I overslept an hour this morning, but that's okay. I think the Lord decided I needed it. It didn't make me late to anything, and I was far the better for it. By mid-morning, I had toodled over to the far side of Bloomington and gotten two important errands run.
But then, I hadn't planned on getting rear-ended by an old man at an intersection. I was in a turn lane, yielding to other cars who had a green light, and this old guy smacked me from behind pretty good. What with the padded bumpers we all have, there was no apparent deformation of either car, though the left end of my rear bumper is a little loose. So, I've got to check up on that tomorrow. We exchanged info, called the police to file a report, and I went on my way -- a bit shaky, I'll admit.
Before I could get home, though, I had to go shopping for my part of tonight's seder. Our Worship Chair has been stretched to the limit to get all the ritual foods and stuff in order, and I -- well, I goofed. We had decided we were only doing the ritual foods, not a full meal, but I then told people different. So I decided that I would take responsibility for this, instead of putting more on the Worship Chair. So I bought three whole briskets and a bunch of other stuff, for the (actual) dinner part of the seder.
After a little fooling around at home, it was time to get down to it. I got the briskets cooking with veggies and such and started some rice pilaf. As we got closer and closer, I made salad in quant. suff. And about 5:30, a wonderful thing happened. I realized that even if I was ready exactly on time, or if something didn't work out -- well, a Passover seder is fundamentally a lot like our Thanksgiving dinner. It's a family gathering. It would be OK.
And it was. The seder plates were lovely, and all the special foods -- lamb, charoset, baytzah, etc. -- were delicious. The liturgy was long (of course), but everybody was pretty into it. The ordinary (but kosher) food that I whomped up was delicious, and everybody tucked in. Then most folks stayed behind to clean up, just like after a church pitch-in. It was wonderful.
Being Methodists, we used grape juice rather than wine. Our Communion Steward came in at 6:00 (starting time was at 6:30), carrying a jug of grape juice. I asked if she'd gotten enough. She said, "You said we needed four glasses of grape juice." "Four glasses apiece," I said. And off she went to the store in a hurry. And it still all went okay.
After the seder was over, I got in on the last hour of our Troop Committee meeting. I am pooped. But blessed be the LORD, who sees us through everything!
