I went out to dinner last night. I was by myself and I brought some work along. The waiter seated me - despite the fact that the restaurant was nearly empty - in a table jammed between two other occupied tables. So instead of working, I eavesdropped. Sort of unintentionally.
There were a man and a woman having a fight. I was seated next to the woman, so I only heard her side of the conversation:
No....I'm not doing this here...no...I'm not doing this in public...No....because I'm just not discussing this in India Palace.......fine, fine, you wanna do this here? let's do it....
After several minutes of rancourous back-and-forth, she said something that would have been hilarious, if it weren't so sad. She said, with a kind of frustrated weariness:
I would be more fun if you ever did the dishes.
The Bickersons settled their tab and left, so I started (inadvertantly) listening to the conversation at the next table. It was much more cheering. And man and his 10 or 11 year old son were talking about books and religion and culture and all that. I got the impression that they'd recently been to visit a Christian friend of the dad's, and the son had questions.
It was a really capitivating conversation (even if I hadn't been forcibly capitvated by sitting about 7 millimeters away). The father was intelligent and knowledgeable. The son was quick and curious. The father explained the common heritage of Christianity and Islam with Judaism. He mentioned similarities with other religious traditions, all without lapsing into platitudes or muddle-headedness. He didn't try to elide religious difference, just put it into intellectual and historical context.
The son asked pointed and thoughtful questions throughout the conversation. At one point, he asked: "So, do they have, like, the Talmud? Or the Midrash?"
The father told him that many Christians and Jews don't acknowledge the deep connections between the New Testament and the teachings of Jewish oral tradition. He told his son that Jesus was, in many ways, the greatest popularizer of Jewish thought in history.
Without missing a beat, the kid said, resignedly but without resentment:
"Because nobody listens to the Jews."I was glad the dad laughed, too, because I couldn't entirely suppress a giggle.
Cutest. Kid. Ever.
