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Sep. 15th, 2010
For those of you who don't know, a mikvah is a Jewish ritual bath. The purpose of it is to swap you from a state of tamei to a state of tahor. Those are ritual terms often translated as "impure" and "pure", but I don't really like those as translations, because they have implications and contexts that are different than the ones that come with tamei and tahor. For instance, while we think of impure as bad and pure as good, it's more complex with tamei and tahor. Those implications aren't exactly NOT there, but they're not exactly there, either. It's weird.
Anyway, women use the mikvah much more than men do, because the Jewish tradition is for women to use it after they finish each menstrual cycle. Men don't tend to have a regular period to use it that way, but the mikvah IS for men, too. Many men do a mikvah immersion some time in the period between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, which is right now. So Lis suggested that I should try it, just to see what it did for me.
So I did.
I'm not sure how to describe it, but it DID have some sort of spiritual effect. It really did do something, although I'm not sure what.
In any case, I am, right now, in a state of tahor for the first time in my life, which is interesting.
Anyway, women use the mikvah much more than men do, because the Jewish tradition is for women to use it after they finish each menstrual cycle. Men don't tend to have a regular period to use it that way, but the mikvah IS for men, too. Many men do a mikvah immersion some time in the period between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, which is right now. So Lis suggested that I should try it, just to see what it did for me.
So I did.
I'm not sure how to describe it, but it DID have some sort of spiritual effect. It really did do something, although I'm not sure what.
In any case, I am, right now, in a state of tahor for the first time in my life, which is interesting.
Last I checked, 263 out of 279 precincts had reported. Running for Governor's Council from my district, Suzanne R. English-Merullo had 21,184 votes, and Terrence W. Kennedy had 21,041.
The thing is: English-Merullo has no website, no information, didn't respond to the boston.com website asking for candidates' positions. Kennedy has been a prosecutor and a defense attorney, has a website, answered the questions, and so forth.
It doesn't mean he's a good candidate, necessarily. I saw nothing to object to, personally, but others might. But it does mean that he's actually a candidate -- he actually ran a campaign.
English-Merullo didn't. At all. Her facebook still says that she'll put up a campaign website soon.
And she's ahead.
I shake my head in mild dispair.
The thing is: English-Merullo has no website, no information, didn't respond to the boston.com website asking for candidates' positions. Kennedy has been a prosecutor and a defense attorney, has a website, answered the questions, and so forth.
It doesn't mean he's a good candidate, necessarily. I saw nothing to object to, personally, but others might. But it does mean that he's actually a candidate -- he actually ran a campaign.
English-Merullo didn't. At all. Her facebook still says that she'll put up a campaign website soon.
And she's ahead.
I shake my head in mild dispair.