Meet Peshy: A Biography

It's time you meet the newest member of my family, Genesha Pesha Schwartz. (She's closely related to SD's old pal, Golda Perel.) My parents first invited her in thinking that she'd make a great playmate, but we soon realized that she was much too homesick for her native Kansas to be much fun. In fact, she frequently seemed to be a little disoriented, thinking we actually werestill out west. Peshy is what you'd call a real fair-weather friend. If there's a cloud in the sky, she makes a beeline back home to the range, and if it's really stormy she prefers to stay in her cozy sleeping bag. But on a sunny day she'll stick with you and help out.

Naturally, it was a rainy day when I asked Peshy to come with me to my job interview, so she was totally unhelpful, though she did offer to find me an even better opportunity in Wichita, and a home where the buffalo roam. I hear the skies are not cloudy there, either -- I can see why she misses it. We had a bit of a falling-out after it took me twice as long as planned to get to the interview, but we had a truly heartwarming reunion just yesterday, which is why she's getting her very own post to show how much I appreciate her new loyalty.

I have to say, though, it's not easy living with Peshy. She can get a little too farfrumpt sometimes. She's so machmir, she doesn't even hold by the Mapkvester Rebbe, and on Pesach she only gets her nourishment from a sterile IV line. She's so tzniyus that she always stays inside, which would be a wonderful trait if not for the fact that she always seems so pale and withdrawn when the rest of us return from our adventures. It can take a while to get her started again. But most annoying of all, she's always concerned that her friends are going off the derech. I mean, a good friend should certainly give mussar sometimes, but there's a limit. On a positive note, though, she has the patience of a saint; she'll repeat her admonitions three times, and then gently steer us back even when we've gone astray.

Another thing we have to be careful with is Peshy's insecurities. She gets insulted way too easily, so we can only talk about her in hushed, whispered code. Maybe she's just still touchy because of my treatment after the interview incident, but it sure took a lot of ego-stoking to get us back in her good graces. SD was a great help yesterday. She encouraged all to be generous with the compliments, starting us off with the one that basically sums up this post: "Peshy dear, we'd be lost without you!"