(no subject)

[ewt]

Thanks, xiphias, for having the courage to start this.

It's the Ten Days of Repentance, the period of time between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur when we go into overdrive to try to repair any damaged relationships we have with each other.

If there is anything which I did over the past year which hurt or upset you, please let me know. If you want to discuss it publically, please leave a comment below; if you'd like to discuss it privately, email me at [livejournal at ewt dot anarres dot org].

I will see whether I can make amends, and make right anything which I have done wrong.

I don't promise that I can. But I do promise that I will try.

Comments

[taoist-goth.livejournal.com]

Still seems a bit bizarre that there's a set time of the year in which you're especially nice - kinda implies it's a bit "put on" and that the other 355 days of the year you're being your usual self?

It's a bit like Valentine's Day - like it's an excuse not to be romantic for 364 days a year.

[ewtikins.livejournal.com]

No, no no no no NO!

'Nice' has nothing to do with it. It's more about the fact that we are all imperfect, and spiritually these ten days are a sort of concentrated chance to try to be better people, a call to wake up and take account of the past year in order to try to improve next time round (ie next year). Nobody could deal with this sort of spiritual intensity all the time without forfeiting other areas of sanity. If I tried, every day, to think of every mistake I've made in the past year and resolve to do better next year, it would fail, miserably, and probably drive me insane. A lot of the time we only see our mistakes in hindsight. A lot of the time we need to distance ourselves emotionally before we can apologise. So, we need to look back at big chunks of time, but we can't do it constantly, every day. So we do it once in a while. Having a specific time of year for it means it gets done.

And Valentine's Day is NO excuse to not be romantic the rest of the year. I've had this discussion before, elsewhere.

I'm a seasonal beast. To everything there is a season, yada yada yada. I find that organising my life around seasons helps me to be more effective and happier. Time is central to the way I live and seasons are just bigger chunks of time. I know this model doesn't work for everyone, but it mostly works for me.

Right now in my chosen faith it is the season for introspection, self-examination, recognition of where I've messed up and trying to fix things that should already have been fixed.

With regard to sins against God (maybe I broke Shabbat, or ate a ham and cheese sandwich), it is a time to repent, see where we went wrong, resolve to do better next time and figure out how to do so. With regard to sins against others (which are also sins against God, in this particular model, since God made everything) it isn't enough to be sorry - if I have wronged another person I have to make amends to them and have THEIR forgiveness before I will get forgiveness from God. NB 'sin' is a very loose term which doesn't really carry the same connotations in standard Western culture as it does in Judaism.

If apology/making amends weren't genuine then the transgressions presumably wouldn't be forgiven and there wouldn't be much point. It would actually be worse, from a spiritual standpoint, to do this insincerely than not at all.

[free2003.livejournal.com]

that would drive my conscience insane.

[taoist-goth.livejournal.com]

Sorry, being a Taoist none of this really makes any sense to me....