Not About Baking

First, save the date–April 3, 6:30 p.m., for a live ALTE event in Manhattan. Esther Cohen, Larry Bush, Sparrow, and I will be reading. It will be a fun way to begin Poetry Month. More details to follow. I can’t remember the last time I read before a live audience, and Zoom readings got dull quickly.

Our thanks to all who came to the screening of Peter Odabashian’s film, My 2020, last month in Montclair, New Jersey. We loved meeting you. If you have ideas for ALTE events, let us know.

March is Women’s History Month. There are a lot of months. I suppose it is a way to get people to pay attention. And it’s Purim, a holiday featuring women. If you’re not familiar with the story, look it up. I’m lazy. Many years ago, as a third or fourth grader, I dressed as Queen Vashti at our synagogue’s Purim Carnival. I won best costume amidst the many Esther’s. Queen Esther did not appeal to me even then. I think I understood that she lacked agency. There must be modern midrash defining her character differently, but I stick with my childhood perspective.

On the contemporary front, my local State Senator, Nia Gill, is running for re-election. As a result of re-districting, she is running for her own seat against another incumbent, a popular white male who served as acting Governor. I like him fine, he’s a fine legislator, but I ask myself why, in the redistricting process was no thought given to the small number of women and people of color in the legislature compared with the number of men to avoid a result where an incumbent woman of color may lose a seat? There were many other options in drawing districts. To make matters worse, primaries in New Jersey are not open. Candidates run on a party line. Senator Gill was not given the line by the Democratic party. Three white men, one running for Senate and two for Assembly, were given the line. So much for Women’s History Month.

None of this is what I’d planned to write about. Instead, in the weeks since I last wrote, like many of you have had, I had cataract surgery. Much easier than, say, a colonoscopy. I’ve been wearing glasses since second grade, but over the last few years my nearsightedness worsened a lot, and a variety of eye issues left me at the point where day-to-day activities were a challenge even with glasses. I could not read signs when walking. Could not see the picture on the TV or whether the dishes were dirty. I still have other eye issues, but now I can see. I drove for the first time in a long time this morning and was able to get back and forth to Newark easily.  I am so grateful and so happy that I cannot stop sharing my delight with absolutely everyone.

Science is remarkable and medicine is remarkable. I wonder how many anti-vaxers knew people with polio as a child or people who died from measles. I am thrilled that there are procedures and drugs that improve the quality of my life and of other people’s lives. Maybe that’s just me.

Since it is almost Purim, I’m thinking I should go out and get some hamantaschen. I’m not much of a baker, and I am trying to take off those Covid 15, but there’s an excellent bakery two blocks from here.. When it comes to hamantaschen, I am a traditionalist, mun for me. Prune is a close second, then apricot, and that’s it. Have a couple for me so I can stick to my diet. Hamantaschen are what is best about Purim.

https://food52.com/recipes/20810-joan-nathan-s-chosen-hamantaschen