Not Knowing What I’m Missing — For the Most Part
How can I miss it if I never lost it in the first place. It being that the shimmer and bling of seasonal wonderland retail display windows, supermarket muzak tracks, and the fact that I’ve never practiced the religion held by the majority of the United States.
Goy Envy
Here’s the thing, though. I’m only human. I’m only human and because I’m only human, how in the world could I not have just a little bit of goy envy in me? Here’s how it works. The majority of the carols could melt like Frosty and I wouldn’t be any worse off. Exception being The Little Drummer Boy.
The Little Drummer Boy
The Little Drummer boy is different. It is a song that is so humbling, so majestic, so pacifying and utterly humanizing that no matter where I am and what I am doing, it is a song that freezes time.
Collection of Little Drummer Boy Covers So You Can Hear What I’m Talking About For Yourself
(This one is my personal fav)
In the meantime, I’m posting a picture of mom’s Hanukkah display to assure her that I haven’t lost my mind — I mean, my identity.
Craving more holiday covers? Click here for my Auld Lang Syne collection.
I love the tori version of little drummer boy! Had never heard it before, thanks for sharing!
Always had a connection with this song. It hit popularity with the version by the Harry Simeon Chorale, right at the time puberty was lancing into me and everything in the world was being seen afresh.
Then, at least as much as now, the idea of Jewish identity was only little more than a decade removed from the Holocaust and the establishment of Israel.
Childhood American Jews like me, in a very loosely ‘conservative’ home that knew of ‘kosher’ but did not practice it, that spoke ardently of ‘shul’ but never attended, and lived in that sunny strip of paradise at the western end of Route 66 where The Biz was proudly ‘run’ by Jews, had as many non-Jewish friends as Jews and was surrounded by Catholics, Methodists, and Mormons.
Some of my ‘serious relationships’ were with Jewish girls, but moreso with a Christian Scientist, two Catholics and a Baptist. What can I say? Would David Mamet consider me ‘treffe’?
All I know is that this song reverberates deeply where the poetry of things within me lies, and any ‘sectarian’ spin a good many Christians clearly would want to put on it I leave aside. It might have been estranging to be a Jew in a country some considered (and still consider) ‘Christian’, but it might disorient those with fundamentalist ideas to know that there is a mythic reach to some things nominally Christian that goes beyond dogma.
TF: You’d really enjoy the PBS docu, The Jews in America, if you haven’t seen it yet. A significant section is devoted to Christmas carols written by Jews. The surprising melodic meloncholic aspects of White Christmas, being the olde worlde element. Lots of stuff in it would really resonate w you coming from LA and all.
Thanks for sharing the videos and thoughts about Christmas.
Thank YOU Deb. For your ideas and your seventeen syllabic insights. Looking forward discovering 2010 with you. Assuming the fused health care reform doesn’t turn out too apocalyptic. Although, if it does, I spose we’d have to Politiku our way through it, anyway;-)