Illustrated Milk

One Shabbos while at SerandEz, this conversation happened:

Erachet: It's calming. It looks like milk.
SJ: So when I need to calm you down I should just pour you a glass of milk to look at?
Erachet: No, only illustrated milk.

Now, on the surface, that seems to make no sense. What on earth is illustrated milk? What can I mean by it? Why do I find it so calming?

Here is a picture of illustrated milk:

There is something about that cool blue and white image that I find extremely comforting. I'm going to let you all into the workings of my mind for a moment. From this sort of picture, I think about similar images from childhood. For example, my mind today jumped from the image of milk to this image from If You Give A Mouse A Cookie*:

Illustrated milk, for me, symbolizes childhood. A sort of cookies-and-milk childhood. And I find that childhood comforting. It's a safe place. It's a world where you feel like anything is possible. Don't you remember being a little kid and feeling the wide world out in front of you, sensing all the possibilities, all the adventure, feeling you could do whatever you wished when you were old enough? Remember when people used to tell you that you could be whatever you want when you grow up?

But then you grow up and realize it's not enough to just want to be something. You have to actually have the capabilities for it. You have to be qualified. And the world has to also want you. And so, too many dreams drift slowly away in the dirty city air, or get crushed by the multitude pairs of feet rushing, rushing, rushing to and from office buildings and banks and courts and banks and office buildings. That dreaming little voice in your head gets drowned out by the screeching subway cars as they storm by like a herd of charging elephants.

And then again, sometimes you're able to approach things from that childlike point of view, to see the world in its vastness and possibilities once more, and feel that you really could do anything if you wished to. If you can do that, the very narrow, trapped feeling of, "I am finishing college and must now follow the next step in this path set for me by some sort of authoritative figure and find a job doing something I know I'm capable of, probably starting at the way bottom filing and answering phones, etc. etc. etc." melts away, is overpowered by this new - or perhaps old - eye-opening mindset.

Who says I have to play by the rules? Who says I have to be obvious? Just because I always thought of myself as an English person doesn't mean I can't get a job doing something that has nothing to do with books. Maybe I'll find something to do that's entirely random and yet utterly enjoyable. Maybe I'll find something that's completely out of the blue and yet insanely interesting.

I'm not bound by my major or by my passions. I think sometimes passion can be stifling. It's very possessive. It doesn't let you even want to do anything else.

I don't want to shed my passions. I still want to write. My dream is still to write. But I also wish to enjoy my life. This is my life I'm living, here. Not some checklist someone created for me with elements I must tick off every couple of years. A life does not have to be lived according to a list. A life is not something linear where you go from one predetermined thing to the next predetermined thing to the next. A life is all over the place. It's spontaneous. It's surprising. It's the only one I've got - I want to make it worth living. I want to enjoy it. And why shouldn't I enjoy it?

In this life, I wish to follow the Torah and halacha properly, to one day raise a frum Jewish family, to fullfill all my goals and ambitions as a writer, and to be happy with my life in every aspect.

I think we should all strive to be happy with our lives. We aren't going to get another opportunity to enjoy where we are other than in this life we are now living. Make the most of it.

Be happy. :)

* If You Give A Mouse A Cookie is one of the best children's books EVER.

Raiders of the Plastic Spoons

It happened one late morning at the secret, hidden home of the Blogfather. The apartment was empty save for the Bloggers SJ, M.R., and myself, Erachet - or so we thought.

It was while we were getting ready to leave that we noticed it - The Bug. It was big and black with long, furry, wriggling legs. Even worse - it was in Elianna's room! The polite thing to do, of course, was to kill the intruder at once but no one wanted to go near it. Finally, I had to face the thing myself ("HAHA! YU R MY BUG NAW" [the PT]) . I tried to squish it with a cardboard box from the garbage but, alas, it did not want to be squished. Once I finally did manage to squish it ("the bug has been squishinated by the girl!" [sic]) and throw it out, it was only mostly dead which, of course, means still slightly alive. What if other dangerous and grosser than gross enemies came to its aid?

This called for drastic action by present members of the Blog Squad. Bad4Shidduchim had hinted to us that there was something special and important about taping plastic spoons to the table and flinging jelly at the clean white walls. I believe her instructions were such:

Use for 22 plastic spoons:

Needed: masking tape, a table, 22 plastic spoons, jelly, a nice white wall

1. Position table about 15 feet from nice white wall
2. Tape edge of handle of spoons to table, the bowl side over air
3. fill bowl of spoons with jelly
4. press gently down on edges of jelly-filled bowls of spoons in rapid succession
5. admire squishy sound and colorful sight

For best results, use many flavors jelly in a pattern. Keep spoons close together. With practice, you can aim them to create patterns of your own design.

Note: only for practice in facilities which you will be evacuating immediately.

Well, we were evacuating the apartment rather immediately, so we figured a shield of this kind against enemies of the Arthropoda phylum would be very useful. Luckily, we came prepared. We took out our handy plastic spoons and immediately began taping them to the kitchen table. Observe:





Next, we got out the jelly:





And then - up went the shield:



And the Blog Squad saved the day once again! The home of the Blogfather is sufficiently protected against Arthropods.

Unless...Serach didn't wash the walls did she? Did she???

Uh oh.