| The night before the first seder there was a bright full moon, and then the next day before the seder at Avi's house there was a sunshower followed by a beautiful rainbow. It was strange and sad to have the seders without my family here, though doing it with Zoom on the second night was surprisingly nice. It's amazing how well it works (most of the time), and when you were all having conversations "around the table" it felt as if you were physically here. But then when I turned off the application, you were gone. A year and a half ago my friend Steve Fassberg and I read a paper at a conference and we're getting ready to submit it for publication, so now I'm going over my part and adding the footnotes. I'm also working again on a paper I'm slowly writing about the influence of Tamil on Sinhala. A friend who is expert on all matters Lankan has pointed me at a couple of fascinating books that bear on the languages and many other facets of the history and society of the island. I feel like I understand a lot now that was a closed book to me a few weeks ago. I am looking forward to our family weekend this summer, but I'm afraid that after things open up (next month, probably) they may close again periodically when the virus takes off, so we may not know until just before whether it is really going to happen or not. Let's all stay sane and healthy in our confinement, and may it end soon! |
| Created on 13 April 2020 by Samuel Ethan Fox |