Housekeeping - No SITREP For 4/15/22 (Patreon)

One of the best aspects of being an independent journalist is within the confines of our channels, I can be transparent and authentic. In a corporate media setting breaking the "fourth frame," or becoming real, is generally discouraged. It can also be career ending.

So I'm going to be authentic for a bit.

I'm not very religious - I've had a couple of moments in my life where religion and faith has bubbled up to a higher level.

I'm a Jewish kid raised Episcopalian who went to a Catholic High School and then moved to Deep East Texas in his 20s surrounded by Evangelicals. I think that sentence explains in itself why I'm not very religious. If you're reading too much subtext into that let me explain - the amount of religious whiplash I received in my formative years made my head spin.

When people ask me about my childhood I always tell them, "my mother was an Italian Jew, so I was raised with violent guilt."

I have massive respect for people who have deep faith (and don't use it to justify hatred) because the comfort and calm they receive from their faith is evident. I'm too rooted in the tangible to not be that 9th grade kid raising his hand over and over again in Father Champion's religion class asking him to explain the Catholic Trinity of Faith over and over and over again. In the end he got right in my face, both hands on my desk and declared, "you just have to believe!"

If you've ever heard the early stand up comedy work of Denis Leary, he has a routine about going to a "tough high school" with "biker nuns" and having "ruler flashbacks." Yup, that's my high school (now gone). We weren't classmates, Leary is about a decade old than me but I can confirm, the ruler flashbacks are real. My ADHD ass definitely learned to sit still and pay attention - through violence!

If you're confused on how a Jewish kid raised Episcopalian ended up in a Catholic High School - this was a very northeastern United States thing during this era. Public schools in that region were already excellent, and private Catholic schools were common, affordable, and focused on college prep. 

My faith system today is more closely aligned to Futurama's Godfellas, or the movies Leap of Faith or Dear God.

SIDEBAR:

Godfellas is amazing, Leap of Faith is extremely underrated, Dear God hasn't aged well but it's a fun comedy

I have publicly joked many times I'm a terrible Jew. I love bacon wrapped scallops, we keep pets, I have a tattoo - heck - I didn't get Bar Mitzvahed until 2018 in Nicaragua and yes, that is a story unto itself. We don't go to temple, we're not associated with a synagogue. If being Jewish is being a mensch, I got it covered.

With events around the globe over the last 5 to 10 years, and here in the United States, my wife and I are feeling ourselves being pulled closer to our faith and our ethnicity. Yes, Judaism is a religion and Jewish is a race - I can't change my genes.

A lot of keystrokes to say that we will be observing Passover this year with a more strict interpretation than we have in the past. We're attending Seder tonight and won't be doing "work work" until sunset on 4/16. 

To honor this I won't be around to write my part of the SITREP nor review contributors content and research. 

If the situation remains quiet through 3 PM PDT Los Angeles time, we won't do a SITREP today and there will likely be an abbreviated one delivered very late on Saturday.

I appreciate your understanding and for going forward the team and I will discuss how I can better share what's rolling around in my brain so someone else can step in to manage the process.