I admit it. I love a good pancake. And not just the viral Golden Diner ones that folks wait hours on line for (or spend hours dirtying every pan in the house to recreate them using the NYTimes recipe). Give me a good stack of flapjacks with a side of (real!!) maple syrup, and I’m in breakfast heaven. So yes, I am an IHOP rewards customer. I participate in their “stack exchange” as a “stackholder”, trading in pancoins for pancakes more frequently than I should probably admit. To be fair, it’s not just me – my kids still love IHOP as a destination for family celebrations. Like me, they also are suckers for a chocolate chip smiley face pancake on their birthday.
But I received a promotional email from IHOP today that brought out my inner Andy Rooney. It was an advertisement for their August Pancake of the Month: PUMPKIN SPICE. It was accompanied by the following tag line: “Fall is officially back with pancakes made with real pumpkin…” I’m sorry, did you say fall is officially back…on August 1st??? And IHOP is not the only offender of this autumnal incursion. Take a look at HomeGoods, Raindew, or Stop and Shop, and what do you see these days? Next to the clearance rack of pool floats and beach towels are the familiar green, orange, and black of Halloween decorations.
Politically, economically, culturally, our world is feeling more and more unmoored from the predictable norms of the past. And this societal race to the next big thing has caused us to be untethered from the familiar, comforting rhythms of the seasons as well. Luckily, our Jewish community is not so fickle when it comes to the sanctification of time. All we need to do is look up in the night sky, and let the moon be our guide. Full moon at the end of summer? High Holidays are on their way! Full moon at the start of winter? It’s almost Chanukah time! New moon at the start of spring? Better dust off those holiday dishes, Passover’s almost here! Yes, the peculiarities of a strictly lunar month cycle plus the insertion of 7 leap months every 19 years gives us the occasional Rosh Hashanah Labor Day weekend or Thanksgivukkah, but on the whole, we will never have the Jewish equivalent of Valentine’s Day candy displays in mid-November.
So, for now, enjoy that iced tea at the beach, and I look forward to seeing you at the high holidays in late September, where they belong!
Cantor Eric Schulmiller
