Day of Atonement

At sundown, Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of atonement began. It's never been a holiday I celebrate, at least not fully. It's a fasting day and I do not do well with fasting. It is supposed to help one focus on spiritual matters, but I tend to focus on being hungry and having a headache. Since I wasn't going to do it correctly (I actually almost always manage, without thinking about it, to have pork on Yom Kippur!), I decided years ago to just have my own personal day of atonement. Today was that day.

Atonement is an interesting concept, the idea that you can make amends for moral wrongs, especially the personal ones. The desire for a clean slate is a strong one. To be cleansed of one's wrong doings, it is a powerful promise.

I couldn't help but think, though, that while this cleansing makes one feel good, focusing on how to have fewer things to atone for next year would be better. Looking at what I felt I had to atone for, I came up with being more patient and compassionate, and letting go of how I think things should be as ways to reduce next year's list of atonements. Thinking about the work to do going forward is a bit of a buzz kill, but maybe that isn't a bad way to end a day of atonement.