TALES...SPECIAL FESTIVAL ESSAY

SPECIAL FESTIVAL ESSAY: A CIRCLE OF FRIENDS IN A SEASON OF MY JOY

Well, here it is again--the time on the Jewish calendar that is described by some as "the season of our joy.. And do you want to know what has seemed to give me more joy during the year just past since last Sukkot? It's not as much the trips I've been privileged to take (although it has been great to get to go to some of those places--even at times at the absolute barest of financial margins). It's not been the increased freedom and lessened strain I've been blessed to have recently (although it has been nice to not have to worry as much recently on whether or not I might still have a roof over my head tomorrow). It seems instead that a little bit of my increasing joy has come these days from what seems to have been of late an ever-expanding circle of friends, acquaintances, and neighbors that at one time I was not otherwise privileged to have.

To fully understand what I mean, you first have to understand a little bit more of the perspective that I personally come from. Those of you who have been frequent readers of this column are aware of my membership within the Worldwide Church of God. Let's say that at one time within WCG, it was basically an implied taboo to even seriously consider ideas not generated by Church headquarters. Being a man who at one time did not have as much life experience as I do now (good and bad), I did not think in the past that this was necessarily a bad thing due to the fact that I personally considered a good number of these hostile ideas (or at least which I personally considered hostile) to be pagan and uninspired. But now at this juncture of my life, I'm beginning to have immense second thoughts on this idea. Granted, there are still some basic things that I prefer to hold on to--but I'm now beginning to wonder now another totally diametrically opposite thought.

At the time that I first informed several members of my family that I was not going to keep Christmas anymore, my granddad made what was a very stinging and prophetic remark to me in response to my action, something along these lines: "You're going to regret the day that you did this. You're going to wish that you had the help that we're giving you now." For them, my decision was to them a major setback and disappointment. Now don't take me wrong--I DO NOT regret in

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