Virtual Community
Tonight is erev Yom Kippur and I write having just returned from the Kol Nidrei service. All day I have felt worn down, dreary, and dizzy. This morning I awoke and continued my flash experiments for AU until noon when I was to meet my personal trainer (yes I now have a personal trainer, more on that as it develops) at Haussler. I biked over there and couldn't find her anywhere so I just worked out on my own. Luck would have it that the woman from my stats class that borrowed my notebook was coming to work as I was leaving so I was able to get in back in time to do my homework for Wednesday.
The reason I would have had to wait is simply that I couldn't remember her name, much like I can't remember the name of my personal trainer so I can't call her to reschedule our session. Forgetfulness is a transgression I need to ask forgiveness for this Yom Kippur. I forget to write back to people I care deeply about. Rob Levy, Anne Marie Mollenberndt, Wade Meyer, Felice Kelley, and many forgotten more go left without letters. I want to write and I will! (at least I hope I will, there really is no excuse not to other than laziness and thoughtlessness, two characteristics that I do not wish to posses).
So tonight was the Yom Kippur service and I went feeling bad to start but seeing all these people again, all those Mercedes and Lexus SUV's reminded me of how alienated I am from the community here. It is hard to be a Jew alone. I have Julie and my parents but four isn't even half a minyon. Rabbi Jodey, as she is affectionately and condescendingly known by the congregation was a little nervous and reminded me to see people as people and people make mistakes (a terrible sentence I realize). Then the choir with organ accompaniment reminded me of the same thing. Just because they are terrible and almost impossible to sing along with making the high holy days into a spectator sport does not mean they shouldn't be listened to. My problem is that I listen to edited recordings and have lost my sensitivity and appreciating for the genuine article. Or so I argued until I realized that these people were hooked up to a sound board and still didn't sound that great. But I digress.
Rabbi Jodey's sermon centered around the increasingly "virtual" nature of our material realities. Cell phones, pagers, laptops, TV's with DVD players in SUV's, handheld computers, the internet, and digital cameras have invaded what was once our pastoral everyday lives. When she as a girl would take a family vacation she would interact with her family but now everyone wears headphones and is plugged in to somewhere or something else. We are living, as the argument goes, in a world more virtual than real. The importance of her point is the disconnection from our relationships and our realities. Our communities, in this case our Jewish community suffers, when we log on to minyon instead of walking to schul. The principle is lost when we fax a prayer to the Western Wall rather than praying here and now. Visiting a place isn't the same online as it is in its physicality.
Or is it? For those fortunate enough to live in worlds surrounded by like minded and similarly interested individuals, technology can lead to disconnection, voice mail instead of a friendly visit. For those who can afford "real" vacations, who have the money to take a trip to nature or to another land; for those who can afford to take the time to unplug without sacrificing their well-being she is correct. But for the rest of us, she is not seeing the whole picture. It is too simple to say that virtual reality is a) not reality and b) bad for reality. Lesbians and gay men, for example, can use the internet as a way to build real community. When isolated in a physical place a digital "coming out" is a real liberation; the virtual can be more real than the real.
But then there is the fact that the internet is used more often by reactionary right-wing movements than progressives. A simple search for "Talmud" renders thousands of anti-Semitic hate pages and Hasidic pages. It is very hard to find a resource that would speak to my progressive Judaism. The internet has become a home for those who see its potential. Matt Hale is bigger than real life on the internet. A web page, unlike any other media, offers the creator total control. The user gets no other opinion than that being shown them on the page without taking the time to research alternative positions; rare is the web designer that links to the opposition. Fortunately Google offers an easy solution to this but don't forget what such a search will generate.
If there were an online community for me I would embrace it. The opportunity to virtually attend Temple Micah in Washington, DC, or some other liberal congregation would be far better and more relational than physically attending weekly services here. The important point is to understand the potential of the internet and of change. To see it as bad and to criticize as artificial and not able to measure up to reality leave it to those you oppose in your real world. This is part of a larger problem facing progressive movements of all kind, both in and out of Judaism. We are losing the cutting edge to the "enemy." Neo-cons are hip and online. Christian punk is in. We need to embrace change and new technologies as the future of our ideas and as a way to give us new consciousness of them. For those living in "virtual" worlds, they see their lives as just as real as I see mine. The question should be, how can I understand that not what is wrong with that?
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Who is this guy?
Hanukkah
December 25, 2003
Hi Sam,
You are not a Jew alone even if that's how you may feel. It's hard to be a progressive Jew, but what's easy? Life is a series of imperfect connections that make up our reality. If it wasn't for running into Fran Moss, calling your Mom, AND the internet, I wouldn't have made this connection.
By the way, this is your Mom's cousin Nancy. I called your Mom last night our synagogue Hanukkah party. Fran Moss from Peoria was doing her music and storytelling. Stuart mentioned we were at you and Aaron's Bar Mitzvah and Fran said she knew your family.
Happy Hanukkah
Love, Nancy, Stuart and Julia Gold