A Moment of Valentine’s Day Empathy
Posted by Jim at February 14th, 2004
Kristen cuts bread for herself in the kitchen. I, meanwhile, am beginning to make pancakes for myself and our children.
“Oww!” she says.
“What happened?”
“I cut myself with the knife.”
I survey the scene. She is still holding both the knife and the bread. The cut isn’t bad.
“I’ve done that myself,” I say. “Don’t bleed on the bread.”
Actually, blood and bread and your wife’s name being Kristen gives the whole event a Bible-nouveau kind of feel. I wonder if your request prevented some sort of miracle. Maybe you should have fallen to your knees and partaken. Was the bread leavened?
James
I’m not sure if I want to find out what sort of miracle would occur if Kristen were to bleed on the bread, but I’m guessing that someone would be crucified by the end of things.
That being said, the bread was leavened.
Bread bloodied by Kristen’s finger probably isn’t acceptable in any tradition (Jewish, Protestant or Catholic), but it does remind me of a novella I read. In it humanity manages to cross between alternate worlds only to find an alternate version of Christianity in which Christ is female. Communion uses menstrual blood.
Ewww.
Jim Zoetewey