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Happy Easter! ✝️

What Our Lord Saw from the Cross, by James Tissot*

 

Now the first day of the week Mary Magdalene went to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. Then she ran and came to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple, whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him.”

—John 20:1-2

 

Growing up, I was always taught that Easter was the most important celebration in all of Christianity. The Resurrection of Jesus and His Crucifixion are the central historical events in the Christian faith. Without the Resurrection there would be no Christianity. “If Christ has not been raised,” wrote St. Paul, “then our preaching is in vain, and your faith is in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:14). The foundation of all Christian doctrine hinges on the truth of the Resurrection. Jesus said, “I am the Resurrection, and the Life: he that believe in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever live and believe in Me shall never die.” (John 11:25-26) Without the Resurrection, Jesus could have been thought of as simply a great teacher and a good man. But after he rose from the dead, his followers knew for certain that he was who he had claimed to be—the Resurrection and the Life, the Savior of the world.

 

When I think of the arrest, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus, I always think of how terrified his disciples must have been. Rome was the greatest authority in the known world for them, and Jesus had been arrested by the Temple guards of the Sanhedrin, the representatives of Imperial Rome’s authority in Judaea. They had to be asking themselves: would we be next? would we also be tried and crucified? what would become of us? how could we go on without our leader and Savior? They had seen their Lord and Savior die in the most brutal form of execution in the Roman Empire. The crucifixion had been a frightening experience according to Luke 23:44-45, which says, “Now it was about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour. Then the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was torn in two. Following the world around them literally turning to darkness as their Savior died, Luke 23:46 tells us that, “And when Jesus had cried out with a loud voice, He said, “Father, ‘into Your hands I commit My spirit.’” Having said this, He breathed His last.” Their Savior had died. I would have felt like my life was over. 

 

Even though Jesus had told them he would be resurrected, the disciples did not understand. In John 2:19, Jesus “said to them, ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.’” The disciples thought he was speaking literally of the Temple. However, John 2:21 tells us, “But He was speaking of the temple of His body.” Even if they believed that Jesus would rise from the dead, they thought he was speaking of living in eternity in Heaven with his Father or of a literal rebuilding of the Temple. It was not until they saw him in the flesh that they believed in a literal resurrection. So, the fear of his death was real. They were in a heightened state of fear during this time. Their fear is evident in the discovery that Jesus’s body was missing from the tomb. Matthew 28:1-7 describes the scene:

Now after the Sabbath, as the first day of the week began to dawn, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb. And behold, there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord descended from Heaven and came and rolled back the stone from the door and sat on it.  His countenance was like lightning, and his clothing as white as snow. And the guards shook for fear of him and became like dead men. But the angel answered and said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. And go quickly and tell His disciples that He is risen from the dead, and indeed He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him. Behold, I have told you.”

Even after Mary Magdalene told the others that she had seen the risen Lord and that he had spoken to her, they were still afraid: John 20:19-20 tells us about this continued fear:

Then, the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst, and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.

The sight of the risen Jesus must have been a wondrous sight for the disciples. Not all would believe it was Him. Matthew 28:17 says, “When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some doubted.” The Apostle Thomas (Doubting Thomas) refused to believe that the resurrected Jesus had appeared to the ten other apostles. When Jesus appeared to him as related in John 20:24–29, he still did not believe until he could see and feel the wounds received by Jesus on the cross.

