Text Search:
Format:
Language:
Text & Image
How is the coronavirus pandemic affecting your life right now? Tell us about your experiences, feelings, and thoughts.

We're now deep into our second Passover during the pandemic. Zooming felt less weird, of course, and it was less painful to be gathering this way than in person as we'd hoped and expected last year. There are moments, like the first seder, when it really hits how long we've been in this. A year ago, at last year's Zoom seder, my brother and sister-in-law held up an ultrasound picture and announced that they were expecting their second child. At this year's seder, he was there, a sweet infant ... The rest of the kids (the other 4) are bigger now. Their older one, a toddler, was ready to sing along with songs she learned in her preschool. The oldest three -- ages 8, 7, and 5 -- were all able to read, sing the four questions, brainstorm ways to make the world a better place, drawing inspiration from Elijah the prophet. My uncle joined, as did my in-laws from Europe despite the time difference and late hour. With everyone so far apart, it felt especially important to fill the table with the ritual objects that have been part of our family life, even if we were the only ones using them up close: Grandma's seder plate. My great grandma's silver candlesticks -- which I suddenly realized I'm incredibly lucky to have since she had about over a dozen great-grandchildren. The egg-shaped horseradish dish my great-aunt gave me years ago, some time after she'd taught me and the now ex-husband of my cousin how to make her famous gefilte fish from scratch. A delicate painted wine glass given to us as an engagement present by a wonderful mentor and his wife, which we now use for Miriam's water cup. It was part of a pair, but we broke the other one years ago -- and now have given this one a new life on our seder table. (I even love the bud vase we used this year for the daffodils our big kid accidentally cut too short. It's a Campari bottle I snagged decades ago on an airplane, back when alcohol flowed freely on international flights and no one checked ID.) These are all just objects, just stuff, but they're so much a part of what makes the holiday feel right -- or at least right-ish, which is about where we're at right now.

March 29, 2021

Direct Link