I had to spend a week out of town, and I had this old friend living nearby, who had visited me in NYC a few years ago, so I took him up on his offer to repay my hospitality. Apart from that one visit, when he and his wife stayed in my place for a few days, I hadn’t seen this guy in several decades–we had played ball together as adolescents, and he remembered every game we played, who got hits, who made great catches, etc. and I thought I’d enjoy reliving those days and seeing him again. We had a pretty good time when he visited.
But when I got to his place, he was a little more outspoken–my first night there, he had FOX NEWS on TV and he was talking back to the TV. Well, not exactly talking back. He was shouting, “Yeah, that’s right, you tell 'em,” to Bill O’Reilly, and during the commercials was assuring me that although he was a registered Democrat, he hated Obama, or “Odumbo” as he called him. He was a Kenyan, he was a Muslim, he was a socialist, he wasn’t really elected, he was stealing money from our paychecks. Thing was, I didn’t hide my own affinities, so I couldn’t understand why he kept saying things like “Anyone who’d vote for this idiot has to be a moron himself,” to which I couldn;t respond, because my only response would have been to wave my hand and remind him, “Um, hey, two-time Obama voter here—and I worked for him both times!” So I just kept my mouth shut, and heard my intelligence insulted and my integrity impugned for several nights running. It was pretty funny, actually, as soon as I figured out that I’d be better off letting him rant and not trying to change his mind or argue with him.
Funny thing was, he and his wife treated me very kindly otherwise. But every time they talked to me, I had to hold my tongue. Monday night, they had a seder, which they do every year, despite the fact that my friend, who was raised Jewish, had married a Catholic woman and had raised their kids Catholic. But this one night, he felt the need to prepare Jewish dishes and to recite Hebrew prayers over the food. (His wife prepared the food–I never had Jewish dishes prepared by a non-Jew before, and hope I never do again.) He muttered a little Hebrew, but mainly his Judiasm consisted of asssuring me that Obama was a threat to Israel’s security, on account of his belonging to the Muslim brotherhood, and priding himself on remembering the brocha over wine on Passover. (I can recite it, too, of course–I just choose not to.) He kept insisting that he was a proud Jew, though I have to think that raising his children Catholic must be some violation of Judiac law. It was a bizarre few days, all in all.
