Daybreak

This weekend my entire family is at a family wedding. I can’t go due to blood count issues. I spent Friday night feeling sorry for myself, eating pizza and watching What Not to Wear for hours. Ain’t no cure for the tortured soul like seeing some poor shmo have all of her old clothes mocked by two self-important twits and thrown in a trash can in front of her eyes. Sad, sad, sad. It was one of those days I usually characterize as very “Psalm 13:” How long, O LORD, wilt Thou forget me for ever? How long wilt Thou hide Thy face from me? It’s my little joke with myself for precisely those days when I am taking myself so seriously that I am certain that only THE BIBLE has the gravitas to describe my state of mind. {Take that, Emily Dickinson!}

Saturday morning, however, was a new day, courtesy of Mr. Barry Manilow. It was one of those days when I woke up exhausted from taking myself so seriously that only the musical powerhouse and showman of his generation, Baz Manilow, had the chops to capture my state of being. Those chops being, of course, Daybreak. It’s considered one of the cheesiest, most “up with people-”type songs on the planet, but d*mn if it doesn’t make me feel better every time I hear it. Bambina and I heard it in the car on the way to Tot Shabbat (monthly kiddie Shabbat services where they have these totally cute stuffed Torahs, a mouthful of cavities-worth of grape juice, and a suitcase full of musical instruments for the kids to bang on throughout the entire singfest), and by the time we got there I was all Barried-up and feeling better. We, of course, heard it in the car because I have Ultimate Manilow in the CD changer at all times, for just such a crisis.

Laugh if you will, but it works for me. Which means that I am now in the right frame of mind (ie, it's not about ME) for saying the following:

Congrats, E and J! Mazel Tov and Much Love. Don't look at it as me missing your wedding. Look at it as having one less guest with a lampshade on her head by 7pm...

You are blessed, Lord our G-d, the sovereign of the world, who created joy and celebration, bridegroom and bride, rejoicing, jubilation, pleasure and delight, love and brotherhood, peace and friendship. May there soon be heard, Lord our G-d, in the cities of Judea and in the streets of Jerusalem, the sound of joy and the sound of celebration, the voice of a bridegroom and the voice of a bride, the happy shouting of bridegrooms from their weddings and of young men from their feasts of song. You are blessed, Lord, who makes the bridegroom and the bride rejoice together.

Or, as the old Gaelic blessing goes:
May God be with you and bless you.
May you see your children's children.
May you be poor in misfortune, rich in blessings.
May you know nothing but happiness
From this day forward

or, my more personal favorite:
May those who love us, love us.
And those who don't love us,
May God turn their hearts;
And if He doesn't turn their hearts,
May He turn their ankles,
So we will know them by their limping.

You may now stomp on the glass. :)