 

The joy that the disciples must have felt when they realized that Jesus had risen from the dead must have been ecstatic. Jesus then gave them the Great Commission. Matthew 28:18-20 says:

And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in Heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

This Easter and every day, we should remember what Jesus commands of us. We should not forget the love and sacrifice that Jesus brought to this world as our Savior. Jesus is with us always, and as corny as it may be these days, all our actions should be influenced by asking ourselves, “What would Jesus do?” Jesus showed partiality to the downtrodden, the oppressed, and those who society casts aside. We should not hide in fear but live proudly in a Christ-like manner. Jesus taught that all are accepted and loved by God, not just those who follow the narrow-minded beliefs of fundamentalist Christians. Too many “Christians” have lost what it means to be followers of Christ. Jesus died and suffered for us to love and accept our fellow humans and to live by His example. If we hate, show prejudice, or reject those who do not believe as we think they should believe, we are not following the example given to us by Jesus. Even worse is when “Christians” misrepresent Jesus and teach prejudices that He would have abhorred. Anyone who espouses hate or judgement for the downtrodden, the oppressed, and those who society casts aside is not a Christian but is in fact an anti-Christian. Only Christians who proclaim unconditional love are following in the footsteps of Christ.

 

HAPPY EASTER, EVERYONE!

MAY THE LOVE OF CHRIST BE IN YOU.

__________________

* The French artist James Tissot’s What Our Lord Saw from the Cross is unusual for its portrayal of the Crucifixion of Jesus from the perspective of Jesus on the cross, rather than featuring Christ at the center of the work. The scene shows witnesses, including Jesus' followers (the women and the disciple whom Jesus loved), participants, and bystanders; of Jesus' own body only the feet can be seen at the bottom of the painting. What Our Lord Saw from the Cross shows the fear and anguish his followers felt during and after the Crucifixion. The distress shown in their faces did not lessen until Jesus presented Himself to them after the Resurrection. 

The painting is part of the series The Life of Jesus Christ, a series of 350 watercolors of events from the Gospels completed by Tissot. He prepared for these by extensive travels in the Middle East to study details of contemporary life, which he used in the paintings. Prints were also published of the compositions. The whole watercolor series, completed between 1886 and 1894, was acquired in 1900 by the Brooklyn Museum in New York.

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Moment of Zen: Tanlines

Pic of the Day

When I was growing up, my dad always had Good Friday as a holiday. It was the day he traditionally planted his garden. He always said that was the tradition that planting season started on Good Friday. I don’t know if anyone else has that tradition, and my father doesn’t keep that tradition anymore.

Shopping

I need to go grocery shopping today. I’m working from home today and have nothing on my schedule, so I could run out anytime and do my shopping. I’ve put it off for a few days. After my Botox on Wednesday, I just wanted to get back home. Yesterday, I had a migraine, so I didn’t go then either. Today, I have to go. I’m not excited about having to leave my apartment today, but maybe once I get out, it won’t be too bad.

I use an app called AnyList to make my grocery list. the app allows you to create grocery shopping lists and collect and organize your recipes. I use it all the time to add recipes I think I might want to cook. Then when I want to make that recipe, I pull it up, add the ingredients and how much I’ll need to my grocery list. 

So, my list is made out, and I’m ready to go buy groceries, but I’m not excited about it. Normally, I enjoy shopping, but I’m just not today. Oh well, we do what we have to do.

I hope everyone has a great weekend ahead! Maybe you even have Good Friday as a holiday today, in that case, enjoy an early start to your weekend!

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Slept In

I went to bed at 11 pm last night after I finished a book I was reading (A.J. Truman’s Out of Bounds, the 7th and last of his Browerton University Series). Isabella woke me a little after 4 am, and since I knew she would not give up until I fed her, I got up, fed her, and went back to bed. Since I’m working from home today and tomorrow, I was able to sleep until 5:30. As I write this, I haven’t fully woken up, but I’ll get there before I need to set up my laptop and start work by 7:30 am. 

I’m a bit sore from the Botox injections yesterday, but everything went fine. I’m hoping it continues to help.

A Thursday Isabella Picture

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Botox

Every three months, I get Botox for my migraines. My latest appointment is today. I never look forward to getting the injections, but I do look forward for the results. Typically, Botox is injected into muscles of the forehead, scalp, neck and shoulders. It’s not that pleasant of a procedure, but it usually takes about five minutes.

