Easter Morning
Walked around the block early this morning. The early spring thunderstorm left the ground wet and the grass emerald green. I believe in the concept of resurrection, that newness seemingly comes out of nothing: ex nihilio. After winters deep sleep, the emergence of green, a constellation of tiny leaves covering the apple tree, robins hopping around hungry for worms — is not the logical extension of past experience.
A signature confirmation of the Easter message this morning was the flock of blue jays, a half dozen birds at least— calling to one another high up in a tree top. They surveyed the neighborhood from on high, likely energized by the opportunity inherent in the spring mating season. Their high pitched cries, a choir proclaiming new life.
Life!
4 thoughts on “Easter Morning”
“To life, to life, l’chaim!”
Any other “Fiddler on the Roof” admirers? That song would be an apt, if slightly ironic, Easter anthem.
I’ve seen the play several times. I agree. It is an anthem with a Easter message.
Resurrection is a theme played out year ’round. The concept is what we seem to hope for on a daily basis yet as potentially beneficial as it seems on the surface, many espouse resurrection of darker matter: Trumpests shout “Make America Great Again”, supremacists scream Bring Back Power to White People, Make Mohammed Great Again (ISIS), Resurrect Coal Mining, and on and on. When we create the golden idol of nostalgia with regard to resurrection, we are blinding ourselves to the reality of the present and of change. My personal view is more along the lines of the Phoenix that goes through fire to reinvent itself as a different yet more salient creature.
You have traced some of the uses of the term. A word is like a Swiss Army knife,–a knife with many functions. The meaning of a word is it’s use or uses. Words are tools which may be used to construct dark and unsustainable realities; or realities that are a transcendent improvement over what we have known. Your point that words themselves may mystify us so that we are blind to facts is well taken. Labels and tag lines are routinely used to shut down thought, and to stigmatize the bearer of a unwelcome point of view. A dog can be trained to always bark at the sound of its masters whistle.
I like the Phoenix metaphor as well. We must learn from past experience individually and as a society if we are to rise to create a better future.