A Lennon Seder

Throughout my ten years of practice as a psychiatrist I've had opportunity to work in a variety of settings and attend conferences in various parts of the United States.  I am oftentimes asked by people I've just met if I am Jewish.  I guess with my profession, having the name Aaron, sporting a beard, and wearing roundish spectacles all plays into a particular stereotype.

This afternoon I was alone for a few hours after getting home from call at the hospital.  I changed into shorts, a t-shirt, and a heavy long-sleeved shirt before realizing at some point that it was unseasonably warm for late October.  After taking the heavy shirt off and drooping it around my shoulders I walked by a mirror in our dining room and it struck me that it looked like a kind of prayer shawl.

The dining room table had been cleared during the day by my wife and a nice table cloth laid on it for her father's birthday.  They were all at a local farm for some combined family fun while I'd been working and would be coming back with the kids for dinner and cake.  There was something about the table, the shouldered shirt, the quiet house... thus was born "A Lennon Seder."


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