September 25, 2023 – Today is Yom Kippur. I don’t observe the holiday in the traditional sense. I don’t go to the synagogue. I don’t fast. I don’t atone for sins in any traditional way.

I don’t shlug caporos. This is a weird ceremony that I have never done. It is a symbolic transfer of sins to a chicken, which is then slaughtered and given to charity. The charity part is fine. But I don’t think you can transfer your sins to a chicken. Either your sin was a one-time thing and it’s now gone. Or it’s a habit or weakness that isn’t transferable to chickens. And that’s certainly not erased when the chicken is killed.

I actually like the idea of taking a moral inventory once a year. And this is the season I do it. This is what I grew up with. I also like the custom apologizing to people you’ve hurt during the year. American society is hostile to apologies. We even had a presidential candidate once who wrote a book called “No Apology.” This is ridiculous. If you hurt someone, you apologize. And if you didn’t do it at the time, you hurt them, this is the season to do it.

But what’s next after Yom Kippur?

You need to follow through. This is the hard part. And I’m not sure that Yom Kippur (or similar repentance rituals in other religions) provides much help. Either you’re forgiven, which happens most of the time. Or you’re not forgiven and subject to the divine decree of death. This happens once.

There’s much speculation about what happens after the decree of death is executed, with very little evidence to support the speculation (actually none).

There’s not much speculation about what happens after you are forgiven. Ideally, you go back into the world (which you actually never left) and you do better because you are remorseful for those bad habits and weaknesses that you may or may not have tried to transfer to a chicken but find on the day after Yom Kippur that you still have them.

So, what do you do? You need a plan.

This year, I have two things. The first is to keep in better touch with friends and family. This means less texting and more calling and less reliance on Kit. It has to be me. I’ve already started. But it’s a new habit. I need to keep at it until it is ingrained.

My second thing is to get back to writing (beyond the writing that I do on my job). Ironically, this one requires more computer time.

In the last couple years, I’ve neglected this blog. Now, there’s nothing special about this blog. There are millions of blogs. But, in years past, the habit of doing regular blog posts actually supported my other writing projects. It keeps my typing fingers limber—and does the same thing for my creative mind.

You’d think it would be the opposite. You’d think the blog would exhaust me. But in reality, it primes the pump.

I wrote the first of the new series last week. Here is my second.

I suppose it’s not really a “sin” when I don’t write. But it’s a habit I want to foster, a change in my routine. So, here we go.

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