I am not Jewish, and perhaps that's why I was amazed to find an article in my Easter paper about a local temple adding a few not-particularly-religious incentives to their Friday ritual: a band and a bar. They call it Schmooz'N Shabbat, and it happens once a month. This Friday, there's an extra hour of partying they're calling Kegs & Kahillah.
If you've ever attended a Christian church, this will probably seem very foreign to you. YET. This temple has figured out a way to encourage young Jews to attend services and then congregate, which is what the temple is all about. Since attendance by a younger audience had been declining, the temple came up with this strategy. Their answer is a bit out of the ordinary, but has been effective, with about 150 people attending both the services and the Schmooz portion of the evening.
Here's what the temple figured out: if you do the same thing over and over again, you're likely to create the same results.
Let's say that you have a challenge facing you right now. Could you spend 15 minutes imagining wacky answers to the problem, things that you wouldn't "normally" do? And then....if one of those answers appealed to you...could you do it?
When you compare the risk of doing the same old thing over and over again—that is, that you'll end up in the same place you are now—versus the risk of trying something completely new and different—which risk has more downside? Just asking.....
When I was 12, I lived in a commune. One of our housemates was a woman who held a black belt in karate and gave us self-defense lessons. Back then her name was Pat, but she later changed it to Banshee and appeared on the cover of Ms. Magazine in her role as a bodyguard for a sheik.
She once took me to a karate demonstration at a local university. Students, or karatekas, from several different schools were performing their particular styles of karate. One school, or dojo, had a woman as a member of their otherwise all-male dojo. They worked through their first kata, or routine, and I couldn't take my eyes off this woman. She was very slight in contrast to her much larger classmates. Her movements matched those of the men perfectly. At the end of the routine, she came to the front of the group and spoke to the audience.
"I am the only woman in this dojo. When I first began to practice here, the men would take off their uwagis, the top part of the karate uniform, and work the katas barechested. Because I am a woman, I have never been allowed to do this in the dojo. Today, outside of the dojo, our roles will be reversed."
So saying, she stripped off her top, laid it aside, and barechested, went back to her position among the fully clothed men. Together, they performed the next kata flawlessly.
I watched with my mouth hanging open. I was awed by her courage. I was awed by the statement she was making on behalf of all women. I wanted to be as free and confident in myself as she was.
All these years later, the telling of this story still brings tears to my eyes. It is my goal to be as brave as that woman was in every moment of my life.
Are you expressing yourself fully in this moment? In this life? If not, when will you start?