Exactly why Botox works is not known, but it’s believed that the injected Botox is absorbed by pain receptors in the muscles' nerves. The medication then deactivates those pain receptors and blocks pain signals that the nerves send to the brain, that’s why the procedure is officially known as denervation. Those nerves in the head that cause migraine pain are basically turned off for a period of time.

Migraine pain does not go away permanently, however. After several months, the nerves sprout new pain fibers, and the headaches tend to return. The Botox effect usually lasts about 2½ months, which is why I’ve had an increase in migraines for the past two or so weeks. Some migraine specialists will give the Botox injection every 2-2½ months, but my neurologist does not do this because eventually, the bodies immune system adapts to the Botox and makes the procedure ineffective. By keeping it to 3 months, they are prolonging the long term effectiveness of the Botox.

The injections are mostly not that painful, just a quick prick, except for those in the back of the head, those hurt a lot because they are given closest to the occipital nerve. However, the injections become more painful over time. As the nerves sprout new pain fibers, they become more sensitive each time they come back. This makes the procedure more painful each time it’s performed. No matter how much it hurts for the five minutes of the procedure, it’s worth it for the lessening of the migraine pain for most of the 3 months until the next set of injections.

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Steps

Steps

By Frank O'Hara

 

How funny you are today New York

like Ginger Rogers in Swingtime

and St. Bridget's steeple leaning a little to the left

here I have just jumped out of a bed full of V-days

(I got tired of D-days) and blue you there still

accepts me foolish and free

all I want is a room up there

and you in it

and even the traffic halt so thick is a way

for people to rub up against each other

and when their surgical appliances lock

they stay together

for the rest of the day (what a day)

I go by to check a slide and I say

that painting's not so blue

 

where's Lana Turner

she's out eating

and Garbo's backstage at the Met

everyone's taking their coat off

so they can show a rib-cage to the rib-watchers

and the park's full of dancers and their tights and shoes

in little bags

who are often mistaken for worker-outers at the West Side Y

why not

the Pittsburgh Pirates shout because they won

and in a sense we're all winning

we're alive

 

the apartment was vacated by a gay couple

who moved to the country for fun

they moved a day too soon

even the stabbings are helping the population explosion

though in the wrong country

and all those liars have left the U N

the Seagram Building's no longer rivalled in interest

not that we need liquor (we just like it)

 

and the little box is out on the sidewalk

next to the delicatessen

so the old man can sit on it and drink beer

and get knocked off it by his wife later in the day

while the sun is still shining

 

oh god it's wonderful

to get out of bed

and drink too much coffee

and smoke too many cigarettes

and love you so much

 

1961

About this Poem

 

“Steps” is from Lunch Poems, a book of poetry by Frank O'Hara published in 1964 by Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s City Lights, number 19 in their Pocket Poets series. The collection was commissioned by Ferlinghetti as early as 1959, but O'Hara delayed in completing it. Ferlinghetti would badger O'Hara with questions like, "How about lunch? I'm hungry." "Cooking," O'Hara would reply. O'Hara enlisted the help of Donald Allen who had published O'Hara's poems in New American Poetry in 1960. Allen says in his introduction to The Collected Poems of Frank O’Hara, “Between 1960 and 1964 O’Hara and I worked intermittently at compiling Lunch Poems, which in the end became a selection of work dating from 1953 to 1964.”

 

The poems in this collection contain O'Hara's characteristically breezy tone, containing spontaneous reactions to things happening in the moment. Like “Steps,” any of them appear to have been written on O'Hara's lunch hour. The poems contain numerous references to pop culture and literary figures, New York locations, and O'Hara's friends. One common theme is a desire for personal connection, whether the one-on-one connection of two friends or two lovers or a broader connection to strangers, in the face of tragedy, for example.

 

O'Hara's "Steps" is an ode to New York City in the 1950s. It captures the city's energy, diversity, and humor in a series of vivid vignettes. The poem walks the reader through various scenes in New York City and alludes to a wide variety of places and people. The poet begins by describing waking up and getting out of bed. This is followed by references to Lana Turner, Greta Garbo, and the Seagram Building. 

