Praise the gods for Friday nights at home! Yesterday (Thursday, the night sanctioned for debauchery in well-known company) I was reading a friend’s copy of How to Run a Traditional Jewish Household, which observed that the effect of Jewish tradition is to sanctifies the routine goings-on of life, by giving them a special routine of their own. By making Shabbat special, by letting it bask in its own glory, every other day of the week enjoys a reflection of that radiance. Like Zahedi says in Waking Life, every moment is holy, but we walk around like they aren’t. Film, poetry, art, math, architecture, love, chocolate, acid, and Fridays at home help us remember.

Thanks siderea for putting together a meme of Mosher Sexual Styles*! Mine’s “Partner Engagement”, which, under other circumstances, I might be embarrassed by, but her descriptions are far too even-handed and likable and insightful for it. “[Sex] is a loving communion with your partner by which you tear down the walls of existential isolation and truly touch, if only for a moment, another human spirit…. The meaning you make of sex is a celebration of life. You see in sex a rejoicing in being alive and a rejoicing in your partner.” Sex, like Shabbat, allows us to sanctify a holy moment for each other.

I’m resisting the urge to cross reference this (or expand the meme) with Stein’s 9 male sexual types and taxonomies of fetishes. More material for my Philosophy of Sex class!

[* Edit: updated as per http://siderea.livejournal.com/526476.html]