It’s been a strange way to start our 50 days of Easter celebration that followed the 40 days of Lent. Being without our modern conveniences—conveniences which would have seemed magical in the days of the first Easter—certainly makes me appreciate them even more. I’m still holding out for another Easter miracle to bring the light back into our lives.
Our power blew back out about two hours after I wrote yesterday’s post, and it is not shown so much as a flicker since. In a sense, it made our grand plans for Easter anticlimactic. In another, it highlighted Janelle’s heroic efforts to still pull a triumph out of it. She used the fact that we have a gas stove to cook up the ham meant for today and the pierogis meant for yesterday. She also had crafted a delicious chocolate-caramel pie.
It’s been a strange way to start our 50 days of Easter celebration that followed the 40 days of Lent. Being without our modern conveniences—conveniences which would have seemed magical in the days of the first Easter—certainly makes me appreciate them even more. I’m still holding out for another Easter miracle to bring the light back into our lives.
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I just got back from mass, and the lights just came on in my house. We’ve been without power for much of the day. This certainly disrupted all of our normal plans for the day before Easter, and possibly for Easter itself. Still, like today’s mass, the light has returned, bringing joy with it.
There’s something special about tonight’s service as it starts in the dark and brightens as it continues. It is filled with readings from the history of our faith before leading to our ultimate redemption through Christ’s resurrection. Today’s also included three baptisms and a total of five confirmations into the Church. It’s nice to have the light back in our lives, both spiritually and literally. We call the worst day in Jesus' life "Good" because of its outcome. While I would prefer for terrible things to happen in any person's life, it is my hope that good can still come from those awful events. This isn't meant as a type of consolation for people dealing with grief, but in the essence of what my faith is about. I deeply believe that God has given us the tools to make a better world no matter how dark the path before us might seem. Through His life and death, Jesus showed us how to make that idea a reality.
To lead, one must also serve ... not just be willing to serve, not simply talking about serving, but truly serving. This is what Jesus demonstrated to His disciples on the night before He was arrested, tried, and executed. He was showing how we should be willing to live our lives. It's not just about grand gestures like His death and resurrection, but in the small things that we can do to make the world better. I'm reminded of the quote by P.J. O'Rourke: "Everybody wants to save the Earth; nobody wants to help Mom do the dishes."
A few items in the news and that have popped up on social media seem like they deserve mention, but little more than that.
How is it that Trump followers don't see his move to sell Bibles for a campaign (i.e. legal fees) fundraiser as massively offensive? The symbolism that he is using people's religion to exploit them cannot be any clearer. Honestly, he's like a farcical portrayal of the classic con-man, but in real life. Why do people so quickly jump onto conspiracy theory bandwagons at any tragedy? The destruction of the Francis Scott Key Bridge has quickly become of the focus of extremist reactionaries. The most damaging ones are those attacks that have come from members of Congress who have immediately tried to use this in their political posturing to attack immigrants and even diversity in the workplace (and in doing so, embracing racism). Why are prostitutes persecuted (and prosecuted) more than the people who pay them? Isn't the greater moral failing on those who are seeking out and paying for sex than those who are exploited in this manner? Similarly, why is it acceptable to call women in power whores (or similar names) in posts such as a Hostess "Ho-Ho" meme regarding Vice President Harris that more than one "christian" I know shared today? I've noticed that people who stick to the truth are having more difficulty getting out positive messages. So much misinformation is clogging people's sources of information, especially as people keep sharing it due to their gullibility and ignorance. The good news is that plenty of people are still posting funny pet videos. The Break Up this year has been a bit scattered. We seemed to have an early burst in the first week of February which made it so much of the snow built on the roads was able to be scraped off. We then got more snow and a hard freeze. Now, after just a couple of days of rain, I can already parts of my actual driveway. Meanwhile, the roads in town and a good portion of the parking lots are primarily clear of snow and ice already.
