Pink Chair Bernie
“This run of Bernie memes is America exhaling. That’s all.”
This commentary from Rabbi Yohanna Kinberg captures why I felt downright giddy yesterday morning when it dawned on me that Bernie had to make an appearance in the pink chair:
"The Bernie memes remind me of the Jewish concept of hiddur mitzvah, חדור מצוה (to enhance or beautify or create art for the mitzvah). The memes that really take off give individuals a chance to add their own joy, beauty, love or wit to a shared concept or a shared idea or a shared love. There is something deeply beautiful about this phenomenon when it works towards goodness and lends itself towards whimsy. Memes can extend the feeling of joy."
I sent a message to Stacy de la Rosa, an old friend and brilliant visual artist, asking if she happened to have the time and interest in plunking Bernie into a few of the wonderful photos from my shoots with Isabella Dellolio. She wrote back and said yes!
Belonging. Being part of something joyful and meaningful and bigger than us.
It's the connection we might feel at a concert, a musical, a religious service, a comedy show, a shared meal, a writing retreat -- in other words, all communal experiences the pandemic has taken from us. The Bernie memes have offered something not only to laugh at but to participate in, and it's largely the participation that makes it so meaningful, especially on the heels of so much fear and despair.
And, as poet Roger Bonair-Agard wrote, it's an exhale -- prolonged, punchy even -- that reveals just how painstakingly we've been holding our collective breath for years.