Conferences, trans identity, and airports: a good few days

This past week I had the privilege of attending the “First 100 Days: For Every Rabbi in Transition” seminar in Atlanta, alongside rabbis transitioning nationwide. Some highlights:

- The seminar itself was awesome! The tagline was “honoring the past while shaping the future,” and it gave me tools to do just that.

- I got to reconnect with a colleague I hadn’t seen since my year in Israel.  Since we last spoke I had three kids and she two; my how time flies.

- One of the rabbis at the temple hosting us is a colleague from Cincinnati, and invited me to his house to join them for dinner one evening. A home-cooked meal and sassy kids who aren’t my own, hooray!

- I was on West Coast time, so around 9pm EST when everything conference-wise was over, but I was still wide awake, I headed to the hotel lounge/bar to socialize with new people. The first night I met a lovely couple from England who took numerous vacations road-tripping across various areas of the U.S. The second night I got into a long, detailed conversation with an executive chef and her trans partner. I’d never before had such deep interactions about religion, sexuality and gender identity with complete strangers. It just reaffirmed that this kind of pastoral care is what I want to be doing with my life.


I also had fun playing anthropologist, analyzing cities through their entry portals, as I walked through four airports in three days:

The airport in Phoenix spoke to the city's physical setting, for the stores were filled with Native American jewelry and the buildings were bright with huge windows and multiple pictures of desert landscapes.

Charlotte had the tagline "the new South" plastered everywhere, and though the airport looked old and tired, it seemed to be trying to remake itself into something grand.

Atlanta is obviously a military hub as it had "welcome back!" photos of people in uniform everywhere.  It's also exceedingly proud of its history, so much so that it had an actual "history of Atlanta" museum laid out as you walked through the terminals.  At the same time it seemed to want to show that the Civil War and racial unrest isn't all there is, as the walls all focused on how cultured the city is, from ads like "our hospitals cure children's cancer," to showcasing sculptures from Zimbabwe, to so many pictures of tall buildings I wasn't surprised at all to hear that it's referred to as the New York of the south.

In stark contrast, Sacramento screamed "who cares about the past, look to the future!" All its ads on the walls had to do with hi-tech companies or college recruitment, the whole place is spacious and new, and cell phone charging ports and LED billboards are everywhere.


It was so wonderful to get home to Jonathan and the kids.  And thankfully now I’m all done with travel… for a whole nine days. :)