Incoming — Thinking About 2026

I must confess that as the new secular year approaches, I’m holding onto hope as well as struggling with uncertainty. If I had to somehow distill the cultural moment — I’d say there’s a great deal of uncertainty about what comes next. There has, of course, been a great deal of turbulence and dissent about a host of things, and to speak about people sharing a consensus about — anything — seems quaint and nostalgic. For those of us who are old enough — picture a sepia-toned Walter Cronkite finishing up his news report, everybody trusting his words and agreeing “and that’s the way it is.” Well…2026 is a different place and time, whatever you make of it.

OK, all that aside. Even with the wounds and grief we felt at the start of Hanukkah (I’m talking about Bondi Beach), there was heroism (also, Bondi Beach), a needed reminder that good and decent people are to be found in all sorts of places and desperate moments. We gathered to kindle Hanukkah lights in Macon, Milledgeville, and Perry — wonderful moments of community. Our non-Jewish neighbors showed up and bolstered our spirits. We’re looking forward to celebrating Isaiah Heard’s bar mitzvah with his family — Mazal Tov to Marquise, Sofia, and Kimarra!

To sum it all up, the take-home words are community and relationship. The Irish proverb is —“In the shelter of each other, the people live.”