In the past year, if I have offended you—in word or in deed—by action or inaction, I would like to offer my most heartfelt apology. I'm sure what I did, I did for reasons that I felt were right. I certainly like to think that I'm not a bad person and I hope with just as much certainty that anyone who is reading this agrees with me.

I offer my apologies not in the expectation that you will accept them but in the hopes that you will hear them. At the same time, should any of you feel the need to apologize to me, I will endeavor to do my best to find it within myself to accept those apologies. I can't promise that I will, but I can promise that I will try.

May you, and all those who are important to you, be signed and sealed in the Book of Life for a happy and healthy year to come.

Not counting the one trip to synagogue last year when I was playing tour guide and translator for some friends of my parents, and the—gosh has it been six times now—trips to synagogue that have happened on and around this tour, the last time I did "that being Jewish thing" was three years ago at the beginning of my 2015 Tour from Shanghai to Sanya. Specifically, it was by thinking I was showing up for Kol Nidre only to be asked by the rebbetzin whether or not I had a good fast.

It's safe to say then that, even if I live in a province where the whole Jewish population still hasn't reached double digits, I'm not a very religious person. Be that as it may, it still feels really good to go out and do that whole "communing with a higher power" thing at a time when it's not one of those "dear God" type one-sided conversations that make an unobservant agnostic like me feel very very hypocritical. Just to be holding this one-sided conversation at a time when I'm not afraid of or for something is a good thing; to be doing it in a crowd of people who are, presumably, having something similar to the conversation I am having... it's just a nice warm feeling.

Also, the synagogue has bagels.