 

O’Hara makes jumps between images that are sometimes hard to understand but that work to help readers interpret the ever-moving chaos of New York City that the poet cared so deeply for.  The poem moves quickly from one image to the next, creating a sense of urgency and excitement. O'Hara uses everyday language and pop culture references to make the city feel both familiar and surreal. It also reflects the social changes of the time, as well as the city's role as a hub of creativity and culture. 

 

Compared to O'Hara's other works, "Steps" is more optimistic and straightforward. It lacks the irony and darkness of some of his other poems and instead celebrates the simple joys of life in New York City. The poem's brevity and lack of punctuation contribute to its sense of immediacy and spontaneity. The reader is pulled along by O'Hara's enthusiasm, sharing in his experience of the city. "Steps" is a love letter to New York City, capturing its energy and beauty in a way that is both personal and universal. 

 

 

About the Poet

 

Francis Russell "Frank" O'Hara (March 27, 1926 – July 25, 1966) was an American writer, poet, and art critic. A curator at the Museum of Modern Art, O'Hara became prominent in New York City's art world. O'Hara is regarded as a leading figure in the New York School, an informal group of artists, writers, and musicians who drew inspiration from jazz, surrealism, abstract expressionism, action painting, and contemporary avant-garde art movements.

 

O'Hara's poetry is personal in tone and content and has been described as sounding "like entries in a diary." Poet and critic Mark Doty has said O'Hara's poetry is "urbane, ironic, sometimes genuinely celebratory and often wildly funny" containing "material and associations alien to academic verse" such as "the camp icons of movie stars of the twenties and thirties, the daily landscape of social activity in Manhattan, jazz music, telephone calls from friends." O'Hara's writing sought to capture in his poetry the immediacy of life, feeling that poetry should be "between two persons instead of two pages."

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Stayed In

I stayed inside all weekend, just me and Isabella. From Friday night through all day Saturday, we got about 15 inches or so of snow. I wasn’t going to go anywhere. The weather can sometimes be strange in Vermont. We haven’t had a lot of snow this winter, but now that it’s officially spring, we got our only major snowstorm of the year. Then, it was sunny, without a cloud in the sky yesterday. Today, it’s 10 degrees outside as I write this, however, by midafternoon today, we are expected to reach temperatures in the low 40s. With this type of weather, it’s no wonder that I’ve had sinus issues all weekend and still this morning. My nose feels like it’s on fire and my sinus cavities feel like they could explode at any minute. Hopefully, it will get better as the day goes on.

Anyway, I hope everyone has a great week!

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The Donkey

Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, lowly and riding on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey.

—Zechariah 9:9

The first recorded Palm Sunday dates back to the 4th century in Jerusalem. The ceremony wasn't introduced to Western Christianity until about the 9th century. According to the gospels, Jesus rode a donkey into Jerusalem and people welcomed him as their king thinking he'd release them from Roman oppression. Days later, he was crucified. When I think of Palm Sunday, I think of Jesus riding on a donkey and entering Jerusalem. While Jesus is the central character of the Palm Sunday story, the image of the young donkey that carried Jesus into the city makes me think about what the donkey symbolizes in our faith.

Palm Sunday commemorates the story of Jesus’s triumphal entry on the back of a young donkey into Jerusalem shortly before the Jewish holiday of Passover. According to the Gospels, people lined the streets to greet him, waving palm branches and shouting words of praise. Conquering kings typically rode in chariots or on the back of stallions, but Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey going against what people would expect from a king. The people of Judea would have been familiar with another king who rode on a donkey to prove his humility before God. When King David was very old, he wanted to establish his favored son Solomon as his successor. So he arranged for Solomon to ride on David's own mule, in the company of Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet. 1 Kings 1:38-39 says, "So Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, the Cherethites, and the Pelethites went down and had Solomon ride on King David’s mule, and took him to Gihon. tabernacle and anointed Solomon. And they blew the horn, and all the people said, ‘Long live King Solomon!’”

