Better Late Than Early: A Forty-Eight-Year-Old's Bat Mitzvah Saga

All this Jewish stuff is pretty new to me, but don't get me wrong. I have always known I was a Jew—just not a very observant or religious one. Most of my life I called myself a “secular” or “cultural” Jew, a modern distinction non-Jews often don't understand, but which, say, Navajos and others still familiar with their peoples' ancient lifeways and perspectives, do.