How's Your Faith?

    That’s not a question we ask each other often.

     Maybe we should.

     We accept the need for checkups – eye tests, teeth cleanings. But, we don’t necessarily check on our own, or others’, faith.

    How’s your faith? 

     Is it healthy? Is it left over from your childhood or is it new? Did you create a combination of wht you grew up with and what you’ve learned? Did you take a spiritual journey or stumble into what you believe?

     David Gregory, known for being host of and being fired as host of “Meet the Press,” is a journeyer. Brought up with a Jewish identity but not too much religious education and with a Catholic mother who angrily abandoned her faith, Gregory embarked on a journey to figure our what he believes, how he wants to practice and how he wants to raise his children.

     Being a journalist, he documents that journey in his book, How’s Your Faith?

     He took the title from the question President George W. Bush asked him when he found out Gregory was exploring his beliefs. It may seem strange that the President of the United States would find out a White House correspondent’s private business, but political Washington is like a small town where everyone goes to the Post Office and the bank at specified times and gossips.

    In the book, Gregory traces his own history, including attending a Hollywood synagogue where Red Buttons often read from the Torah. It’s a unique story, but applicable to others, especially his interfaith marriage and their decision to raise their children Jewish, which is a very common scenario. Those not satisfied with where their journeys have taken them so far will find some compelling paths to follow. Gregory didn’t confine his mentors to rabbis but spoke to many people from various faiths.

     In a way, How’s Your Faith? Is a blueprint for the journey, but more than that it is a reminder to check in on ourselves now and then.

    So, how’s your faith?

Come Together

     Are we losing sight of the community when we focus on smaller special interest groups?

     Sure, all of us belong to some sort of special interest or at least have particular causes that are supremely important, but don’t we have more in common than not?

     It seems to me this is not the time to talk in terms of “us vs. them,” and yet, that’s what a divisive political campaign spawned.

      With the New Year should come some coming together.

      Lots of people are worried about many things, some of those things are significant to tiny segments of the population. Maybe we should concentrate on the ones that impact us all.

       Of course the biggie is the future of the planet. I could kiss Andrew Cuomo for finally getting rid of the Indian Point nuclear power plant – take a look at a geologic map of the Ramapo Fault and I guarantee you’ll get in line behind me. But the possibility of an earthquake sending radiation into the Hudson River pales in comparison to the possibility that an unstable leader of one country could set off the unstable leader of another who possesses nuclear weapons. I think we can all unite behind not wanting another arms race.

     And behind not wanting a quieter but just as deadly consequence for the earth.  Climate change is real and it’s happening really fast. We should be uniting behind the international treaties to stop pollutants; behind alternative energy (and, while we’re at it, behind retraining for the miners who are NOT going to be returning to the coal mines); behind every initiative we can think of to slow the progression of sea level rise (I mean, sure, the thought of Atlantic City permanently under water gives me a moment of giggles, but. . . .).

    How about getting behind infrastructure repairs? Our railroads and roads and bridges are crumbling. People need jobs, there they are. And new projects where necessary: the new Hudson Rail Tunnel, the Gordie Howe Bridge. Makes sense to me.

    How about education? I don’t know one person on the right or left who thinks No Child Left Behind and all the increase in standardized tests makes any sense whatsoever. How about training the best teachers we can (another buss on the cheek to Mr. Cuomo for his tuition plan for New York State) and giving them free rein to do the best job they can, with as little paperwork as possible. People who are good at teaching are almost by definition lousy at filling out silly forms.

    Let’s look ahead at what we can do for the future. I’m not calling for abandoning any group of people, just for concentrating on the issues that impact all of us.

    It’s time to come together. Not splinter apart.