While in modern American culture, donkeys are often considered to be a stupid animal and are commonly the pun of many jokes. When people are made fun of, they are sometimes compared to a donkey as an insult. For the Jewish and Christian faiths, the donkey is a symbol of humility and peace, but it also represented the fulfillment of a prophecy from Zechariah 9:9. In Judaism, this passage from Zechariah is taken to refer to the Messiah, a spiritual king who would peacefully redeem Israel. The donkey expresses the idea of peace and ordinariness, as well as God's omnipotence who, if he wants to, makes something great of the most ordinary thing. In Christianity, the donkey becomes a symbol of Christ himself, given how the animal patiently suffers and bears others’ burdens. Horses, on the other hand, tend to be associated with royalty, power, and war.

The donkey in the stories about Jesus’s triumphal return to Jerusalem was tied up and had to be untied by the disciples. Why does Luke and Mark emphasize the word “untie” several times? There is a lesson we can learn from this. We are often tied, aren’t we? We are tied down by many things — by guilt, anxiety and concern. Some of us are tied down with the need to forgive, but we cannot bring ourselves to do it. Others are tied down to obsessions or addictions. We may be tied down to our smartphones and tablets, unable to put those devices down. We need to let go and let God untie us from our fears and give us boldness to show love, peace, faith, or joy. We need to be untied from whatever weighs us down. Palm Sunday is not just a celebration of Christ as the King of Kings, but a celebration of Jesus as our liberator from dependencies and afflictions — a celebration of the role Jesus plays in our lives. We need to be free to experience Jesus in our lives. We are meant to ride with Jesus: to follow him on his journey into the very presence of God.

We cannot fully commit to God when we are tied. We must be released by Jesus like the disciples who untied the donkey. We must surrender our burdens and our weights to God, much like the owner who surrendered his donkey to the two disciples. By relinquishing our own burdens, we can help others in their time of need and worship God freely by living a life exemplified by Christ.

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Moment of Zen: March Madness (Basketball)

I want to wish a very happy birthday to my friend Susan! 🎂

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Ugh! Friday

Usually, I look forward to Fridays. My regular work schedule has me working from home on Fridays, but not today. A mandatory meeting was scheduled for today to take care of an issue that should have been taken care of over a year ago, but my superiors have fiddle farted around and done nothing. If they were actually strong enough to be in the positions they are in, this would have been nipped in the bud the first time it happened, but that time, they fucked things up so bad, the problem just continued in a slightly different form. 

So, instead of addressing the problem head on by saying to the problem individual, “You can either be a professional at work, or maybe this is not the right place for you,” they are calling everyone together to discuss how we can “reduce workplace tension and stress.” I shouldn’t be so pissed off by the agenda, because none of it pertains to me. I already do everything that is on the agenda. 

The only “solution” that is being imposed is one that will cause more “tension and stress” not reduce it. Part of the reason this will cause more stress is we are currently understaffed because of another idiotic decision. We just don’t have the staff to make this solution work. The real solutions that need to be made should have been enforced since it was first identified as an issue. However, my supervisors can’t even regularly follow this rule (I’m the only one who does), which is simply to be at work on time and work the 8-hour day we are supposed to work. My supervisors have been so lax about this issue that everyone but me push the limits because they’ve been able to come in late and leave early, with the additional problem of not letting anyone know they will be late or leaving early. 

There are only one definitive solutions that will fix the issues: fucking communicate. With texting and email, it’s very simple to communicate, even if you’re too passive aggressive to communicate face-to-face. I think there is only one solution to take care of the “tension and stress” at my workplace is to get rid of the person who is the root cause of the problem, which is not currently a workable solution because it would leave me as the only full time employee at the museum. 

Quite frankly, I’m tired of being the only person trying to keep the peace because my supervisors can’t do their jobs effectively.

