Today is my birthday. Here is what I wish for.
It is hard to be celebratory, joyous, and hopeful when the world feels like it is falling apart. But I'm going to give it a go anyway.
Today is my 52nd birthday.
52 is such a beautiful number.
52 weeks in a year.
52 portions in the Torah (sort of).
52 cards in a deck (again, sort of).
And don’t get me started on the gematria of 52. We’ll be here all day.
I told my kids we’ll play gin rummy to celebrate my 52nd birthday. It’s so apt for this year! We’re about to head into another lockdown anyway, so we might as well make the best of it!
But let’s be honest. It is hard to celebrate at the moment, when it feels like the world is going to end. Today in Israel, we are simultaneously facing Omicron, closing of airports, the wild storm Carmel (I’ll be staying in for my birthday), vaccine-hesitancy among some parents, the discovery of a gynecologist who has been raping his patients, politically-motivated violence from all sides, and the destruction of Palestinian homes (again) — all of which I feel completely helpless about. Just in one day. The sense helplessness alone is emotionally difficult to handle.
The ten plagues, 2021-style
Let’s call it what it is. We are living in what I have come to think as the Modern-Day Ten Plagues:
Deadly pandemic
Climate change disasters, possibly past the point of no return
The destruction of democracy and rise of autocracy around the world
Outrageous rises in gun-related killing sprees, supported by a Congress beholden to the gun lobby
The regression of women’s lives — economically, politically, and physically
Insane economic gaps protected by the government (If you aren’t following Robert Reich, you should start doing so today!)
Threats of massive cyber attacks and loss of not only our privacy but possibly other things, like, say, electricity
Deterioration of people’s mental health everywhere, due to Covid, social media, and everything else…
THAT IS A LOT TO HANDLE. I mean, let’s just put that there for a moment. IT IS A LOT!
And there’s more, I’m sure. Feel free to share with me what ELSE is keeping you up at night.
Nevertheless, she persisted.
I have been looking for sources of good news. Like this story with 40 bits of good news from 2021, such as Australia’s Great Barrier Reef starting to come back to life, or Portugal passing a law making it illegal for bosses to contacting their workers after hours. (YES!)
And of course, if I stop looking at the outside world for a moment, I have lots of miraculous sources of joy. My daughter gave birth this year to twin girls thank God — an incredible miracle for many reasons but also because she had deadly rockets raining on her at the time. It was quite an event.
WOW. Just WOW. The WOW gets bigger every day.
And no matter what is going on in the world, I can get on the floor with these miracle babies and all I can see is love, joy, and godliness. Thank God. So there’s that.
I wish that feeling on all of you. Sources of impenetrable joy no matter what is going on outside in the world.
What else do I wish on you on my 52nd birthday?
My friend Lorelai Kude, also known as AstroloJew, says that our birthdays are times when we have a special power of blessings to impart on others, or on the world.
I don’t know if I believe in astrology at all (No offense, Lorelai), but I thought, it’s a fun custom.
So here I go.
My birthday wishes for you, me, and the rest of the world
This is what I wish for you, for me, for the world, on my 52nd birthday:
(In no particular order…. )
I wish for sanity to return to the planet.
I wish for humanity to let go of the need to hate and blame others and craft crazy-making narratives about science, vaccines, and masks, and learn to trust again and be willing to make adjustments to our habits that will save other people’s lives.
I wish for guns to be banned everywhere.
I wish that those who go on television or radio and LIE, and then LIE about LYING will be closed down. (I mean, I’m sure Tucker Carlson is breaking the law SOMEHOW, don’t you?)
I wish for Donald Trump to go to jail, along with his enablers.
I wish for the Democrats to retain the house and senate in the 2022 American mid-term elections.
I wish for the gazillionaires of the world to pay taxes.
I wish for leaders and gazillionaires of the world to prioritize ending poverty and hunger.
I wish for the fossil fuel industry to fall and for planet-saving creative solutions and initiatives to soar.
I wish for everyone to make a living wage under humane working conditions.
I wish that we all find powerful ways to get back our privacy.
I wish laws and policies are made based on understandings that we are all human.
I wish for women and girls everywhere to thrive — economically, physically, culturally — just like everyone else.
I wish that we find effective ways to clean the ocean, and continue the trend of banning single-use plastics. (IKEA, I’m looking at you!)
I wish that ocean trawling becomes illegal everywhere in the world.
I wish for gun violence, racial violence, and gender-based violence to end, as people release their needs to hate.
I wish for compassion to overpower fear, judgment, and hate.
I wish Israel would stop demolishing Palestinian houses. Period.
I wish the the Israeli government and IDF would take a real, humane look at what the roadblocks are doing to our humanity.
I wish for voices of peace, compassion, and sanity to take over in Israel and Palestine.
I wish for high-profile abusers in the Jewish community to be exposed, to lose their support and their platforms, and create space for compassionate leaders to take over.
I wish for everyone to be free marry whom they love, or nobody if they don’t want to, and treat each other with love and kindness, each of us working to end the cycle of abuse and violence that we carry with us from cultures and generations past.
I wish for you, me, and everyone to be able to live life in a way that excites our passions, enables us to live with dignity, and contributes to the well-being of humanity, wildlife, and the planet.
I wish that you all have incredible, miraculous sources in your life for love and joy that enable you to shut out the world and breathe.
It’s a long list, I know. But, hey, where there’s life there’s hope. I made it to 52, so there’s that.
Hope you have a joyful day, no matter what we are all facing.
xxoo
Elana
Happy Birthday Elana!! Thank you for your passionate writing!