Bit by bit our longtime neighbour to our left is building up the holiday landscape in front of his house. They take enormous pride in their exterior decor at this time of year. Hallowe'en is an event they mark with all manner of decorations specific to that children's night of spooky mirages and door-to-door gathering of loot, although in the past few years it has been enormously reduced.

 

But Christmas is when they indulge themselves with scenarios of an ever-growing collection of stage-pieces, a process of theatrical drama that takes a full month to complete to their final satisfaction. Each day another few pieces are added. When it's all completed they must derive a great boost of pride. We've seen this unfold for decades and know that the day following Hallowe'en, all the props are collected and out will come the first of the Christmas lights.

 

 

Heaven knows where all these things are stored during the rest of the year. There's so much of it, it would have to take up an enormous amount of room. It's kind of ironic; when we were young as Jewish children we loved to see the bright colourful lights, the Santas and the angels. Visiting department stores that would delegate employees to dress in costume on a floor dedicated strictly to Christmas celebration seemed like a wonderland to us.

 

That was a time when young Jewish kids like me would often hear insults hurled at them from other children while on their way to school. Endearments like 'Christ-killer', or 'dirty Jew'. At first it hurts, and then pride in oneself and one's heritage helps build a thick hide.  It did for me, but not for everyone. I can still vividly recall a lifetime ago how sorry I felt for one little girl weeping in the class cloakroom, wailing that she didn't want to be a Jew.

 

Now, Jews in Canada, where they've lived since the 16th century as early immigrant settlers, find themselves haunted and hunted. Jewish children attend parochial schools that have bullet holes in their doors. Parents in fear take down the mezuzahs from their doors; too identifying. Jewish community centres are fire-bombed. Security guards must be  hired to protect synagogues. The more things change, the may they resemble what has gone before. 

It is not now Christian children among whom we had friends, who hurl insults at us; now it is children of Middle Eastern non-Jewish descent who issue threats and shout curses and profanities at Jewish children and university students. Suddenly normal life has become abnormal. A conflict so far away from Canada has brought home to Canada the venomous hatred held by Islamist terrorists against our counterparts in Israel who were subjected to a day dedicated to slaughter of Jewish children, rape of Jewish women, and the mass murder of anyone caught up in the maelstrom of demonic hatred.

In the face of all of this, life does go on. We adhere to as much normalcy as we can. Sanity, both mental and physical health depend on it. We feel fatigued with concern, and wake during the night with unwelcome thoughts. But out we go every day with our little dogs for the opportunity to clear our heads and enjoy the natural world while exercising our limbs and the need for contact with nature.