But hopefully, by mid morning today, this meeting will be over and I will be busy with other duties until my weekend will officially begin. Then, I can enjoy a cozy weekend at home with Isabella. With 14+ inches of snow expected tomorrow, I won’t be leaving my apartment this weekend.

Thanks for reading my rant. 

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Pick of the Day

Disgustingly Shameful

Yesterday, the governor of Alabama made ignorance a requirement at public universities in her state. Gov. Kay Ivey signed SB129, known as the “divisive concepts” bill, into law Wednesday. The law will become effective Oct. 1, 2024. The law lists eight so-called “divisive concepts,” with most covering topics related to race, ethnicity, sex, religion and national origin. 

 

A dumbass Republican state senator from Pike Road, Alabama, Will Barfoot, introduced the bill. (By the way, Pike Road is not even a real town. It fought to be declared a city because a bunch of rich racist white people didn’t want to be part of the city of Montgomery, so the took Montgomery to court to keep from being part of a city that was as diverse as Montgomery.) Barfoot stated nothing in the legislation prevents the accurate teaching of history. Educators who knowingly “compel” students to believe certain banned ideas, however, could be terminated or disciplined at the discretion of college and school board leaders.

 

In other words, any professor could be fired for teaching diversity, education, and inclusion, or DEI. That being the case, no public institution in Alabama should be allowed to call themselves a university. The word university (from the Latin universitas meaning 'a whole') is derived from the Latin phrase universitas magistrorum et scholarium, which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars.” How can any institution have a  "community of teachers and scholars” without teaching diversity? It’s insane, ignorant, and, above all, hateful. 

 

I hope my undergraduate institution, which is in Montgomery, will find a way to fight or ignore the new law. It was always a liberal institution, and a core aspect of my history degree was studying the Civil Rights Movement which began in Montgomery. It’s a sad and depressing day when a university is no longer allowed to teach the “whole” of the knowledge available. Censorship like that found in SB129 is one step closer to a dictatorship. 

 

I am ashamed of my home state. Vermont isn’t perfect either, but at least it is welcoming to all kinds of people.

 

And now, to bring a little levity to this discussion, I wanted to show you that at least Isabella is not scared of a little knowledge.

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Urge to Escape

Do you ever wish you could just crawl back in bed and tell the world to fuck off and leave you alone? I kind of feel that way this morning, and I’ve been feeling it more recently. Mostly, this is just because of various aggravations that just make me want to scream. I have a bad habit of not taking action until it reaches a boiling point. I either hope it will get better if I’m just patient, or I try to ignore the issue. However, every so often, all these aggravations get too much all at once. I think that’s what’s going on right now. I just can’t decide if I want to crawl back into bed and ignore the world around me or if I just need to run away and have a vacation. I have only taken one “me vacation” since before the pandemic. I’d really love to go up to Montreal for a few days, but finances aren’t going to allow for that or any other vacation. Regardless, whatever it is I need, I want an escape, but none of that is going to happen because the world doesn’t stop just because I want to escape for a little while.

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Spring

Spring

By William Blake

 

Sound the flute!
Now it’s mute!
Birds delight,
Day and night,
Nightingale,
In the dale,
Lark in sky,—
Merrily,
Merrily, merrily to welcome in the year.

 

Little boy,
Full of joy;
Little girl,
Sweet and small;
Cock does crow,
So do you;
Merry voice,
Infant noise;
Merrily, merrily to welcome in the year.

 

Little lamb,
Here I am;
Come and lick
My white neck;
Let me pull
Your soft wool;
Let me kiss
Your soft face;
Merrily, merrily we welcome in the year.

 

 

About the Poem

 

In the poem, “Spring,” the poet introduces a vivid picture of spring’s beauty clamped with springtime activities. The speaker happens to be a little child. The sound of flute welcomes the spring season and so does the other merry sounds after the long silence of winter. The child bids to play the flute and Nature seem to embrace the child’s request. The Nightingale and Skylark welcomes the spring followed by other birds and crow.

