Two More Days of Passover.........

Two more days left of Passover; two more days of eating Matzos (which are a lot of Weight Watcher points by the way), and other assorted matzo derived products.  Two more days of celebrating the freedom of my ancestors, a freedom from slavery that we relive through the telling of the story of the exodus from Egypt before we can eat dinner at our Seders - a freedom we then continue celebrating by eating unleavened bread and other assorted Passover approved, dry foods for eight days.

I keep Passover my own way.  Any religious person would laugh at the way I keep Passover – I don’t eat bread, cake, cookies, crackers, etc.  – In other words, I refrain from eating anything obviously made with flour (oh, except matzo).  Since I am the only one in my house who keeps it in any fashion, I have bread in the house, which automatically means I am not keeping it, according to any normal Jew.  I do not change my dishes; I do not scour the house.  I am odd and apparently not very clean!

I keep Passover, my way, out of respect for my heritage, I keep it in order to challenge my discipline, and myself and I keep it out of a love of tradition.  I keep Passover, my way, because it is part of who I am. However, the fact that I continue to keep it, logically, makes absolutely no sense in the larger picture, as I don’t believe the reasoning for it makes any sense at all.

To those who don’t know, the reason Jews refrain from eating leavened bread this week, it is to remember that when our forefathers were freed from slavery in Egypt, released from bondage, they had to flee quickly and did not have the TIME for the bread to rise.  So, they gathered what they could and exited stage left at lightening speed.  (Jews moving at lightening speed?)

Time, they didn’t have time.  They had the ingredients, just not the time.  So, how do we as Jews celebrate this lack of time?  We celebrate it by spending an inordinate amount of time in the kitchen.  There are Passover cakes and cookies that take tons of time to make, they rise, but they are okay to eat!  We eat matzo, which is flour and water, so we had the ingredients…now how does this make any sense to anyone? 

Twenty-five years ago, when I was just pregnant with my son and very aggravated that the matzo wasn’t sitting extremely well, I remember talking to a religious friend of mine who I respect immensely.  However, in the midst of our discussion of the holiday, which he deeply loved, I couldn’t contain myself any longer.  Maybe it was the hormones, but I just couldn’t keep from expressing how weird our celebration of this particular holiday seemed to me.  I told him that Christians have MUCH better holidays!!  Christmas, they decorate their homes with lights, yet Chanukah is the Festival of Lights so we light a candle!  On Easter, they get through Good Friday, the day Jesus was crucified, and then they celebrate his coming back with chocolate, with bunnies, with colored eggs and fun!  They decorate baskets and give sweets and toys!  They don’t wallow in the horror of the crucifixion; they celebrate the joy of the resurrection!  If Jews celebrated the holiday of Easter and all it encompasses, we would have to suffer for a day, maybe fast, before we would set our alarms early and have to rise at dawn on Easter Sunday! 

But what do we Jews do to celebrate being freed from slavery? Are we free on this day to eat whatever we want?  After all, we are now free!!  Do we have a joyous celebration; maybe even serve something otherwise forbidden, like a bacon cheeseburger?  No, absolutely not, we, in our infinite wisdom of holiday celebrations, continue, for eight LOOOOONG days, to eat cardboard (otherwise known as matzo).  How do I prove Passover foods are not great? How many people do you know that eat Passover cakes and cookies AFTER the holiday, how many make them year round?  Also, how many Christians seek out matzo products compared to how many Jews look for a good Zitner Coconut egg?

Now, I have to say that when I was growing up, my family was not very religious and our Seders consisted of having Matzo on the table and serving gefilte fish as an appetizer.  We didn’t have a long retelling of the exodus from Egypt, my Dad would say, “We’re free!  Let’s eat!”  We had our own stories that were told, mostly about the significance of the foods, but those you can read in prior blogs.  To me, those stories, these family thought up life lessons and morals, were more relevant and more important.  The tales about why matzo balls are round and why brisket is cooked so long, these stories dreamed up by the women in my family and handed down to us, these are a personal legacy that I will always enjoy and honor.  It is those stories I would love to retell to my Grandchildren should I be lucky enough to have them one day.

Today, I had matzo with my breakfast.  This afternoon I will head to my brother and sister-in-law’s house for a beautiful Easter celebration as my sister-in-law is not Jewish.  Their house will be filled with love and laughter and I am thrilled to be a part of the happiness; however, I will test my discipline when dessert is rolled out.  I am bringing chocolate covered matzo so there will be symbol of our Jewish heritage, something sweet and tasty for dessert, but I will salivate when the cookies and cakes come out.  And so, I, as a Jew, will celebrate freedom and the lack of time my ancestors had to flee Egypt, by eating dry foods that take extra time to prepare??????

Happy Holidays everyone ~ no matter what you celebrate, I hope you celebrate with those you love.  THAT is the best of times ~ no matter what you eat!

http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/the-haggadah-and-the-steps-of-a-seder.html

Our Popcorn

 

Almost 17 years ago, my children were little and our adorable black and white, half poodle, half yorkie ~ a cute little girl dog, Pumpkin, died.  We were heart broken.  My husband and I bought Pumpkin when we were first married and had our first home.  She was part of our family before we had children.  She was a great dog, loving and fun and always good company ~ she went from being the star of our home, to a happy buddy for our children. 

