Coming into the light

 There are some signs that the pandemic is easing.  Next week our kids are joining us in person for Thanksgiving. Last year I made Thanksgiving dinner for our usual guests, my husband distributed the food and we all ate together on Zoom. This year, thankfully, we will celebrate all around the same table. 

Last week we did something we hadn't done since the pandemic hit. We attended a performance. Our son's college buddy Pete Stegemeyer organized and performed a Veteran's Day stand-up comedy show to benefit an organization that provides free therapy to veterans. We sat in a room with other people and got to be part of a communal audience for the first time since March 2020.

We have consumed an enormous amount of Netflix over the past many months but there is something so deeply HUMAN about being part of an audience with other living and breathing humans. Since the dam was broken we attended

on Saturday night. It is still in previews and is a compelling thought-provoking evening with some of the best acting I have ever had the joy to see.

We were on a roll so Tuesday we went to see

Shaw's Mrs. Warren's Profession. Before the performance began the director came out to thank us all for attending.  In ancient times theatre was part of religious rituals. Being in a small theatre watching a brilliantly written play performed by gifted actors in front of a clever set does give you a taste of the holy.

All of the wonderful sensual input of theatre is a perfect match for my latest tallit.

Liat's bat mitzvah will take place during Parashat Yitro, the Torah portion where the Torah is given. there is a wonderful line in the description of the event.

וכל העם רואים את הקולות

and all of the nation sees the sounds

Traditional commentators have a field day with this verse. I love how the shifting of the senses implies how totally overwhelming that moment was. Most of the time my clients and I can get the design of a tallit hammered out in one session. At our first session, we had decided on a verse and on fabric but not on the design.

We had a second session on zoom and got closer. Liat wanted the stripes to illustrate what the sounds at the moment of the giving of the Torah might have looked like. She did some drawing on her tablet but I still wasn't sure about what she wanted. I emailed her a sketch of what I had thought she was saying but I hadn't quite understood what she wanted.

So we scheduled another meeting. Before the meeting, I had a brainstorm and realized that asking Litat to describe what she wanted in words would not be helpful. The verse is all about synesthesia caused by an experience that overwhelms the senses. 

I brought out watercolors and asked Liat to paint what she wanted her tallit stripes to look like. Liat painted while her mother and I chatted.

Now I know exactly what I have to do. the silk arrived yesterday and now I have to get to work.