My TV Moment

Apparently I have inherited my mother's penchant for telenovella moments:

A man was invited to the Thanksgiving feast I was at. This man annoyed me the entire evening by playing the role of the know-it-all, discussing issues I know about but refusing to let me or anyone else get a word in edge-wise, and completely discounting any of my opinions: The correct Yiddish term for this man would be baal gayva - the correct Hebrew term, gaavtan, the correct Portuguese/Spanish term - burro.

After playing polite the entire evening, at a feast I had pushed myself to go to despite not being in the mood, the topic of my old university came up. As the man lauded the merits of a place I despised, and as he asked me questions about it, I told him my answers would be biased, because, to sum up my feelings about the institution - if it got burned down, PROVIDED THAT NO ONE WAS HURT IN ANY WAY, I would not regret it.

The man then told me that God had not judged my college, but rather my elementary/highschool, which recently burned in a fire where no one was injured, so what did I make of that?

At that moment, I shot back a) it was presumptious to assume I beleived in a God who gets involved in our world (side-note: I do in fact beleive in a God who gets involved in our world) b) We can't look at institutions or people who go through bad experiences and assume they are bad- that is the entire message of the book of Job.

My mom then mentioned a case of a good rabbi she knew whose house suffered a fire, at which point the man told my mother angrily that it is only because I said I wanted (apparently "not regretting" and "actively wanting" are the same) my college to burn in a fire, and I didn't care if people got hurt - because obviously no one getting hurt was impossible (Hi. Did you not hear the huge "if' in my sentence?) that he was having this discussion.

I then got up, told the man I would not lie to him by saying it had been a pleasure meeting him, thanked everyone else for their company, and stormed off - only to return and ask my father for my keys, at which point the host laughed and called me "anti-climactic". "Maybe it's anti-climactic, but I refuse to stay at a table where I am insulted", I replied, storming off once more.

I feel feiry and happy that I stood up for myself.