The Only Sin is to Pretend (Quote with Blue Shadow Photos)

The Only Sin is to Pretend (Quote with Blue Shadow Photos)

“One day Harry rode the train home to Queens, working up the nerve to talk to his father about something important. At home he found his father davening, wrapped in a tallis, lost in prayer. When Benjamin opened his eyes he was delighted to see his only son, his college boy, standing before him.

Harry told his father he would no longer keep kosher, no longer pray, no longer spend Friday nights at shul. Because he just didn’t believe. Not in the teachings he was brought up with, not in the Torah, not even in God.

He braced for his father’s reaction.

I’ve often imagined the weight of this moment, too. The guilt of knowing what your parents sacrificed to escape oppression, how hard they worked to preserve their way of life in the New World, how carefully they taught their beliefs to their children. And knowing that across the ocean in their homelands, at that very moment, the political climate was turning, and your people were starting to disappear.

But safe in New York, my great-grandfather looked up and smiled at his only son and said the immortal words: “The only sin would be to pretend.”

Decades later, by the time this story was passed down to me in vivid color through my mother’s impeccable storytelling, those words had become a kind of family mantra.”

by Sasha Sagan in For Small Creatures Such as We

https://pollycastor.com/2018/06/25/roasted-red-pepper-sauce-recipe/
   

I work to amplify good wherever I find it. I love color, texture, beauty, great ideas, nature, metaphor, deliciousness, genuine spirituality, and exploring new territory. I encourage authenticity, nurture creativity, champion sustainability, promote peace, and hope to foster a new renaissance where we all are free to be our most fulfilled, multifaceted, and terrific selves. Read more here.

3 Comments

  1. John gregory 4 years ago

    Beautiful

  2. Sue Krevitt 4 years ago

    Yes.

    We are.

  3. Dilys 4 years ago

    I’m sure those amazing photos will inspire some wonderful art works!
    Thanks for sharing. X

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