Essay crunch, and some thoughts on Passover

I've spent a good part of the last week pent up in my apartment researching and outlining my midterm essay for Science and Society (you know, the one I complained horribly about in my last post).  As expected, organizing my (and other people's) ideas on the virtue and authority of academic, industrial, and entrepreneurial scientists is turning out to be quite tedious.  But I am determined to finish this (and my other two assignments) up so I can have an enjoyable and exciting vacation (a.k.a. Passover).

Anyways, I thought I would use this moment of procrastination to share a few of my Passover-related thoughts...

First of all, this will be the third year in a row in which I have not been in Delray Beach for the chag.  In all sincerity, this has been--and continues to be--a really hard thing for me.  Not because I'll miss out on the sun and the beach and the pool (believe me, there will be plenty of that here), but because I will miss the family seders.  Spending the past two passovers at Princeton has solidified that all-too-true song lyric "don't know what you got 'till it's gone."  Despite my various efforts to recreate it--at the CJL, Chabad, and Rabbi Wolkenfeld's house--there is nothing like the Miller/Greenberg/Abrams Florida family seder, period.  (I must say, Rabbi Wolkenfeld's seders were the closest I got.  The fact that they lasted until 2am without anyone at the table noticing how late it was is, in my mind, sufficient confirmation of the Bnei Brak story, despite the fact that we weren't reclining in a cave.)  I can't exactly put a finger on it, but there is something really special about our seders--the way we really engage with the stories, the way we all participate, our special customs, the list goes on (and oh yea, the brisket).

As my friends back in Princeton will attest, I tend to be down and irritable for the majority of those eight days.  It's a shame, really, because passover is meant to be a festival.  In the past I have blamed it on hunger, claiming that the scarcity of kosher-for-passover food on campus gave me perpetually low blood sugar, but truthfully that's bogus because I ate more on passover than any other week of the year.  Reflecting back on those two years of missed seders, I know the real reason I was upset was because I missed Florida--I missed my family and our traditions.

Now, despite the certain reality that I will miss the Floridian passover, there some comfort in knowing that this year will probably be the most interesting passover I've ever had.  A seder in Cairns, a stones throw from the Great Barrier Reef...that should be a once-in-a-lifetime experience.  Ben and I have promised to make it as meaningful as an experience as possible, and to make passover an important theme in our trip.  Granted, I know scuba diving and 1500 miles of pristine Australian coastline in a campervan isn't exactly the same as a 40-year trek through the desert.

As we all know, the central theme of passover is freedom.  This year I will be thinking about freedom in new ways, including a new appreciation of my the freedom to travel, explore, meet new people, and try new things.  I will keep our family in mind as I try to bring our traditions to the other side of the planet. And I will thoroughly enjoy my four glasses of fine Australian wine.

But I still have one question... do I lean to the opposite side in Australia?