The Price of Passover

It is Sunday afternoon and the weather outside is what you could call spectacular. Family is at the park and I watching the children run around in circles. Every so often they come back to the bench and ask if I’ll buy them an ice cream. Since their father is a fine fellow I say, sure just show me the proper way to use Pi R Squared in relationship to the playground. They screw up their faces and tell me that they don’t understand and I ask them to tell me whether Pythagoras had one horn or two. Some guy standing nearby shouts out that Pythagoras wasn’t a dinosaur.

The kids look at me and I tell him that if they don’t close their mouths I’ll be able to see their Isosceles. The big shot 4th grader laughs and says that he doesn’t a triangle in his throat and I say ‘I hope not.” That would have really mucked up my damn weekend. I already told Gini that the weather here is perfect and I want to be able to lord that over her and everyone else who is snowbound. Don’t ask me why because that is just how I roll. Ok, I don’t really roll I sort of strut and when I am feeling saucy I do a little sashay.

Somewhere around 4 PM the dark haired beauty tells me that she really needs ice cream.  I smile and tell her that she is but a padawan and that her jedi mind tricks won’t work on me. So she climbs into my lap, pulls my face to hers and starts kissing my cheek. “I love you daddy- you are the best.” I laugh and tell her that she needs to kiss me five more times, give me 7 hugs and then ask again.

Sure enough the girl follows my instructions and then asks again for ice cream. I look at her, smile and tell her that I love her because she is really smart. She asks for ice cream and I say that I love her because she is smart and really cute. I see fire building in her eyes and before she can bring the big guns out and give me the female look of death she says that I am not being fair. I smile and tell her that I am. She tells me that I never should have asked for the hugs and kisses if I didn’t intend to buy her an ice cream. I smile and tell her that they aren’t considered currency and that while I never get tired of them she can’t get things just by doing that.

She shrugs her shoulders and runs back to the playground to play and I smile. Some victories are simple and others aren’t.

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Passover approaches far too quickly. I am not ready for it. Just not mentally prepared to really enjoy it. Things are happening here. The tides are a’turning and the whirlpool is fully formed and in full effect. I may be the captain of the ship but it doesn’t mean that I have the same tools/resources to sail the seas as does Poseidon to control them.

Speaking of which, when you find yourself doing battle with a Greek God it is always best to either be a demigod or have the assistance of some powerful entity, like Zeus. It would make the fight much more interesting if I could throw a few lightning bolts at that long haired Trident waving sea monster. But we don’t always get the opportunity to fight the wars on our terms so we do what we can with what we have.

The holiday is supposed to be about freedom and in some ways that is more significant this year than ever before. I am fighting for freedom of a different sort but fighting nonetheless. Sometimes endings are really new beginnings- but I wonder what the price of Passover will be.

• Saved: Life