Possumblog

Not in the clamor of the crowded street, not in the shouts and plaudits of the throng, but in ourselves, are triumph and defeat.--Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

REDIRECT ALERT! (Scroll down past this mess if you're trying to read an archived post. Thanks. No, really, thanks.)

Due to my inability to control my temper and complacently accept continued silliness with not-quite-as-reliable-as-it-ought-to-be Blogger/Blogspot, your beloved Possumblog will now waddle across the Information Dirt Road and park its prehensile tail at http://possumblog.mu.nu.

This site will remain in place as a backup in case Munuvia gets hit by a bus or something, but I don't think they have as much trouble with this as some places do. ::cough::blogspot::cough:: So click here and adjust your links. I apologize for the inconvenience, but it's one of those things.

Monday, March 25, 2002

Next Year In Birmingham
Article in Sunday's Birmingham News by homeboy Frederick Keimann, a free-lance critic who has become part of the diaspora in Highland Park, New Jersey, and yearns to eat his Seder in the Promised Land:

I may have moved away from Birmingham, but my memories of the place are strong, and there is no better time to return to Birmingham than for the Festival of Freedom.

Birmingham is a very spiritual place. People between the Cahaba and Black Warrior rivers, in the vicinity of Red Mountain and under the shadow of the once mighty Vulcan constantly think about what it means to be holy. And they take it to heart. The rest of the country isn't like that. Most of America doesn't go to church. Birmingham does.

Even as a Jew, it was a privilege to live among people struggling to connect themselves with God. That's not the North. You talk like that, and people take a step back. In Birmingham, they ask if you're free for coffee. So to come to Birmingham for Passover is to return to holy ground. When I get here, I'll visit Temple Emanu-El and cry because it will always be my spiritual home. Then I go to the churches I attended for interfaith dialogues. Next to Kelly Ingram Park and Vulcan and Sloss Furnaces and Moody and Sandy Vista in Ensley, if there's time. There are so many stories here. I can only guess at all the memories, history and goodness in those places and others.

My memories are the least of what makes Birmingham a great place for Passover, a most Southern Jewish holiday.

The heart of the South beats with the blood of Exodus. Everyone knows the most obvious example. The Israelites' flight by slavery was widely cited by abolitionist and subsequent civil rights leaders in the struggle against slavery and its aftermath.

Good article-read it all.

posted by Terry at 10:50:00 AM

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