12 Days of #108Mas: A great holiday injustice!

December 18, 2021

The holiday season is often time for reflection and for me I usually reflect back on the fun times I have had in the past around the holidays or the odd or weird things I have ingested in my 43 years of roaming aimlessly on this spinning asteroid.

Back in the early 2000’s I had just graduated college and was trying to make a living in public accounting. Although I had offers from the Big 4 (I think it was Big 5 or 6 back then, yep, I’m that old) Accounting firms, I decided that a smaller regional firm would be a better fit for me. The chance to get my hands in many types of work skill pies was too much to pass up. That job lead me to having an office in the 515 N. State street building. That building is much different now than when I worked there 20 years ago, but the building still stands.

This is what 515 N. State looked like back then

We had the infamous Snickers Bar kitty corner from this building and Rock Bottom Brewery directly across the street. Not to mention just a hop skip and a jump away from Michigan Avenue, so basically my office area in the early 2000’s was hopping around the holidays.

Now, the nice thing about working in public accounting (quite possibly one of the only nice things) was that right around the holidays it was pretty quiet. I mean, you know we are getting ready to embark on 4 months or so of 70 to 80 hour work weeks, but for now, it’s a pretty easy gig that materially involves you greasing the wheels for a successful tax season (and audit, like I said, we did errything at this firm).

One morning, while I was walking through the lobby of the building, I took a moment to gaze at the absolutely gigantic and breath-taking Xmas tree that they erected annually. This thing was a got-damn show piece.

Not the actual tree in question, but you get the idea as to it’s hugeness and beautifulness

I really liked how this tree looked, and I’d often admire it momentarily, but this morning I took a longer look and that’s when I noticed it. Tiny, shoved off to the side, barely noticeable unless you went out of your way to try to notice it. The most miniscule menorah I had ever seen in my entire life. It was right next to the Xmas tree as if to do some sort of measuring contest right here in the lobby.

This is a dramatization of the menorah in question, it was much smaller than this in my memory

I remember thinking, WHAT FUCKING BULLSHIT! I’m not Jewish, but I still saw this as a great injustice. How you gonna have a 30 foot Xmas Tree and right next to it go with a 6 inch tall Menorah. What the fuck is going on here.

Imagine like this, but you know, holiday symbols

I remember bringing it up to my co-workers and getting a bunch of “meh’s” and “oh’s” but nobody else really giving a fuck. I was in shock. Seemed outrageous but nobody else gave a shit. Maybe I’m the one who is out of line, but if your building is going to half ass the holiday symbol for one religion while really whipping it out for the other, please don’t put them next to each other to compare size. If you do, a man of average intelligence will call you out on that shit 20 years later in his blog that dozens of people might read.

-BeefLoaf