Finding the Benevolent Universe when the World is in a Pickle
Finding the Benevolent Universe when the World is in a Pickle
by
Maryallene Arsanto had no comment about the yodeling pickle from the annoying 11-second video on Facebook. Happily for everyone (I hope), you can read this explanation in silence:
There is a good reason for the yodeling pickle, and I can explain. Xmas, to me, is the holiday of the benevolent universe. It was celebrated by pagans as the promise of renewal in the depths of winter days.
This little tree is my tree of things worth remembering. Some of the ornaments are from circa 1950. In 2002, the three relatives most close to my son and I died, and we were alone. New ornaments symbolize the year coming to a close.
Every dated ornament stands for the year it first appears. I re-met Josh in 2007, after meeting (and briefly dancing with him) in 1969. That is 38 years of silence between us and 17 winters of Xmas together.
Josh met Kris, the giver of this year’s yodeling pickle, at Harvard in the early 70s. At OCON in Bellview, Washington, Kris visited us, and we had breakfast. She gave me an enamel leaf on a necklace I still wear. She called me when I was in a Chicago hospital with a broken femur to tell me about her daughter-in-law, who broke her femur in multiple places from a ski accident and recovered to walk and ski as “good as new.” That was the year Tal Tsfany came to ARI, and Jean Moroney suggested we start a Toastmasters club. That club, in due course, became Objectivist Voices.
The Germans have a tradition of pickles at Christmas, and if you look closely at the lower left of the tree, you will see the Christmas pickle I bought from Rosedale Nurseries in 2011. Twelve years later, a mate for the Christmas pickle shows up in a package from Kris with cookies and jams. I would be brain-dead if I didn’t make the yodeling pickle the star of a Xmas video in 2023.
Maryallene, you are the only adult I know with the wit of a wizard, the benevolence of a child, and the grace of a cat who could lob a comment like a tennis ball and deserve this attempt of mine to give you a smashing answer.
Thank you for the opportunity.
Ilene Skeen is at Wild Oak Bay Bradenton.
Link to the video on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/828118467/videos/1393361211612102/
Well I love weird things, and a yodeling pickle is pretty weird. The great aspect of weird things is that they challenge our expectations, and they remind us that there are still things in the world that can surprise us. Life can get pretty boring when everything becomes homogenized and predictable. At the very least, a weird thing might make you laugh. Maybe it'll inspire you to ask why you did that. It may be easy to dismiss the weird thing by categorizing it as foolish. But maybe, sometimes, a yodeling pickle is more than a yodeling pickle. Maybe its a window into our own psychology. And maybe sometimes, it's good not to keep our curtains drawn.