November 6, 2021 MY GENERATION

Not sure I've ever mentioned this before but I'm actually Jewish.  I'm Catholic but I'm also Jewish. My mother was raised Jewish but converted to Catholicism and raised us as Catholics. According to Jewish law though --the Jewish status is passed down through the mother--so it's in my blood. I grew up raising a glass of wine and toasting  L'Chaim (To Life)--LOOKING at gefilte fish that totally grossed me out --eating Matzo ball soup and lighting a menorah.  I also grew up eating pork, shell fish, decorating a Christmas tree and  celebrating Christmas. I guess it was the best of both worlds.  My mother converted to Catholicism early on because she said that she always hated being Jewish. I never understood why--or even asked her about it until this week AND it was only after reading this wonderful memoir about another woman who converted in the 1940s. It would have been impossible for me to understand my mother's rational because generationally--I am so far removed from her situation that I would not have been able appreciate her thinking. I finally get it. Books. The places they take me  and the lessons I learn.  What would I do without them? I just can't believe it took me so long to find The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother by James McBride. This beautifully written memoir was a collaboration between McBride and his  remarkable mother Ruth McBride Jordan. Ruth grew up in the South. Her father was a rabbi and she was often persecuted in her white community for being Jewish, so she turned to the African American community where she was accepted. She eventually moved to Red Hook housing project in Brooklyn, married a black man and founded a Baptist church. She also became a mother to 12 children who all graduated from college. It is quite a story--laugh out loud funny at times, emotional at others and totally inspirational. McBride never knew anything about his mother's past until he was an adult when she finally agreed to share her history, then he finally understand his own place in the world. This National Book Award winner should be required reading for every human being. It's that good. At only 295 pages--it's a 4 mile run--that is worth every page.