I love Yiddish. The vocabulary captures an emotional flavor that English just doesn’t have the kishkes for.
Take the title of today’s post, for instance. I’m feeling all sorts of tumbled-up ways…mish-mosh is the perfect description. Basically, I’m an everything bagel today.
I’m in awe and wonder at the beautiful weather today, awe and wonder at miraculous signs of spring everywhere around me. I’m in awe and wonder that the sun has the chutzpah to shine on the day I mourn a close friend, gone too soon.
I’m farklemt that Being a Grownup means Doing Hard Things, like the burden of participating in a funeral service. Full of nachas to recognize that burden for what it really is: the honor of experiencing a deep, abiding friendship. A heart sad and full, all at the same time.
All of which is to say, I’d rather be a mish-mosh than a plain bagel any day. Now pass the cream cheese, I need a nosh…
Soapbox: The Way I see Things 
I also love Yiddish. And “if you are what you eat,” I am a bagel. (Tuesday it was Baker’s Dozen day at Panera). Philadelphia whipped cream cheese, lox, a jar of Everything from Trader Joe’s and toasted bagels x every day this week. 😂 “Pass the cream cheese,” indeed!
You had me at lox =))
I am so very sorry for your loss, Lainie. It’s sounds like a roller coaster of a day. I hope you were able to find nourishment (food, as well as spiritual and emotional) to see you through the day and a confusing time.
A rollercoaster of a day, indeed. Thankfully, I was able to fill both heart and belly last night, as I had dinner with a dear friend.
Thank you for all the new Yiddish I can add to my lexicon. I, too, am a proud mish-mosh! Sorry to hear about your friend, I hope that you are able to cherish all the stories you shared together.
Thank you. And yes, I absolutely cherish all of our memories and stories. She was a wonderful human, one of the people I’ve been lucky to call friend.
The juxtaposition of feeling the burden of participating in your friend’s funeral with feeling honored as well as the sun shining on a day of mourning are described so beautifully by you. I am sorry about your friend. Being a grown up is harder some days than others.
Thanks. Yes, being a grown-up IS hard, but I don’t think I’d trade my wisdom and experience for nothing. And maybe not even the grey hairs. I’ve earned those suckers!
I can feel the nachus and the grief in this post. My friend just lost her cousin’s husband, with whom she was close, to a brain anureysm. He was healthy and then he was clinging to life in the hospital. Life is so very unfair! So, yes, I don’t know how the sun has the chutzpah to shine when there’s profound losses.
Speaking of which, you might want to read Sharon Brous’ The Amen Effect. I finished the audiobook of it last week. It was EXCELLENT.
Speaking of Yiddish, you might want to check this out (on a happier occasion): https://apps.apple.com/us/app/yiddish-slang-dictionary-and-quiz/id394279811.
Did I really start two sentences with speaking of…? Yikes.
That’s why I loved your comment! I could picture you at your keyboard, going oh! and then OH!
I just checked out that link. I love it! As for the Amen Effect, I’ll have to check it out. Do you think it’s better absorbed as an audiobook, or could the reading be just as meaningful?
I’m sure it’s fine as a book.
Thing is, Brous was a rabbinic fellow at the synagogue I belonged to when I was in NYC. I remember her from the early aughts. Therefore, hearing HER reading it around was nostalgic — in a way.
Sorry for your loss. Being a grownup isn’t always easy. Life isn’t always fair and we sometimes struggle with why things happen.
“Basically, I’m an everything bagel today.” What an apt description! I’m sorry to hear about your friend. Losing someone is always so tough. Sending you healing energy!
Thank you! I’ll store some and pass some along to my friend’s loved ones.
Dear woman “Basically, I’m an everything bagel today.” is the most APT description of my mental state right now.
And you are so right of the expressiveness of Yiddish. As a New Yorker with Jewish friend, I’m exposed to a decent amount of it. I understand, because meshugah really is the only word to describe my life of late. But I’m not here to kvetch.
I’m sorry for your loss, Lanie. They never warn us about this part of that whole adult nonsense do they? Sending you the most warm vibes to get through this. And yes, go nosh.
Good to “see” you again, Raivenne – slicing or no slicing. And yes…adult nonsense is EXACTLY what I’d call it (depending on the mood, I’d express it in even bluer terms). Luckily, I had the chance to do that very thing…I went to go nosh with a dear, dear friend I hadn’t seen in several years. Quite a fitting bookend to my day.
I love Yiddish, too! “Mshugener” remains a favorite word of mine. Comically, I had a Yiddish nickname for year, one of only three nicknames I’ve every had, the creator of which (the father of one of my close friends from college) also created one of my other nicknames.
Lainie, “chutzpah” has long been a word I’ve loved…and I love that paragraph especially, with emphasis on awe. I am sorry for the loss of your friend. You always make me chuckle – like here, “I’m an everything bagel today.” I get that! The whole post is a pure delight to read (although it makes me hungry!).