While winter is my favorite season, I like them all to some degree. For me, the change itself can be invigorating as it gives me something novel to appreciate in the present and something to look forward to for the future. I'm not a huge fan of cold rain, but I do appreciate how it accelerates this change. Sure, there are still great mounds of snow everywhere, and the "lake" that annually forms in the south parking lot of the high school is quite impressive. Still, it seems like winter clearly got its notice with the equinox last week and is making a hasty departure. I'm certain that we will still get some snow here and there--perhaps even some accumulations--but I'm almost tempted to get out my shorts ... almost. We recently finished watching the third season of The Crown. By far, it is an impressive production with amazing sets and period costumes, and absolutely wonderful performances by it cast--who apparently change every two seasons to keep the actors closer in age to the royal family in the time period being examined. Each episode does a great job in encapsulating its own story while each season manages to tie together the multiple stories into a larger theme. In doing so, the creators often have to take dramatic license with the past; sometimes changing the very character of some of the historical people for the sake of the larger story.
There are a few times when this is done with a heavy hand: the portrayals of JFK and Johnson are particularly brutal. In fact, to hammer the point home regarding the oafishness of Johnson, they had a scene where he's insulting the queen's invitation while he's actively peeing in a public restroom. In a different scene, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins (the Apollo 11 astronauts) are shown as being relatively devoid of imagination and a little uncouth during Prince Phillip's interview with them. While these portrayals lacked historical accuracy, they served well in building the overarching ideas of the episodes that they were in. The one that I had the most difficulty with was Edward VIII who received a prominent place in a number of episodes, particularly in season three. He was the former king who abdicated so he could marry a divorced woman, and thus put his brother, George VI, and consequently Elizabeth II on the throne. Time and again, they refer to how brilliant, how individualistic, and how wronged he was. Conveniently for the story, they almost entirely ignore the fact that he was a Nazi sympathizer who had even gone out on a vacation with Hitler. In recent years, more details about his possible espionage for Germany have been coming to light, having previously been kept under close guard by the royal family. Although it is better for the theme of the third season, especially in humanizing the young Charles, it also compelled me to yell at the TV a few times. Oh well, I suppose that history itself is an imperfect lens for the Truth behind the events of the past. Today begins Holy Week, the seven days that lead up to Easter. It's a week full of events and reflections. Holy Thursday reflects on the Last Supper. Good Friday, like today, examines the betrayal, trial, and crucifixion of Jesus. The Easter Vigil mass on Saturday sees the first instances that the disciples discover Jesus' resurrection, while Easter Sunday itself celebrates the return of Jesus to His disciples. There are parts of these services, which only take place once a year, that are deeply moving--yet so many people never witness them (much like the events on which they are based).
Today started with a Gospel reading that describes Jesus' triumphant entry into Jerusalem. He is welcomed in by throngs of cheering people who lay down cloaks and palm branches on His path. Commonly, people talk about the fickleness of crowds as Jesus is later condemned by a crowd who shouts for His crucifixion. However, I believe that this is a false conflation of the two different groups of people. The multitudes who welcomed Jesus were those who looked forward to His arrival and genuinely believed in His message. Those who later called for His death were largely not in attendance. If they were, they were quiet about it; after all, the Sanhedrin were only willing to meet at night out of fear of what the crowd that was loyal to Jesus might do. The crowd outside of Pilate's palace is a different group. They might have assumed that they spoke for everyone because all of their friends were probably thinking the same way, but this was the group who violently opposed the change that Jesus brought with Him. Here, too, were those who followed Jesus, but the roles were reversed from