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Passover Story
May. 3rd, 2009 10:46 amMy mom was the outdoorsy type when she was a young woman. She went on canoeing trips and camping trips, and generally made herself a dusty hippy wild child whenever she could. She also spent most of these baked.
Once, when she was camping on top of a small ledge, the people who had camped below them didn't put out their fire very well. A spark landed on the roots of a bush on the ledge above. It traveled up the root like a fuse, burning slowly as the night wore on. The next morning, mom sat next to the bush, and when the smoldering spark burned through to the oxygen, the bush went BOOM and the whole thing caught fire. Now, my mom said what any good child of a secular Jewish Atheist mother, when confronted with a burning bush would say.
Mom: Jesus fucking Christ!
Fish: Ummm, how much weed had you smoked before this happened?
Mom: No more than usual.
Fish: Somehow I find your account stretches my credulity.
But Mom has witnesses to confirm her story.
Mom: Fish doesn't believe the burning bush story.
Annoying Uncle: Yeah, it happened your mom was so freaked out, she jumped about six feet-
Mom: I was not, I just said we had to put it out.
Annoying Uncle: No, you screamed it while you launched yourself over to the bucket.
Mom: Stop making me look bad in front of my children.
My Mom is the woman who pushed and prodded my teachers into complying with my 504 plan and IEP and made the parents of the children who bullied me make them stop, and that's at least as hard as parting the Red Sea.
Fish: Silly woman, don't you realize you should be leading your people to the promised land?
Mom: Just call me Mosesa.
So Passover is a very special time in my family. The story resonates deeply here. The quest for freedom, the breaking the chains of oppression, the quest for law and order, are all really cool, but what gets Mom every time is that she has complete sympathy for Moses. Those burning bushes are something else.
Once, when she was camping on top of a small ledge, the people who had camped below them didn't put out their fire very well. A spark landed on the roots of a bush on the ledge above. It traveled up the root like a fuse, burning slowly as the night wore on. The next morning, mom sat next to the bush, and when the smoldering spark burned through to the oxygen, the bush went BOOM and the whole thing caught fire. Now, my mom said what any good child of a secular Jewish Atheist mother, when confronted with a burning bush would say.
Mom: Jesus fucking Christ!
Fish: Ummm, how much weed had you smoked before this happened?
Mom: No more than usual.
Fish: Somehow I find your account stretches my credulity.
But Mom has witnesses to confirm her story.
Mom: Fish doesn't believe the burning bush story.
Annoying Uncle: Yeah, it happened your mom was so freaked out, she jumped about six feet-
Mom: I was not, I just said we had to put it out.
Annoying Uncle: No, you screamed it while you launched yourself over to the bucket.
Mom: Stop making me look bad in front of my children.
My Mom is the woman who pushed and prodded my teachers into complying with my 504 plan and IEP and made the parents of the children who bullied me make them stop, and that's at least as hard as parting the Red Sea.
Fish: Silly woman, don't you realize you should be leading your people to the promised land?
Mom: Just call me Mosesa.
So Passover is a very special time in my family. The story resonates deeply here. The quest for freedom, the breaking the chains of oppression, the quest for law and order, are all really cool, but what gets Mom every time is that she has complete sympathy for Moses. Those burning bushes are something else.
