helps lead you to improve and refine your own. And frightening in the sense that it exemplifies why there is so much discord in the world: even the issues that seem so simple and solveable to you have proponents who think they are simple and solveable to the contrary. How do you figure out who's wrong and who's right? And what if, in some way, everyone is right? Then what?