What, it’s Easter?

After I bought a cup of coffee and some muffins this afternoon, the clerk said "Have a nice Easter." I thought, What, it's Easter?

I'd completely lost track of what tomorrow was. I started to say, "I'd forgotten about it. Guess that shows how religious I am."

But I decided to bite my tongue and simply say, "Thanks."

Easter means absolutely nothing to me. Probably somebody in the world celebrates a memorable day in Zeus' existence. The two celebrations are equally senseless to my churchless self.

Yet I realize that other people find religious rituals and holidays deeply meaningful. They're welcome to their beliefs, as unfounded as they are to me.

We all need something to help us cope with life – which is full of uncertainty, pain, suffering, distress, unhappiness.

Coffee picks me up when I feel down. Others go to church, read the Bible, pray, or visualize Jesus' love for them. Personally, I think a latte is a better choice.

The Jehovah's Witnesses who knocked on our door this morning don't agree, though. I was in the midst of doing something important: eating a pancake and surfing the Internet. When I saw who was standing on our front porch, I felt a quiver of faithless indignation.

A woman handed me a leaflet, while a much older man in a suit stood to one side. "Hello, we'd like to invite you to a celebration of Jesus tomorrow."

I began rehearsing putdowns in my mind.

If she says one thing more…If she asks me if I've found Jesus…I'll tell her what she can do with her brochure…Yeah, bring it on sister…Just one more word…You knocked on the wrong door this Easter eve.

But she just smiled. Said, "thank you." And walked away.

Good move. The Jehovah's Witnesses have learned something. Or maybe they have a notation next to our address: "Tread lightly with these pagans."

Whatever, I went back to my pancake and laptop wishing them well. They were spending the day acting on their beliefs. Not in a pushy fashion, at least not with me. They simply wanted to spread the Good Word.

Which isn't so different from what I do on this blog, except I don't search people out.

Fresh from seeing Barack Obama yesterday, I'm in a pretty mellow mood. I agree with him that we need to do a much better job of breaking down the distinctions that plague this country.

Red states, blue states. Conservative, progressive. Faithful, faithless. Moral, immoral. Right, wrong. Patriotic, unpatriotic.

It isn't that we have to blend into some sort of featureless amorphous mass of oneness, losing our individuality.

It's more that believers need to do their best to look through the eyes of unbelievers, and vice versa. Ditto for blacks and whites, rich and poor, Republicans and Democrats, young and old, men and woman, etc. etc. etc.

In the bread store I paused before I blurted out what was going to be an impulsive rejoinder from my perspective. I realized that I had no idea how the clerk viewed Easter.

Maybe it meant a lot to her. Or maybe nothing, like me. Regardless, there was no need to say anything but "thank you." That's what I told the Jehovah's Witnesses also.

Have a nice Easter. Whatever it means to you.

Comments

[Bob]

Brian,

I know that if I get into a "literal" approach to Easter, then forget it - or as a historical event where angels came down from heaven and rolled back the stone entrance to the tomb of Jesus...forget it.

But, if I view the Easter event as a myth and equate it to my own "resurrection" or "awakening" to my higher Nature (from all the usual self-hate and other bullshit conditioning I bought into), then I can most certainly celebrate it as an invitation to being fully present to life in each moment.

I think there is some significance to the Christian "story" if taken as myth. The events relating to Jesus can be mirrors into our own lives.

Bob

[DJ]

Brian,
Why did you even take the leaflet from the Jehovah's Witlesses? Did you know they practice a form of shunning and refer to it as "disfellowshipping." A disfellowshipped person is not to be greeted either socially or at their meetings. I give them a taste of their own medicine; I open the door and if its Witlesses immediately close it without saying a word!

[Danny Haszard]

Jehovah's Witnesses have largest turnover of recruits,have one of the highest attrition rates of all denominations.

Reports from TIME Magazine-""An even more extreme example of what might be called "masked churn" is the relatively tiny Jehovah's Witnesses, with a turnover rate of about two-thirds.

That means that two-thirds of the people who told Pew they were raised Jehovah's Witnesses no longer are — yet the group attracts roughly the same number of converts. Notes Lugo, "No wonder they have to keep on knocking on doors

Half of all the Watchtower related news now on Jehovah's Witnesses is either obituaries or Kingdom Hall construction.

The old folks who gave everything to the WBTS are dying off left and right cause no new system ever came
The Watchtower keeps on wheeling & dealing big money real estate
80% of all the young people are leaving the JW's
--
Danny Haszard born 3rd generation Jehovah's Witness,'I was in the cult and now i'm out'...

[DJ]

The Jehovah's Witlesses Proselytizing Song

JO-Voh, JO-Voh, a pious life for me!
We pillage, we plunder, we rifle, and loot,
Drink up, me 'earties, yo ho.
We kidnap and ravage and don't give a hoot,
Drink up me 'earties, yo ho.

JO-Voh, JO-Voh, a pious life for me!
We extort, we pilfer, we filch, and sack,
Drink up, me 'earties, yo ho.
Maraud and embezzle, and even high-jack,
Drink up, me 'earties, yo ho.

We're rascals, scoundrels, villans, and knaves,
Drink up, me 'earties, yo ho.
We're devils and black sheep, really bad eggs,
Drink up, me 'earties, yo ho.

JO-Voh, JO-Voh, a pious life for me!
We're beggars and blighters, ne'er-do-well cads,
Drink up, me 'earties, yo ho.
Aye, but we're loved by our mommies and dads,
Drink up, me 'earties, yo ho.

[Brian]

DJ, I don't like being discourteous to the Jehovah's Witnesses. It just seems more harmonious to spend a few seconds taking (and then recycling) the leaflet, and saying "thank you," than to shut a door in their face.

In 2004 my wife and I did some canvassing for John Kerry. I much preferred having someone say something to us, even if it was "not interested," than just to slam the door shut. Like the JW, we were putting quite a bit of time and energy into reaching out to people; that deserves at least some minimal courtesy.

[tucson]

I have been visited by JW's countless times. They will show up in very remote places. Some have been very nice, others pushy.

One time I was living out in the middle of the Mojave Desert. It was a hot day and this guy in a white dress shirt comes peddling up the dirt road on his bike. I thought I was hallucinating. I accepted the leaflets and he accepted the lemonade.

Another time, living in what was called a "commune" in those days, a bunch of us male and female were sunbathing nude on the roof of a forest cabin. A white-shirted JW shows up and wants to speak with us. We invited him up. He couldn't see from below that we were nude and the look on his face when he reached the top of the ladder was priceless. We invited him to strip down and join us which he declined, but he tried to play it cool and sat there cross-legged talking for awile. Then he got out of there pretty fast.

You have to be careful these days. If they approach me in a parking lot, I tell them no thank you and to give me five feet, at which point they're happy to give me a hundred.

Sometimes, burglars are casing your place under the guise of JWs, salesmen, driveway sealers, canvasers, pretending to be lost, looking for "Joe", etc. If you sense this, be wary. Act suspicious and record descriptions, license plates, and let them see the gun butt sticking out of your pants. Allow your snarling, slobbering mastiff to lunge at them a little bit. That kind of thing. You get my drift.

[Roger]

Tucson,

As usual, your above comment was fun and enjoyable to read. There has been a number of burglaries in my neighborhood by persons as you described.