One of the party staples at Bar/Bat Mitzvahs
these days is a video featuring family photos of the honored child from
birth to the present, often set to plaintive background songs like Green Day’s “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)”.
With my own children now almost 8- and 12-years-old, I find myself
especially sensitive to anything that reminds me of the passage of their
childhoods. But at a Bar Mitzvah on Saturday it wasn’t the video that
got to me. —
It
was real life, in the form of an adorable baby, pondering an over-sized
red-blinking party ring her mom handed to her. She smiled, squealed,
and then of course took it right to the mouth. What a wondrous world it
is! Filled so many beautiful things to slobber on! I miss that
perspective.
—Eric Messinger
