सिक्स्थ night

It's the day after Christmas, the sixth night of Chanukah, and we are in the Great Smoky Mountains. Specifically, we are at the heated swimming pool of the Willow Brook Lodge where we are staying with the Israeli family we made friends with on our hike to Laurel Falls.
Smoking is prohibited in the rooms and we don't want to take chances lighting our Chanukiah in violation of the house rules, so we have brought it with us to the pool, and, of course, we forgot matches.
I send Itamar to ask the big, tatooed man who is about to step outside to smoke if he can light our shamash, we he does graciously. After his smoke, he returns to watch our foreign ritual. He asks if I can explain what we are doing. Little does he know that he has asked the right guy.
I explain the stories of the Macabees and the debate between Hillel and Shamai about lighting the candles and how we are not allowed to use the light of the candles for any other purpose except to remind us of the time of Chanukah, and the big tatooed man thanks me for sharing our light and introduces his fiance. I guess this is part of the purpose of the ritual; to share our pride and spread our light. And I think we did a good job of it tonight.