Trampled Underfoot

I'm in Saint Simons again and I see life in everything, the old oak trees twining their branches into the sky. ... I think part of it has to do with the fact that my favorite cousin is into bio research at Columbia. He brought home this beautiful girlfriend, I think she was from Hong Kong. Petite. sharp. And the beach teemed with life - hermit crabs, sand dollars. Fish that nibble your toes. We saw sandworms crawl into the sand. Clams. Once I even saw a whale shark out there.

The wedding rehearsal and reception are over, my brother put a glass of wedding vodka on his tab - so, I am drifting between the four lanes of traffic on the two lane road back home, and I start to wonder - Why do people schmash a glass wrapped in cloth, at Jewish weddings?.

The best I could figure, is that the glass is a symbol of the feminine aspect. Like the holy grail representing the secret womb of the hidden wife of jesus that bore his secret son - the knights quest to find the holy line of the great rabbi and to protect his divine lineage. Its neat actually to think that someone, somewhere, might be physically related to christ. Maybe even that guy at the starbucks you love to frequent. But anyway, yeah - a bunch of male knights in shining armor - its good to keep them focussed on something, isn't it?

So, you take this symbol, wrap it in cloth, and smash it? Into a thousand pieces? What , is that supposed to be good luck?

I am drawn to know more. I muse about this idea that the new wife, and you know, the color white being synonymous with pure - might be that this white cloth represents simultaneously, the hymen (?) of the female covering the symbol of her femininity (the glass) and perhaps, also the family coming together (fabric, being woven together, and the smashing of the glass representing the changing of ways, the son leaving the mother, etc.). But , I've only had one drink. I think thats enough armchair hassidic from me.

Sunburned. Happy. Going to bed. Its going to be a great wedding. She's a favorite cousin of mine, an artist. He's a picture framer of all things. The wedding sermon is going to be semi-political, because we're in the land of the conservative white man. But I think this couple really has something going for them. Being married with kids, I like it when I can see a couple coming together that will probably have the bambinos because the more kids we have around, the more they play - and the more they play, the less we really have to do. Apart from first aid.

Mazeltov!