COMMUNITY VIEWS

Lighten Up And Enjoy December

T

ed with Christmas spirit. They are
tired of having it shoved into their
hey come out every year.
faces. And they are frustrated because
Last December, it was
they do not have the option to look
the man who threatened to
away.
sue a local radio station
Christmas is exactly
because it was playing too
where
it always has been at
many Christmas songs. A few
this
time
of year. Every-
years ago, it was the girl who
where.
rudely confronted a drugstore
There are decorations lin-
manager about the cashier
ing
every street, Christmas
who had wished her "Merry
specials dominating televi-
Christmas" instead of
sion air time. There are
"Happy Holiday."
malls filled with Santa
It just slipped out," said
Clauses and Christmas
the cashier afterward, very
lights and people buying
apologetic, as if he had used
those dancing Santa dolls
JENNIFER
profanity or insulted the girl's
that shake back and forth to
STRAUSZ
mother. "Honest. I'm really
the tune of "Jingle Bell
Special
to
sorry.
Rock." There is a national
the
Jewish
News
Now it's/ the woman at the
obsession with Christmas,
bookstore, the one who is
or at least the secular part of
openly complaining about
Christmas.
The Santa part. His elves.
the Christmas decorations on the
Rudolph.
The
trees. The lights. The
streets of Ann Arbor and in store win-
music.
dows.
The frustration of the seasonal
Like some of us, these people don't
complainers
is not hard to understand
celebrate Christmas. But unlike most
and
it's
probably
pretty easy to sympa-
of us, they are all worked up about it.
dare to point out
I
thize
with.
But
They feel like they're being bombard-
that there are other ways to spend
time, doing things like sitting peace-
fully, which would be much more
daughter
of
Richard
Jennifer Strausz,
effective than doing things like think-
and Brenda Strausz of Southfield, is a
ing negatively and expressing negative
sophomore at the University of Michi-
thoughts. By adding their negativity to
gan. Her original column first appeared
America's Christmas, the complainers
in the Michigan Daily, the campus
are making the situation worse, adding
newspaper, on Dec. 3, the first night of
more awkwardness, creating some-
Chanuka. Jennifer Strausz' e-mail
thing else to complain about.
address is jstrausz@umich.edu

Ann Arbor

I really like Christmas. I think that
Christmas carols are wonderful;
Christmas lights are beautiful and
mantles look perfect when Christmas
stockings are hanging down. I smile
every time I read Francis P. Church's
"Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus,"
and I could watch Miracle on 34th
Street four times in a row and enjoy it
every time.
It is easy for me to appreciate
Christmas as an observer without
feeling like it is posing a religious
threat.
The parallel that comes to mind is
eating at a restaurant where another
family is celebrating a birthday. You
are in the same room as the family,
but you don't have the same occasion
to celebrate. At the end of the meal,
when they sing to the birthday girl,
the room fills up with the singing.
And even though it is loud and it is
not your celebration, you can still look
over and smile.
The annual Christmas hype tends
to last longer than the average birth-
day song, but the same principle
applies. If you are pretty sure of who
you are and what you are doing,
then there is no need to feel threat-
ened by someone else's celebration,
even if it is in your face. You can
look over, smile and continue your
conversation, or even stop for a brief
moment to cheer for the birthday
girl as she blows out the candles on
her cake.
I admit that the seasonal complain-

ers (who would feel threatened by the
birthday cake) actually have a few
valid concerns. There are some Christ-
mas songs that can get pretty annoy-
ing, especially ones like "Rudolph the
Red Nosed Reindeer," when you
include the extra lyrics ("like a light
bulb"). And some Christmas decora-
tions are just plain tacky. But if we
remember the pop songs that the
radio stations play repeatedly during
the rest of the year, and if we keep in
mind that there are some things
around that are even more tacky than
a grouping of life-sized, glow-in-the
dark plastic Santa Claus statues, we
can keep these concerns in perspective
and under control.
The complainers must have
missed that day in elementary school
when Miss Ferguson showed us that
you shouldn't ever point at someone
because three fingers will be point-
ing right back at you (four if you're
double-jointed in the thumb). As
the complainers point the blame at
Christmas, the other fingers are
pointing at us. It is not up to us to
try to put a handle on Christmas.
The solution lies in us, in our own
attitudes, in our own religious iden-
tity.
I write this just before the first
night of Chanuka, a relatively small
Jewish festival that is rich in tradition
and beauty I'll picture the fingers
pointing back at me as I light the
menora and sit peacefully as the flick-
ering candles burn down.

LETTERS

growth of Orthodox students on
campus. The families that comprise
the Ann Arbor Orthodox Minyan
have regularly opened their homes to
students on Shabbat and Yamim
Tovim and have developed close rela-
tionships with a number of these
fine students.
The observant students do not all
categorize themselves as Orthodox.
There are a number of Conservative
and occasionally Reform students who
actively participate in our Minyan.
The respectful dialogue and interper-
sonal relationships between the stu-
dents of varied denominational back-
grounds is a tribute to these students
and a lesson to us all.
Avi Soclof
president,
Ann Arbor Orthodox Minyan

W",7

12/17
1999

34

Services Needed
For Elderly

Even though I live in Texas, I still have
family in Detroit.
Recently we placed our mother in a
nursing home and I make the trip often
to see her. When I was there in October,
it was over Shabbat. The schedule at the
nursing home said that Shabbat services
would be at 3:30 p.m. We arrived for
services with Mother, but we were told
that they had been canceled. Since then,
they have been canceled a number of
times because the one man who does
them cannot come for some reason. By
the way, he is not a rabbi, but a lay per-
son.
My sister and aunt took over a
number of times and did the services
because the people really wanted to

have some semblance of a Shabbat ser-
vice. When I came up for Thanksgiv-
ing, we did the service, not even
depending on someone else.
I am writing because I do not under-
stand why the Detroit Jewish communi-
ty can't organize a system where Sabbath
services on Friday are on a regular basis
without being canceled. I would assume
that the Jewish nursing homes are cov-
ered, but there are Jewish people in
other nursing homes.
My mother is at the Evergreen
Health and Living Center in South-
field and at least 15-20 people attend
services each week. Is there some rea-
son why only one congregation serves
that facility? With all the congrega-
tions, sisterhoods, brotherhoods and
youth groups in the community, why
couldn't a schedule be established
where each month a different congre-

gation is responsible for services that
month? It doesn't need a rabbi to do
the service or a cantor (though that
would be nice). Youth groups could
perform the mitzvah as well.
The elderly people love to see and
hear young people. All it needs is
someone to recognize the need and set
up the schedule; then set it in motion.
Shirley Basis
Houston, Tex.

Religion Used
To Hide Greed?

I find it sad that Shawn Green finds it
necessary to use his religion to hide
behind his obvious greed ("Quota-
bles," Dec. 3).
Being traded from the Toronto
Blue Jays, which serve a strong and