By Nan Cohen
Consider one apricot in a basket of them.
It is very much like all the other apricots--
an individual already, skin and seed.
Now think of this day. One you will probably forget.
The next breath you take, a long drink of air.
Holiday or not, it doesn't matter.
A child is born and doesn't know what day it is.
The particular joy in my heart she cannot imagine.
The taste of apricots is in store for her.
--------
Chag Sameach! I spent most of the morning working on a surprisingly fun editing job while the kids ran around indoors and out making noise, then my in-laws arrived and we caught up on the news of the world and the family since they went out to visit my husband's two brothers on the west coast before we headed to my parents for the Seder along with a friend with whom my mother teaches and her family (husband, twin boys the same age as my older son).
As always the food was fantastic and as always I ate too much -- my favorite parts of the meal are the appetizers (charoset, gefilte fish, matzoh ball soup) so I only had a few bites each of the dinner courses (roasted chicken, carrot souffle, matzoh kugel, potato pancake) before moving on to dessert (Nubian chocolate roll, macaroons, coconut and mint patties, fruit slices). Now I am very full and sleepy and we are getting up early to go to gardens in the Brandywine Valley, so here are some photos of armor for Sparowe:
European armor for men and horses on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
A display of Tibetan armor and ceremonial weapons.
Armor for a man and horse from Syria, Turkey and Iran circa 1450 -- an illustration of heavy cavalry as portrayed in Persian miniatures of the 15th and 16th centuries.
A Zunari Kabuto helmet from Japan's Edo period (late 17th century) with a bowl shaped like the top of a human head (zunari).
Fittings for a pair of swords, also from the Edo period in Japan, decorated with rabbits by Ishiguro Masayoshi.
A sword-hilt washer and pommel by Ishiguro Koreyoshi plus a knife handle with lily design by Juo Masayoshi, all from 19th century Japan.
One of three volumes of St. Augustine's City of God, illuminated and translated into Spanish for Alfonso Carillo de Acuno, Archbishop of Toledo, 1446-82.
And a Hebrew prayer book from Germany completed in 1290.
I keep rejoicing in the moment on Twitter and forgetting to mention here how happy I am about the changes in gay marriage laws in Iowa, Vermont, and Washington, DC in the past several days. That's what I'm celebrating this Passover.
No comments:
Post a Comment