A HOUSE BLESSING

I was invited to a house blessing ( different from a plain 'house warming' which was nothing but gathering of people, without formal blessing). It was a big beautiful house, following provincial standards. All the furnitures and utensils were new, from the doormat to the curtains.

The decorations were many and varied. In fact, enough to confuse any observer not really because of the quantity but more so because of disparity. It was highly eclectic.

The fully decorated long buffet table was beaming with sumptuous foods mostly "hypertensives" and too rich to be damaging to health, well, like the foods people always offer during fiestas and similar occasions.

There were many visitors who were all impressed not only about the house but also about the source of money used in building the house. The house was very symbolic of the "sudden wealth syndrome", somewhat too showy for comfort.

On the side, I could feel something wrong. Some "very close relatives" were not around and I could feel the going on hassles among the clan. It was quite regrettable and pitiful that after giving out everything to make the house classy, colorful and really laud, was that in the final analysis what the priest blessed was not a home.