your bridge home
Festivals
He washed a girl’s feet and worshipped her. She was eight, and she had no idea who he was.
On Navami a girl is brought in and seated. Her feet are washed. She is dressed, garlanded, fed, and worshipped.
She is not asked to perform anything. She does not have to say a line or hold a pose. She sits, and the puja is done to her.
And the claim being made is not that she represents the Goddess. It is that she is the Goddess, present, in a child who will go back to school on Monday.
The rest of this story, read aloud, and a new one every day.