03.23.08
Easter
Today, Christians around the world celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus Christ who was found to be absent from his tomb, a situation that defied any logical explanation, then or now. During his short lifetime, Christ was both revered and hated. Born a Jew, he was mocked as the “King of the Jews.” The world would revile anyone who called himself, “the Son of God.”
The world’s people often hold in disdain that which is beyond their understanding. That is most certainly true when it comes to people judging others. Each individual always believes in the sanctity of his or her own thoughts and actions. Perhaps, it is just human nature to be that way.
Now, my thoughts turn to the time when I was a child. Easter Saturday was always a time of hurried activity, as Mother made sure the children had something suitable to wear to church the next day. She would color Easter eggs, make a frosted cake, and prepare an Easter basket with chocolate bunnies, jelly beans, and marshmallow chickens, and cover the basket with an overlay of colored cellophane. She’d go to the grocery store to gather up food for a special meal on Easter.
In the family album, there is one picture of me on Easter, standing on the steps of our house. I was very young. I am wearing a dress that is too short, short socks and (no doubt) patent leather shoes. I am holding a black duck, a stuffed animal, given to me by my oldest brother. I look pretty chilled, with my long, skinny legs hanging out in the cold of a New Hampshire early spring.
In those days, women wore the ever-present hat and gloves to church. We listened to corny music, like the “Easter Parade,” on a small turntable that could play 45 RPMs. Sometimes, we went to the park to participate in Easter Egg Hunts. I always wondered how Chocolate Bunnies and colored eggs were incorporated as part of the celebration.
On one particular Easter, my sister who is thirteen years old than me, decided to shock my parents by bringing me the gift of two live chicks. These yellow fluff balls turned out to be loud, crowing adult roosters, much to the annoyance of the neighbors; and pecking beasts who liked to be vicious to the hands that fed them, usually me. So much for bright ideas! We toted them to “the country,” when we later moved to a small town, and they ended up in a neighbor’s stew pot, proving the point that all vicious roosters will meet justice.
Today, is a “different day” than those Easters of my past. As our soldiers pray to a God, whom they hope keeps them safe, and returns them to their families, life has changed for me as well. I am without company today. My loved ones are dead; or far away, with lives and issues of their own; or else, at work, making sure that others have a good day.
The only celebration for me will be to listen to the radio, to do my usual work, and to cling to the promises of the Risen Christ, the only remaining hope for humanity. Nothing is forever, and sometimes, it is great consolation knowing that is also true of this life.
However you spend the day, I wish you a Happy Easter, a harbinger of Spring!
