Oooooh. The Winter Solstice has arrived, the darkest day of the year, and from here on in it will only get brighter. The tree bones are prominent, and although there is no snow, there is a wintery feel here. Is it solstice or solstace? My spell checker is saying solstice so I will go with that.
I can only recall one Winter Solstice that really stands out. It was about ten years ago. My eldest daughter was two years old, and we were invited to go to "Balanced Life Garden's" which has since changed it's name. It was to be a potluck, and a get together of "earthy" people. At the time, I thought I was earthy, the type of person who enjoys getting together with what I thought were bohemian types. The long flowy skirts (no I don't wear them now), the bellbottoms, heck I have chosen to wear bell bottoms (brown corduroy is the best) since I was fourteen.
We arrived at "Balanced Life Garden's" with a bean salad. It was a very good bean salad, I figured the everyone would enjoy the vast assortment of legumes and it would give protein to the masses. I set my salad (along with tongs) on the large table. We were instructed to sit in a circle and "share" our most earthy vibes and "special" (I despise the word special, and use it only if I have to) moments regarding winter. Now, my daughter was in daycare at the time, and had just learned the concept of currency. The couple that we went with had a couple of little kids as well, and they were dressed in their earthy finest, with beads and hemp clothing, meanwhile my daughter was encased probably in a polyester blend. During "circle time", a girl piped up "My favourite time in the winter (now, this has to be noted that the speech of the speaker was very slow and monotonous, airy, and I think she may have had some chemical aid) . . . "My. . .favourite . . .time . . . in the . . .winter is stirring a . . .large . . . .pot . . .of . . .soup . . .on a . ..stove". I forget what my favourite part of winter was, I probably quipped, Spring Solstice, but meanwhile, as the circle "shared", my daughter started having a hissy fit. "Weeeeeee havvve no MONEY! We don't have MONEY". This was an absolute "no no" in the books of the group. . .the dirty looks pierced my husband and I from the circle. I could feel my face going bright red. I almost died. I wanted to get out of there soooooo fast. (Again, I think my left eye was beginning to shut tightly, and I realized, man, I am not like these people, I don't want to be like these people. I am so glad that I did not have the nauxious weed police bust me for overgrown foliage. . .I am so glad that I didn't decide to bury my placenta under a life tree). What was even more funny, was it was supposed to be an open understanding group of individuals, yet they were judging my family because my daughter had learned that we didn't have a lot of loonies, and the fact that my daughter displayed frustration, I didn't reprimand my daughter in a bad way, I only asked her to "shhh honey, we have money, don't worry, here's a nickel".
The potluck part was no better, instead of having utensils, everyone was eating with their hands. Including the bean salad, there were other earthy delights there as well, but, it wasn't fricking finger food. (When I go to Ethiopian Restaurants, yes I eat with my left hand, that is permissable, you are in an Ethiopian Restaurant). I think I saw someone eating soy tapioca with their baby finger. Meanwhile, my daughter was still screaming about our financial state (we were on OSAP at the time, just students). (We actually had to take her outside, because she was causing bad vibes). We got the other couple (whom we drove, I think most of the people rode bicycles there, even in the harsh brutal winds and snow), and said we had to leave. The only thing that would calm my daughter down was the tape that we recorded from the record "Father Abraham in Smurfland". It's worse than the Chipmunks. We burnt some rubber in the old 86 Toyota Tercel four wheel drive wagon (well, we tried to), and got home safely, with the remnants of the bean salad, which I promptly threw out, because I didn't know if people were using their hands to scoop it from the bowl (in flu season for goodness sake). |
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