Jesus' arrival. They dared not say anything outright due to the threat of violence that was held over them. Even so, the women along the way, rather than jeering at the condemned prisoner, wailed and wept at His passing. History is replete with examples of the violent few pushing forward their agenda (often believing that they are right in doing so) to the detriment of their own cause, often with the blood of many on their hands. Those who condemned Jesus did so feeling that His death was the only way to stop the change that He brought forth. In doing so, they actually brought about the destruction of the very thing that they were trying to violently protect. I'm well past the fifteen minute rule, and I would like to go to bed since I stayed up too late yesterday. I've really been trying to focus on a single topic so that I didn't have to resort to this again, but part of the issue is that there are a number of things that I am not at liberty to talk about even though they are weighing heavily on my mind. In fact, many of my other topics need to be avoided because of the possible crossover. Thus, this is what I thought about writing about:
REDACTED. REDACTED. REDACTED. Possible places to travel after next year's Japan trip. Preparations for REDACTED. What life as a royal would be like (We've been watching the third season of The Crown). REDACTED. How much longer The Order of the Stick (an online comic book about Dungeons and Dragons) has left. How busy this coming Holy Week will be (starting tomorrow). REDACTED. Whether I should see the new Ghostbusters movie in the theater. How amazing Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth has been. It won't appeal to everyone, but the game was almost tailor made for me. REDACTED. A post entirely focused on the frustrations about not being able to write about certain things--wait, I may have just done precisely that. A couple of those redacted ones I would never write about, but I put them in to pad the list a bit. I like oatmeal raisin cookies better than chocolate chip cookies even if I prefer the chocolate over the raisins. It's something about the cookie itself that appeals to me more. I have to wonder if its the oats. I say that because one of my all-time favorite cookies are the no-bake chocolate oatmeal cookies. I particularly like the monster-sized ones that I get on the rare occasions that I go to Odie's in town. I also have a real weak spot for the oatmeal creme pies made by Little Debbie. In comparison, the actual cookie part of chocolate chip cookies just seems bland.
Considering that raisins are worse for my blood sugar than chocolate chips, I would almost like it if they made the oatmeal raisin dough, but added chocolate chips instead of raisins. As I write this, I have a memory of eating--and enjoying--cookies like that. I do seem to remember there being an issue with the chocolate being particularly melty. Still, it seems to be a fond memory that I wouldn't mind reinforcing in the present. I am running for a position on my local union's executive board position. We were asked to write a short biography (125 words or less) that will go out on a "voter guide" before the elections and will be attached to the voting ballot itself. I figured that I would share with everyone what I sent:
125 words about me? I like piña coladas (if non-alcoholic) and getting caught in the rain (with an umbrella). I have a doctorate in education and have taught in public schools for almost 26 years. For nine of those years, I also taught college classes year round. I have been a union member that entire time. I am strongly opinionated, but I am willing to listen to any sane idea. I find humor in nearly every situation, but I can be counted on when situations get difficult. I speak with less of a filter than people might want, but I believe that issues can only be dealt with if people know about them–just as Rupert Holmes suggests in his song “Escape” (The Piña Colada Song). I loathe dealing with plumbing issues. When Janelle called me as I was driving to work, I knew that something had to be wrong, but hearing that we had a leak in one of the pipes somewhere in the laundry room immediately put me into a bad mood. My first issue was that I was going to need to get a substitute (despite the lack of substitutes) and write up sub plans before I could even get back home to see what the problem was. Janelle had not been able to find the leak, but there was water on the floor, and she could feel water lightly spraying her when she went into the room. Thankfully, our fantastic building secretary was able to use one of the admin's substitutes to help out.
