Agneaster

Sunday, April 24, 2011 by John Henry

easter-grass Things I'm not impressed by: your ability to spend three minutes on Wikipedia and explain why Easter doesn't matter because it was "stolen" from the Pagans.

Try this on: regardless of how one's religious beliefs may manifest, the springtime festivals and rituals - including, by the way, the egg thing - provides a time to reflect on the beauty and bounty of the world, a point to contemplate the beauty of life in all its forms, a moment to stop thinking about the day to day grind of life and look around this beautiful planet we inhabit and appreciate it.
Think about the things you've taken out of the world this year that are being renewed, all the animals and plants that come to life again with the beginning of spring. Think about the cycle of life - birth, survival, death, renewal. Even if you believe there is "nothing" after we die, or you don't believe in reincarnation, we still "come back," you know. Our bodies rot and become one with the earth, nurturing and feeding new plants, which then feed animals, which then feed people, and then become fertilizer. Over and over it goes, and none of us ever really "die," we just become a different type of energy in this universe, with its own purpose that is different than the purpose of being human.
Maybe you don't believe in the transmigration of souls, or the persistence of personality after death, or anything else, and that's fine. But it's no reason to not take the opportunities you have, including broadly-celebrated holidays like Easter and Christmas, to think about what you are really adding to or taking from the world. Is human history a better place for you having been a part of it? When YOU are "resurrected" in the love of your family and friends after you die, will they say "Bob made a positive difference in the world?" Or will they say "Bob had a lot of material wealth that isn't doing a damned thing for him now?"

Instead of self-righteous condescension about who stole what from whom, how about looking around and appreciating your world today?  Instead of plastic baskets full of candy, why not plan next year to plant some REAL grass?  That’s a tradition in some countries, you know:  they actually take a pie-tin full of dirt, plant real, live, grass in it, and watch it grow and fill it with little holiday things like boiled eggs and such.  Just imagine, a holiday tradition that actually requires you to spend time with your kids, observing life, experiencing first-hand and with close attention the renewal of life that the Easter holiday celebrates, regardless of whether that renewal is a Christian resurrection story or an animist/naturist/”pagan” celebration of the new season of growth!

Imagine if instead of a room full of kids jacked up on cheap sugar and then being forced to sit quietly and listen to the same story every year, you had a room full of kids appreciating the gifts of their creator?  Look at that plate of grass up there – doesn’t it just BEG to be rubbed gently against your cheek so you can feel the coolness and life inside it?  Bet you didn’t get that feeling from your plastic “grass” that came from the department store.  I bet your kids would rather have your time and energy, and learn from you, than just some basket full of cheap plastic.  You could even make it a yearly tradition for the family, every Christmas you plant the grass, and the on Easter you go outside and put it in a special place in your yard.  You can’t do that with plastic grass.

And you don’t have to believe in anybody else’s religion to do it.  There’s nothing about it that’s offensive to ANY religion…except the religion of “spend money.”

Just think about it.

Happy Easter.

Filed Under: Opinion
blog comments powered by Disqus