G-d, Guitars, and Greater Chicago ...*tee-hee*

The 2008 Greater Chicago Jewish Folk Arts Festival was a giddy success yet again. I only say "giddy" because each time I attend the biannual festival, that's how I feel. Tee-hee-hee. I think it's because it combines three of my deepest passions: Judaism, music and art, and the city of Chicago, which is just plain fun for me. It was a ridiculous display of hubris side by side with piety, and the forest preserve mud supporting some of contemporary Judaica's most beautiful works of art. I love that the festival brings Chicago Jews of all ages together so that I always run into people from each of my life's stages and compartments. I love talking to them; sometimes re-meeting them. I love the fanfare and the food, and of course, the music. I loved every minute I was there. Even just thinking about the huge range of my own community's Jewish cultural diversity makes me giggle. I always knew that Chicago is the greatest city in the world, that music is the greatest form of expression, and that Judaism is as diverse as the number of Jews, and I guess it's just comforting to know that so many other people feel exactly the same way.