I got home at about 8:45 and found that there was still a lot of water on the floor despite Janelle turning off the hot and cold water valves for the pipes that lead to the rest of the house. By sensing where the spray would hit my outstretched hand, I was able to pinpoint the pinhole break in one of my pipes coming off the main water line--where there's no shutoff valve. I turned off the water pump, closed the valves that led to the boiler and the water heater, and drained the line--bring the spray down to a drip. The hole was in a difficult spot as it was near a junction of a 1/2 inch and 3/4 inch pipes. It was also in a physically awkward area as it was too close to the boiler and behind a scalding hot water pipe connect to the boiler. Difficult, cramped, and hot are adjectives that often seem to find their way into my plumbing jobs. I visualized what I wanted to do, took pictures of the pipes and fixtures that I planned to replace, and made a list of what I had and what I still needed to get. As long as I had to replace that junction, I decided to put in a shut off valve below it and to replace the entire pipe up to the last section that I had already replaced. I then drove to Home Depot in Kenai as I knew that they had the parts that I needed, got the parts, and returned home an hour later. I woke up Trevor a bit earlier than he prefers (as he works second shift) so that I could have another set of hands and to give him some experience. Honestly, my original vision was a good one. Unfortunately, I screwed up one of the measurements and ended up getting a small piece of PVC stuck in one of Home Depot's version of "Shark Bites." Trevor and I worked at trying to free it for over half an hour at which point I decided to just get a new one so that we could work on the problem after we restored water to the house. As Trevor wanted to have access to water before he went to work, I opted to go to the local Trustworthy's store as it was closer. They didn't have the precise piece that I wanted, but they had one that should have worked. Unfortunately, I installed it backwards as well as had another measurement issue. Apparently, the volume and vehemence with which I shouted out my diatribe of profanity scared Trevor. I returned to Home Depot to get the correct part as well as another junction (since the last one was still stuck to the part I purchased from Trustworthy's) and another tool for removing Shark Bites (or their equivalents). By the time I returned home, Trevor was already gone and working his shift. This third time was the charm. I was able to get everything where it needed to be (although a couple of parts I purchased are still stuck to pieces of pipe). It looks almost exactly how I had pictured it in my mental planning. By the time I was done and had cleaned up, I barely had time to eat, use the restroom (now that the water was running again), and pick up Rowen from his after school eSports team. I would have deeply preferred to have spent that time teaching. The majority of the sun's rays crossed north over the equator a little over an hour ago even though this side of the world was facing away from the event. Thus, light has slowly made its way into our lives. Even with darkness surrounding us at the moment, more light than darkness is now a part of our days. There's certainly a metaphor there.
I had moments in my classes today where I could sense that some of the minds in my room were awakening. I had at least one moment in each of my literature classes when I could feel almost every students' attention on me. It was an unexpected minute or so as I was going over this week's vocabulary words. For some reason, all three of my tenth grade English classes seemed to focus on me as I went over the roots of the word apathy and then spoke of my largest frustration in my nearly 26 years of teaching: student apathy--the absence of emotion (or care) about their own learning. Three times today, for just a bit, I felt like I had everyone's attention (rare enough in 26 years), especially when I said something like, "If you care about it, you can learn it. More than anything, I want you to learn how to care." It felt like light was gaining strength today. The basic duty of any government is to ensure that services under its jurisdiction are maintained and improved upon. The most necessary service in a democracy is the education of its citizens--all of its citizens. Thus, any governmental officials who do not act to adequately maintain (let alone improve upon) the educational system for which they are responsible are not only derelict in their responsibilities, but are actively working to dismantle our democracy.
I recently had hope that our Alaska legislators were finally going to do their jobs on this matter when they managed to pass an increase to the base student allowance (BSA) after nearly a decade of neglect. Sure, the amount that they had passed was well short of the funds needed, but it was a step in the right direction that 56 of the 60 legislators voted for. Last week, our anti-education governor vetoed the bill. He claimed that the reason he did so was that it didn't contain some of his pet projects, but the truth is that he has not yet signed a permanent increase to the BSA since he was narrowly elected to take office. Overriding a veto for this sort of bill requires a two-thirds majority--40 votes in favor of the override. Despite 56 legislators initially voting for the bill, only 39 voted to override the veto--our students lost by one vote. One member was absent. Twenty voted against our students, our schools, and our democracy. Two of the governor's sycophants who turned their votes were from our Kenai Peninsula: Sarah Vance from Homer and Ben Carpenter from Nikiski--who is "my" representative. The worst offender is, of course, Governor Dunleavy. He has continually demonstrated that he is a small-minded despot who cares only for the special interest groups that fund him. He is a debilitating parasite on our state and our nation. I try not to write when I'm angry, so I'm going to stop now before I say what I truly think of these treacherous reprobates. |
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