1 December 2024

Something sad about eating with the seasons- we become acutely aware, more than with anything else of the passage of time. Weren’t we just eating the summer peaches? The ripe tomatoes? And why didn’t we get more of them and savor each bite? Why did we forget that they would be gone soon, and we’d have to wait for another summer? Has Thanksgiving past already? I was there, right?

A new moon, today 1 December. The first day of the liturgical year, Advent 1. A Sagittarius new moon. What does all this mean? Well, nothing. Or almost nothing. It means the same as everything else, which is also as meaningless as you wish. Most stories, I find, have only a sliver of truth. But if you put those slivers together, well, you might have something there.

Much has been made of that most famous Sagittarian, Beethoven and his being deaf. There have been many well known blind musicians and composers, but a deaf one? What futility! To write one’s own music but never be able to hear it. Sagittarius lesson #1-we must work as hard as we can and bring that work to fruition, even if we ourselves can never fully enjoy that produce. The marvelous, joyful futility of our lives. A season to celebrate our own passage. The futility of our own work. In the tarot, Sagittarius season corresponds to the 8, 9, and 10 of Wands, the defense, exhaustion, and confusion of continuing on with our futile quest. Yet, we continue on, because, what else is there? Isn’t it funny, that this is time of year we are most likely to go into our attics, rummage around, pull out old decorations, and seemingly “waste” time putting up wreaths and lights and thotckes? Aren’t we like Beethoven, making all this music we can’t really hear? Sagittarius- Art for its own sake. Sagittarius-eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow……Sagittarius-to make a fire in winter snow will keep us warm, if just for this moment. Scorpio-to mourn, remember, and accept. Sagittarius-to accept our mortality with creativity and celebration. Capricorn- to take the creativity and contain it for the winter ahead-life goes on and the days begin to lengthen.

So, what to eat then with all this other stuff swirling around? Of course, with this cold, all taste is compromised. That’s no excuse! If Beethoven can write a symphony being deaf, I can make a meal without a sense of taste! Well, perhaps after a nap.

We’re in leftover land, and of course, the turkey was savagely massacred leaving nothing but bones, gnarled twisted knobs with little scraps of meat and flabby skin. A pan of green beans, mountains of mashed potatoes, absolutely no gravy (which makes the whole thing really lamentable). I think I’ll make a green bean, mashed potato casserole and keep it moist with human tears. Then, we gonna go wacky.