I think I’ve used up all of my pithy comments on face book. I’ve already posted anything interesting that happened this week. Plus, it’s just really hard to type while you’re eating popcorn.
I have a folder in my file cabinet marked “Ideas to Ponder.” This has always been my emergency back up plan. But I went to check it out just now and I can’t find it. I don’t know if that means I pondered everything already of if I lost it somewhere in the house.
Last week's blog ended with a promise to tell you something about how my friend Nancy celebrates Passover. It's all about Unleavened Bread but also about Freedom. When I talked to her about this over lunch she told me she's always struck by how many leaven products are part of our Easter when it's supposedly based on Passover.
Passover celebrates the Jews' escape from slavery in Egypt. And they had to leave so quickly that they didn't take time to let the day's bread rise before baking it. The unleavened feature is such an integral part of the celebration that you are supposed to search you house for even a crumb of leavened bread and get rid of it. Nancy is very devout but also very modern and intense housecleaning isn't on her agenda. Her solution to this instruction is to take a string and tie shut all the kitchen cabinets except for one or two that she cleans thoroughly. When Passover passes she unties the strings and life returns to normal. Very clever.
I think her comment comes from the cultural whirlpool that sucks in her family at the grocery store. Any American holiday has special pastries. In New Orleans I could count on having King's Cake during Easter and it was worth the wait for Easter to roll around. But it's chock full of yeast.
The other insight Nancy gave me was how personal the issue of slavery is to Jews. They all consider themselves ex-slaves as a result of the exodus and passover. Tis explains why the civli rights movement drew so many Jewish sympathizers.
But that's about all I've got on Passover. Nt enough words yet.
Our cat has developed a serious bird addiction. Naturally, he decided to bring the first bird into the kitchen just as I was putting Easter lunch on the table. He brought a couple more in yesterday and I spent a lot of the morning monitoring his activities outside. The minute I let my guard down, he brought in another bird. I guess all the new babies are learning to fly and these flew too low or too slow. You can’t really blame Murphy for doing what comes naturally to him. I just wish he wouldn’t bring them into the house. Especially when they’re still alive and chirping. I hate it when they chirp. He does the same thing with mice when winter comes and some of them squeak. I hate it when they squeak, too. I know if I could translate chirps or squeaks they would be calling for their mothers or saying, “Help me, Help me!” I always feel obligated to save them but it’s usually too late. The whole exercise just makes me feel guilty.
If you’ll give me a pass for today I’ll show you my book. Here it is: Three parts, 48 chapters, 129,119 words. A few black and white photos and a resource section that includes recipes.
I guess I really do have words. I have 129,119. I know you all are really tired of me yapping about this book. No one is more tired of it all than I am. Beaven finished the income tax yesterday and tomorrow he packs up all the papers to file them all away . I can’t wait to get this book off to press so I can pack up all my papers and get back to finding new words for Wednesdays. And maybe by then I'll find the Ideas to Ponder and we can ponder them together.
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