The last ritual

My life used to be filled with rituals. I'd spend Thanksgiving with the same friends -- but haven't done that in a very long time. I'd make for Thanksgiving both oyster dressing and shrimp aspic -- but H's lack of enthusiasm for either drained my energy for doing it since we've been together. Many rituals involved drinking, or mixing special drinks, or making special toasts, or combining special wines with special meals, or meeting special people at special bars on special days, and all this stopped when I quit.


About the only ritual left in my life is making black-eyed peas for the Army-Navy football game on television. I haven't missed a year, and this Saturday I plan to keep the tradition alive. It seems to me this is the last ritual left in my life. It's become a solitary ritual, to be sure, and not the social ritual it once was, but damn it, I have to have at least one ritual in my life. This Saturday, before the late afternoon shoot. The game starts at 9 a.m. Black-eyed peas for breakfast. I even have some homemade scrapple to have with them. Suddenly Saturday morning is looking pretty good.