Another Passover come and gone. I used to have the energy for this. Things have changed.
For those unfamiliar with the requirements of a kosher home on Passover, here's what occurs. We have completely separate dishes, pots, pans, flatware, baking dishes just for Passover use. We bring them out of storage a few days before Passover, clean the kitchen thoroughly, carefully packing away the year-round stuff, so nothing that has touched leavening can touch the Passover stuff, and store it. Then we put the Passover stuff in the kitchen, so that Passover cooking and baking can be done. We clean as much of the house as we can in the time allotted, especially the common areas of the house. At the end of the eight days we repeat the process in reverse.
Why? It's based on the Torah, through 3,000 years of rabbinic interpretation and understandings, and rulings encompassing changes in technology. After all, self-cleaning ovens were uncommon not many decades ago. Some things are far easier than great-grandma had with her coal stove. Thank heaven.
Still, while turning the house upside down once a year has its benefits, it takes a considerable amount of energy, which I find in decreasing availability every year. I now use younger legs to carry the boxes up and down the stairs whenever available.
Also, while my daughter and son-in-law worked during the intermediate days to get the house they just bought ready to move into, we had our two grandsons all week. I loved it, but it makes me wonder how we raised three kids ourselves. Answer: It was over twenty years ago. Memory plays tricks with us. We thought it was hard then. What was hard was emotionally dealing with things for the first time, whereas what's hard now is physically it gets more difficult, but it's now the twenty-somethingth time. Every little thing is no longer a crisis. Every last-minute emergency is no big deal - indeed, it's expected.
That's the best part of getting older - knowing we've been through the wars, so to speak. We've dealt with this before, and if we just keep going a bit longer, we'll deal with it again. And we did! And we still managed to find the energy to enjoy ourselves. And it took less time to get back to normal than before. There is a certain satisfaction to that, and knowing that some things that change, change for the better.
Next year in my daughter's house!
