A friend of mine was shaken and upset
after been invited to his neighbor's
newborn son's circumcision.
At first I smiled upon hearing it
but he burned his eyes into me
and went into great detail about
how he had entered a room full of well dressed people
while a rabbi talked cheerfully,
holding a newborn infant in his hands.
Then the rabbi lightly slapped the baby's penis a few times,
provoking a slight reaction in the organ.
Then he put a sort of tight peg around the foreskin
so that the top of it was pressed together,
sticking out on the other side of the peg.
Lastly he took a sharp razor and moved it swiftly
back and forth across the peg, slashing away
the skin from the infants penis in a few fast moves.
Blood poured and the child screamed at the top of his lungs.
People cheered and applauded
and it was time for lunch.



The thing that hit him hardest, my friend said,
was that although he was not of their faith
he had been the only one truly watching the spectacle,
not taking his eyes off the baby, sharing its pain and shock
while everyone else in the room just turned and looked away
when the boy's genitals were mutilated.
In my friend's opinion
he had witnessed a helpless child's impregnation
of severe sexual trauma;
something he was sure would follow the boy
s u b c o n s c i o u s l y
and express itself in different ways
for the rest of his life.
"A room full of grownups, he said angrily,
and a most bizarre, dark and sickening ritual
consisting of inflicting a trauma on a baby infant
that not even the perpetrators themselves can stand to watch?!"
He shook his head.
This had clearly ruined both his day
and the relationship to those next door forever.
There goes the neighborhood.



Even though I had only been told the story
the vivid images lingered in my mind for hours.
On my way home I though
Dear great and holy Spirit of all that is,
Let me not lose my humility
and respect for other's faiths.
I wish to accept the fact
that there are other beliefs than my own.
But I need Your help now
because I'm dangerously close
to having bad thoughts,
feelings of resentment
and passing judgment.