Susan Senator

This means, literally, "One beautiful chicken." It is something my grandfather used to say whenever something broke. It is a Yiddish expression that is loosely translated, "Better that it happened to the chicken [the thing that broke] than to us." "Us," meaning, the family, or the Jews. Better to lose the chicken, slaughter it, whatever, than ... The attitude comes from centuries of oppression, Gentlemen's Agreements, pogroms, Inquisitions, Expulsions, Kristallnachts, Massadas, etc. As a people, the Jews have certainly endured more than their share of abuse, and it is in our DNA to remember that, no matter how much therapy one might undergo.

Anyway, I love "eine shayna capura," because it is a great way to shrug off one's feelings about loss. It reminds me that these things are only things, whether it is a plate that broke (a wedding dish broke this morning, prompting these thoughts) or something else not turning out the way you expected it to. Even autism. Even a flaky friend. Even nasty blog comments. Even having a mid-life crisis. It's not the end of the world. It is just the chicken, not us.