I celebrated Thanksgiving in April

Never Done: Released the Ecological Footprint spoof video
Never Done: Celebrated Thanksgiving in April

Truth is, it was a long, strange day. Maybe it was the late swim practice, and maybe it was the last gasps of my sinus infection, but I barely slept, and had to reschedule things all day long because I was just too tired to do them. But first, the video I've been writing about (the props, the ear muffs) released -- and seems to be doing a pretty good job of moving around the web. To see the original anti-immigrant video that we are spoofing, and to get some more political context, read about it here at Imagine2050. (Please pass it along to your friends and colleagues -- especially you and your crowd are environmentalists.)

After some hours of posting and cross posting and after failing to nap, I ended up going to a bike shop with Sierra, who gave me a wonderful tutorial about everything from frame materials and physics, saddle shapes, wheel sizes, and butt padding. And then I went to plan b with Nikki, to watch the Red Sox lose their opening day game against the Texas Rangers. While I had a great time -- both with Nikki and the game -- I also started feeling sicker and sicker over the course of the time I was there, and feared that I was relapsing, but stuck with my plan to go to Abigail's Thanksgiving in August feast. How could I not? Along with Mich and Aleza, we had had a most excellent email exchange about finding a turkey in NYC in April, food scarcity and the Jews, whether genocide and structural racism are at the heart of Thanksgiving in April the way they are at the heart of regular Thanksgiving, and if not, do we possibly need fewer comfort foods? I really don't want to miss any party that sparks such entertainment before it even starts. Plus which, I had made Indian pudding, and had promised Abigail I would bring a platter.

And then a magical thing happened. I got to the party, had a plate of kale, parsnips, and mashed potatoes (comfort food!) and looked around and noticed that I felt very close to many people in the room, and that I had become close to them all in the past year. I remembered the exact day I met Heath, Mickey, Nina, and Mich -- it was last year at peysakh. And then Abigail came into my life through Mich, and I feel as if the three of us have been friends since childhood (except that would have taken some time travel to make up for our age differences.) As I was saying, I sat there noticing my community, giving thanks for it even, and then I also noticed that I was feeling better. And in that same moment, I looked across the room and saw someone I did not know, and I had one of those Blink moments about her -- the rapid cognition that occurs within the first two seconds of a new experience that lets us jump to a series of conclusions -- and without really thinking about it, I went and sat down next to her. It turned out my blinktution was spot on -- within five minutes we had five people in common, and by the time we stood up from our little island of focused conversation, we had discovered many points of deep connection, from love of water (in it and on it) to work history (similar approach, different disciplines) to our ages to caring for friends and family through illness and death to brining and pickling.

Actually, meeting her felt significant in a way that's making it hard to find the turn and conclusion to this post, and so I think I will end it, simply, with thanks and the shehekhianu, the blessing at the heart of this blog, at the heart of my Mussar practice -- the blessing we say when we experience something for the first time. Baruch ata Adonai Elohenu, melekh ha’olam, shehekhianu, v’kimanu, v’higianu, lazman hazeh. Praised be you, Adonai, holy one of the universe, who has kept us alive, and has preserved us, and enabled us to reach this day.