Pumpkin died a few short months before we were to leave for a family vacation.  Although we knew we wanted to have another dog in the house, as a family we decided to wait until after our vacation.  We didn’t think it was fair to bring a new puppy into the house only to kennel her for 10 days almost immediately after bringing her home.  This plan was in stone……

That was summertime, 1996.  In those days, we belonged to a swim club near our home as it was prior to us building our pool in our backyard.   It was a warm, wonderful summer and every day possible we would go to the club and sit with friends, enjoying the sunshine, the camaraderie and the pool.  My son and daughter had fun with children their age and I sat with my good friend Robin, and another wonderful woman, Beth. 

On day, early in the summer, Beth mentioned that her Maltese just had a litter of puppies.  Growing up, I had two Maltese dogs (both female), Chi Chi and Cutie Pi.  Unfortunately, Chi Chi died young, but Cutie Pi was my buddy all through my years growing up.  Cutie Pi was my friend, my confidant, and I loved her.  Maltese dogs are cute, small, happy and adorable. 

I had an instant premonition that our plan of not having another dog before our Florida vacation was quickly vanishing. 

In trying to think of a way out, a way I would not be tempted, I told Beth that I definitely wanted a female dog as I had always heard horror stories of boy dogs damaging furniture.  I don’t know where I got that idea, but it was in my head.  When Beth said she had a female for sale, I knew I was in deep trouble. 

With the idea of “just visiting” the puppies, we all went to “see” them that night.  We drove up to Beth and Marc’s home and as they opened the door the cutest sight hit us.  There were little balls of fluffy white, tails wagging, slight yapping and lots of jumping all around us.  Beth led us to her den where a child’s playpen was set up.  Inside the playpen were the puppies for sale. (The ones yapping and playing all around us were Beth’s own Malteses’, the parents of the puppies in the playpen)!

In the corner was a very cute little female puppy. She was sitting calmly, nestled against the weave of the playpen.  We tried to pick her up, but this other little dog, a male, “Mr. Piggy” Beth called him because of his amazing appetite, kept getting in the way!  Gently we pushed Mr. Piggy aside as we ABSOLUTELY did not want a male dog.  The female tried to evade us, meanwhile, Mr. Piggy was jumping all around, wagging his tale, running to Michael then to Lauren, looking at us and just being generally Mr. Personality if not Mr. Piggy! 

I did not want a male dog.  That was certain.

Beth picked up the female and brought her to us.  I already had a name in mind, Sweetie Pi….in keeping with my Maltese, Cutie Pi.  We held the little, tiny girl Maltese and tried to play with her, but she truly had no interest.  Meanwhile, there hopped Mr. Piggy!  He jumped over to my son and licked his hand!  He then bounced over to my daughter and sat near her, his tail flapping happily from side to side.

Needless to say, we bought Mr. Piggy.  Beth promised (and kept her promise) to babysit him during our Florida vacation so we didn’t have to kennel him.  I went home with a happy family, and an ecstatic male Maltese.

The rest of that day and that night we couldn’t get over the personality this little puppy possessed.  He was just so cute.  But, we had one more issue, a name.  Since he was a boy, Sweetie Pi just didn’t seem appropriate.  Although Mr. Piggy was a cute name, we wanted to choose his name ourselves.  Hercules, Kiwi and Paul were top contenders, but somehow, they just didn’t seem right.  As we threw names out and while we were making signs for a garage sale we were holding that weekend, my son decided it was time to make all of us a snack.  Popcorn.   Popcorn!!  Popcorn!!!!  The perfect name for this cute, white, fluffy, happy puppy previously named Mr. Piggy!! 

Well, that was almost 17 years ago.  Today, as I’ve written before, Popcorn is still here.  He may have a weak heart, no teeth, can’t see well and doesn’t hear much…. but he is still here.  He has accidents and has ruined our carpet, but he doesn’t seem to be in any physical pain.  We love him.  He is the last of his litter to still be alive.  He has kept us company through good and bad times.  He has played joyfully and eaten heartily, but now he mostly sleeps.  Popcorn was once the cutest, happiest, most fun dog, a male dog who never damaged one piece of furniture, but now he is old, tired and sometimes a bit cranky. 

How do we know when, if ever, the time is right to compassionately put him to sleep?  How do we even consider such a thing, even though most people we know seem to think it is the right thing to do at this time?  I asked a vet that came into the store where I work the other day and he simply said we would know; he said there is no right answer.  But, then Poppy, as we sometimes call him, will have a coughing fit.  He will arch his back and stretch his leg in a weird, stiff, uncomfortable looking way.  Is he in pain?  He doesn’t yelp.  How do we know, are we being selfish?  Should we just let nature take its course? 

Looking at Popcorn now, it is miraculously easy to look beyond his weaknesses and remember the happy little bouncy puppy that seemed to dance before us with a top hat and cane, tempting us to take him home and become part of our family.  Our going with our hearts at that time was one of our most wonderful decisions even though it went against everything we had sworn we would do.

So, I guess that tells me that the decision to make now is to go with our hearts.  Our hearts say, stay Poppy.  Stay until you show us, and we know it’s time you want to go.  You showed us it was right to take you home years ago and I have to believe you will let us know when you want us to let you go now.

You have been such a great friend and such an important part of our family, Popcorn.  We love you.