 

Blake spoke of the Skylark, the Nightingale, the little boy, the little girl, the lamb and the crow. The first five characters in the poem perfectly portray the theme of innocence, but this is not so with the crow. We don’t usually consider a crow to be an angel of innocence.  The second stanza is actually an illustration of the happiness. Both the little boy and the little girl are happy. All are happy and merrily welcomes the season of spring. The third stanza stands as a unified joyful welcome. By introducing the character of the lamb and creating a bond with the child, the poet actually wishes to welcome the Spring universally.

 

Blake’s last lines again to understand the implied meaning. Notice the last line, “Merrily, merrily, we welcome in the year.” He replaces the word “to” with “we” in the third iteration of the line above. Blake does it in the best way, uniting the little boy with the lamb, for a purpose. Mark, he has devoted 8 lines out of 27 to create the bond between the lamb and the little boy. Is it only to welcome the Spring (or the New Year) together or something deeper?

 

Spring’ may be thought as a rendering for the children. The expressions are akin to lullabies yet the poem possesses inner significance. The very anonymous opening lines “Sound the flute…” signifies the breaking of the dark silence of the night and marks the onset of the Spring after the deep Winter slumber.

 

The poet dedicates the entire third paragraph to the lamb, considered as the highest symbolization of Innocence. The child (the narrator of the poem) says, “Let me kiss your soft face;” makes the reader think of the inner implications of the lines. William Blake closely attenuates his thought of innocence with age! To Blake, everything is young and playful. He seems to be parallel with Mark Twain’s idea of aging – “Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.”

 

 

About the Poet

 

William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognized during his life, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual art of the Romantic Age. What he called his "prophetic works" were said by 20th-century critic Northrop Frye to form "what is in proportion to its merits the least read body of poetry in the English language.” While he lived in London his entire life, except for three years spent in Felpham, he produced a diverse and symbolically rich collection of works, which embraced the imagination as "the body of God,” or "human existence itself.”

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Aggravated

I enjoy my work from home days. It means I can actually make myself something for lunch and do some housework, like laundry, while also monitoring emails and getting some other work done. Not to mention, it’s one less day I have to drive into work and that saves a little gas money. Normally, I work from home on Fridays, but this week, I was supposed to work from home today. I have work responsibilities Tuesday through Friday that require me to be in person. 

However, it’s not going to work this week. I had a coworker who took a trip and was supposed to come back yesterday and be in person at work today so I could have a work from home day this week. When I rescheduled my work from home day to Monday, I had said that I doubted I’d get to take it because with this coworker, there seems to always be an excuse for why they can’t work on a day after returning from a trip, but I gave them the benefit of the doubt this time. By the way, this coworker had a commitment that they were supposed to be in person for, which I why I gave them the benefit of the doubt.

Maybe it’s not just an excuse this time. Maybe my coworker’s plane really was delayed and the airline couldn’t rebook a flight until today. Maybe those things are true, but I looked to see what flights were delayed, and the only ones that were would not have been flights my coworker would have been taking. Maybe I’m mistaken, but this delayed flight fits in with this coworker’s pattern of behavior. Regardless, I’m aggravated that I have to be the one to lose my work from home day this week, and I’m sure my coworker will still take their work from home day this week because they never, no matter the reason, miss their work from home day. I’m hoping to have two work from home days next week, at least that’s what my boss has promised me. We’ll see. 🤞

Pic of the Day

Whispers

The hypocrite with his mouth destroys his neighbor, but through knowledge the righteous will be delivered.

