comfort food

Earlier I wrote about the death of my neighbor D and the funeral and her surviving husband G and ... about my cooking and bringing over food.

Apparently, when I don't know what to do or say, I cook. Sometimes I bake. Sometimes I make casseroles.

Mostly I make soup.

Soup is super. It really, literally, does make you "feel better".

It even makes me feel better to make it.

Because of disease, disappointments and deaths, over the past several months I estimate that I have made hundreds of gallons of soup.

I have made old favorites like matzoh ball soup and chicken soup and potato leek soup.

I have made new discoveries like summer squash soup and sweet potato and chickpea soup.

Today, though, as I plan on making up some more summer squash soup and sweet potato chick pea soup, I am discouraged.

What has all this soup accomplished? Is the world a better place? Or is it just more dirty dishes and veggies spared from the compost pile?

I feel like soup is not enough. Not by a long shot.

Today, the sun is shining (at last) but my spirit is cloudy still -- even rainy..

Maybe I should *have* some soup.

Red, White and Blue

September 11, 2007

At the school where I am conducting my dissertation project, today is "Red, White and Blue" Day. While I feel certain that the 7th and 8th graders that I am working with know why today is R, W & B day, I wonder what the kindergartners and first graders know, or think.



There is a movement afoot to make today a day of good deeds. That seems to me a good, a positive, a hopeful response to hatred.



Today I will be especially kind. I will mail off some donations. I will look people in the eyes and smile with love.

Remember there is not enough darkness in the world to put out the light of even one candle.