Big Gay’s 52 Things Basket
See that brown basket up on the top shelf? That’s a gift I made a long time ago for Big Gay. She still has it, and that makes me very happy.
My column today at Work It, Mom! is called The Most Meaningful Christmas Gift I Ever Gave. I hope you will read it and discover how simple it is to create the magic of the 52 Things Basket. I love how the story turned out. Read the story here.
What do these photos have in common? And what message do they send? Leave your answer in the comments!
8PM: The answer is…The Jewish New Year celebrations begin tonight at sundown, so Shana Tovah, y’all! The apples and honey are traditional foods to guarantee sweetness in the year ahead, like our Southern tradition of eating black eyed peas and greens on New Year’s Day. The little birds made of challah symbolize the protection of G-d, the flight of our sins away from us in the season of atonement, or mercy…depending on which cookbook you read!
I was especially moved by the picture of the little birds. It was posted on the website of The Forward, a Jewish daily newspaper. After Richard’s grandfather, Jack, made his way from Russia to Japan to Bolivia to America, he became a sports writer for The Forward. He spent his career with them. The binoculars that he used to take to baseball games came down through the family to Richard. Richard and I used to sit on the deck and use Jack’s binoculars to watch the birds down by the river.
My clever friend, Libby, coined a new word this week: Cathargic. She was going for “cathartic” but her mouth took a sidetrack and wound up in an even more perfect expression.
If we combine:
ca·thar·sis (kəˈTHärsis/) noun the process of releasing, and thereby providing relief from, strong or repressed emotions
and
le·thar·gic (ləˈTHärjik/) adjective affected by lethargy; sluggish and apathetic
we get
CATHARGIC (kəˈTHärjik/) adjective affected by that feeling you get on the Friday afternoon before a long weekend when you are really glad that the stress of the work week has reached an end but you are too worn out to celebrate
You feel me?
The Cathargic Spaniel