—Proverbs 11:9 

 

I grew up in a very small county church. We only had about a dozen members, though it grew to about two dozen by the time I went to college. I remember that before church started, everyone talked about what had happened during the last week. Sometimes, this was just neighborly news and was good natured, but then there were times when it was just a group of people gossiping about others. Gossip is not something we should spread, though I know that can be very difficult. I admit that I can be a bit of a gossip at times. We probably all can, but I am also sure that we have all been the subject of gossip. Back when I was a teacher at a small private school, there was always gossip about different teachers, students, or their parents, but I was also often the source of gossip because, in a way, my sexuality was an open secret. I never confirmed I was gay except to a select few who I could trust implicitly because if I had been openly gay, I would have lost my job. So, my sexuality was often a source of gossip. 

 

Everyone has experienced the harm of gossip before. Whether the people talking didn't mean direct harm, the result of gossip is always broken trust and hurt feelings. Gossip can be defined as information about the behavior or personal life of other people, often without the full truth revealed or known. God's Word warns us to stay away from people who gossip and to guard our words when we speak about others. James 4:11 says, “Do not speak evil of one another, brethren. He who speaks evil of a brother and judges his brother, speaks evil of the law, and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge.” Often, people gossip because they are judging others with statements like “Did you hear about so and so? I can’t believe they would do that.” We often hide behind gossip to make ourselves look better or to deflect from our own issues.

 

I was reading a book by A.J. Truman called Out of My Mind (It’s part of the Browerton University series of m/m romance novels.) In it, one of the characters is Jewish and worries about the gossip at temple. The following passage jumped out to me:

Whispers was what he called temple gossip. Temples and churches claimed that their main purpose was a place of worship. That was only a front. They served as gossip chambers for communities, places where people went to judge and be judged. He had confirmed it with his non-Jewish friends, too. The news floating in between the pews held more importance to congregants than what was being said on stage. It was like gossiping inside a church or temple allowed people to be instantly absolved of their sins.

Proverbs 16:28 says, “A perverse man sows strife, and a whisperer separates the best of friends.” We sometimes think that gossip is harmless, but if we are gossiping, then we are most likely causing harm, especially when the gossip is either untrue or does not tell the whole story. The Bible talks about slander which means making a false spoken statement damaging to a person's reputation. Slander can destroy someone's marriage, job, wealth, and family. The tongue has power, and we must be careful with how we use our words. The Bible tells us what words we should speak and which we should not. Proverbs 10:18 provides the following wisdom, “Whoever hides hatred has lying lips, and whoever spreads slander is a fool.”

 

More often than not, when someone spreads gossip about someone’s sexuality, they are judging that person and being unkind. Ephesians 4:29 advises us, “Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.” Gossip is usually disguised as a friendly invitation for fellowship but contains a disastrous disease inside. Gossip is like a cancer, spreading like wildfire through gossipers. Have you ever heard a Christian talking bad about someone with the same voice they use to proclaim their Christianity? Their own image becomes tarnished as their gossip poisons the reputation of the one they are gossiping about. This sting of betrayal throws shade on the light of Jesus that is supposed to shine from within us. James 1:26 says, “If anyone among you thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this one’s religion is useless.”

 

Gossip can have widespread consequences. It’s not just a small group that it can harm, but it can harm thousands at once if it is spread in the social media and 24-hour news stations of our current times. And as long as there have been newspapers, there have been gossip columnists, some who purposely ruined other people’s lives. The political world today is full of gossip and hatred. Groups like QAnon spread harmful rumors and conspiracy theories that have no basis in fact or have been taken out of context. Gossip is often giving information without the correct context. All you have to do is what news media like Fox News for just a few minutes to see how quickly they take words out of context and twist them to their own use for spreading hatred and distrust. Conspiracy theories are the worst form of gossip because they can harm to a much wider group of people. Politicians love to gossip or tell half-truths, and we will hear more and more of the lies that are spread through politics. 

 

While gossip can be entertaining and can seem harmless, it’s not. We may tell one person in confidence, but it will spread from there. Most people can’t help themselves from gossiping, and I know I am one of them. However, I try to do better, and if the people of the world tried to do better, not just with gossiping, but with all aspects of their lives, then we would live in a better and safer world.

Pics of the Day

Moment of Zen: A Hot Shower