French 'Madeleines'

I’m not sure this is legal, but I’m eating the delectable French ‘Madeleines’ my lovely French neighbor just gave me, while drinking English tea out of my husband’s Norwegian “Cream of Lutefisk Soup” mug.  It’s part of the new ‘permission’ I’m giving myself this Christmas and in the coming year to be bold and daring.

Sometimes lately, I hear the riotous Jovian laughter of the ironic kind (God's "got'cha" for my human presumption) that immediately follows upon a surfeit of Jovian joviality that sweeps all before it, taking hold of us poor mortals and subsequently delivering us into trouble before we realize it!  Like the other day, when I overstepped my authority because I was swept away in an excess of creative silliness and forgot correct committee protocol.  Fortunately, I pulled back from the brink and caught myself before things had gone too far.  I saw the Jovian ‘sucker punch’ coming before it landed:  “Me-thinks I hear the distant waves of Jovian irony about to break on the hard rocks of consciousness and smash me to bits," it occurred to me.  One can so easily be swept away by the creative impulse, especially when it all seems so innocent and in good fun.  The prerogative of the divinity of joviality, however, ought not to be dallied with by the human presumption of stealing even a small cinder of fire from the gods.  One must pay attention to the ‘overage’ — the excess of affect that sweeps all before it.  That's actually easier said than done sometimes.

That said, I still intend to be bold and daring by drinking English tea out of a Norwegian “Cream of Lutefisk Soup” mug while eating French ‘Madeleines’.  It’s the American thing to do.