Doctor Grandma

We are going home to Indiana this weekend, Easter weekend, because I get a 4-day weekend off (Christian Lutheran college).  I really can’t take this drive every 2 mos. and our pocketbook can’t either. But my husband always wants to go – his parents are older & having health problems. And I want to see Raven & Caspian (as well as my daughter). But it’s a hard, hard trip and I hate it. I really hate it.

Thoughts about Easter. Memories of Easter holidays. Dressing up like a doll, always in a new dress, going to church with a little purse I would carry and sometimes white gloves. Often had a dress to match my sister’s but a little different color, something like that. Such foll-de-roll. The whole church dress up thing for Easter, so fakey. Curling my light brown hair with bobby pins the night before.

We would wake up to a basket with candy and toys as a kid. In my pre-youth years, I always wanted the same exact thing (and always got it). A large, chocolate Easter egg with coconut cream filling. Dark chocolate if possible. That was my favorite, once-a-year thing. It would last for weeks or months afterward, as I would take a little bite each day, to make it last a long time!! So gross! It would be sitting in my room on a desk all that time.

We would have one of those huge dinners, with turkey or ham, or both, and all the extra dishes of food, homemade, all of it. Rolls, mac  & cheese, green beans, mashed potatoes, 3 kinds of pie, creamy corn. It was always a big family dinner day.

My dad, if he went to church any time of year to please my mom, would go on Christmas and Easter. My connection to church was always strong, although I wrote at age 15 that I did not believe people in India were going to hell. As a kid I attended Sunday school regularly, but from my memories of it, the friends there were a slightly different group than those I hung with at school, even in elementary. The kids at my church were the rich kids in town. At school, I hung out with all different classes of kids. Some of my best friends were known as “the poor kids” but the way I knew them was Girl Scouts, for one, and recess, for two. We would walk home together until we had to separate to go to our own houses.

To this day, I love coloring Easter eggs and do it w/ my grandkids. It is just plain fun. I always loved colors in paints, crayons, and Easter eggs. I often drew a white wax “Jesus cross” on the egg before coloring it. Spirituality was always a part of me. However, I always liked Palm Sunday and the love of the people for Jesus more than the whole Easter story. I understand the story of sacrifice, and believe Jesus died on the cross. But it doesn’t matter to me whether or not He rose from the dead. This is the entire basis for Christian belief, we are told by many — He died “for our sins”. But wasn’t His power and Who He was built on the fact that He changed people’s lives, taught them to love one another and to treat others as you would like to be treated? People left their fishing nets and followed Him. He preached the sermon on the mount and changed how we see the world and each other. That is the power of Christ.

So let’s say He rose from the tomb after 3 days. Okay, then everyone sees Him and believes in Him because of one miracle He did? He rose other people from the dead, so He could do it for Himself if He wanted to. But then what?? The Bible stories say his body went straight up into the sky and heaven. From what we now know of space, this seems very silly. It just doesn’t make any sense. Belief has to also jive with science somehow. Not make fun of science as this does.

A talk from ‘Abdu’l-Baha  explains that perhaps after the crucifixion, the disciples lost faith. Their Lord had been crucified! How could this happen? Wasn’t He the Promised One to lead them into the Kingdom? Wasn’t He to be the new king? So they lost their faith. After 3 days, Mary Magdelene regained her faith in her Lord and encouraged the others. She revitalized their belief, reminded them of all the teachings He brought to the world, and they regained their confidence and belief. This makes more sense to me than the other way.

Sacrifice is the ultimate lesson. But I just can’t buy the story of his body leaving earth and catapulting into the sky! It just makes no sense to me. I think God is greater than that, and actually JESUS is greater than that! He changed the world and it was never the same. He consorted with prostitutes and tax collectors and made them once again whole. This is what the spirit does for people. He is not Christ because of one miracle, or rising His own body from the dead. He is Christ because of how people were changed due to His short existence with us. 

Today is the 1st day of the year — the Baha’i Faith new year. March 21st, the Spring equinox. Today was pretty much a lazy-stay-at-home-in-the-rain day for us, though we went to a dinner last night and heard some fantastic Persian violin and guitar music. Lovely. It is interesting to hear quarter notes from a violin.

One thought struck me last night: Our Center was full to the brim, with about 45 adults and 10 kids running around. So– what happens when we double in size? The planning and love that all went into building these Baha’i Centers— no matter how lovely— seems now misplaced. We do want to grow, do we not? So what then? It’s like we have carved out a certain niche for ourselves that does not expand. It just doesn’t make sense. We need to cut our ties to these buildings and expand our vision into the future, and be about serving humanity and forging relationships!

When our kids were little, Naw-Ruz was a day we took our kids out of school and went out to lunch together as a family. I miss all my kids today. I miss those special times.

So in case you want to know, today begins the year 167 B.E. (Baha’i era) — not that most of the world knows or cares right now. Think of where the world was 167 years after Christ. It takes work and centuries of time. Someday the world will celebrate this holiday.

I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality… I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

I like to make a new year’s resolution. I think it is worthwhile. Even if you don’t remember it a year later, you have thought through what is something you need t0 work on, or something you’d like to see yourself doing . . .

So I have just one simple one, this year. Start a savings account, with my measly little “Purdue retirement” check, which ain’t much, and ignore it. Let it build up. Let’s see if I have a little savings a year from now.

HAPPY NEW YEAR everyone. I will be glad to get back home to my sunny south. Being in Indiana this week reminds me of the endless days of gray. Winter here is not only cold, which you can learn to deal with, but it is endless gray days of continual clouds.