You know what’s crazy? I’ll tell you what’s crazy™
Easter!
It represents so many things to so many people.
It’s spring time and rejuvenation and re-birth.
To Christians it’s the resurrection of Jesus.
To Jews it’s the celebration of Passover.
Easter is seldom on the same day, but it’s always on a Sunday following the first full moon of the vernal equinox.
Unlike Christmas, which is always on the 25th of December, Easter is more about a quadrant of time in a religious zip code in a universally relevant zone of belief.
Easter is hope and rebirth and warmth.
There is so much symbolic meaning packed into a single holiday.
To children it’s the Easter bunny and squeals of delight. It’s thick grass and brightly colored plastic eggs filled with sugary jellybeans. It’s Easter Baskets piled high with purple plastic grass and toys.
To grandma it’s a chance to bake a ham, thick in juice and glazed with sugary pineapple tang.
To chocolate lovers it’s thick sweet chocolate so yummy, it’s almost forbidden as the luscious chocolate turns to a passionate syrup on your tongue. It’s a tango of cheek to cheek taste slowly rolling over your pallet, squealing with delight like young lovers in a grassy field.
To American Business, it’s the high holy day of chocolate sales. It’s the Hallmark card of make believe need and all too real revenues. It’s chocolate bunny marketing mayhem. It’s Peeps versus Reeces Pieces versus the M&M men. It’s a chance for Mars and Cadbury to corner the market on scrum-dilly-iciousness!
To Gardeners it’s lawns growing wild, thick, like the Brazilian rain forest. It’s zero turn mowers spinning wildly from yard to yard. It’s illegal aliens in big straw hats and protective eye wear flying free through American neighborhoods without fear of an INS raid. It’s fertilizer and aerating and the sound of gasoline powered weed eaters waking you at 7am on a Saturday morning.
To doctors it’s a constant flow of cash strapped patients with Obama care and a need for relief. It’s noses more stuffed than a Chicago interstate at rush hour. Its post nasal drip like Niagra falls and eyes so watery, the National Guard is put on stand by. It’s a gentle breeze and an avalanche of suffocating toxic pollen falling from the trees like the Three Stooges playing with a bottle of Talcum powder.
To school kids its the last semester before a summer vacation begins. It’s long dreamy days staring out the classroom window as the wah wah of a teacher’s nonsensical words dance around their tired skulls. It’s 2 more pages of the calendar on the wall before it’s summer vacation and no more alarm clocks and pop quizzes on the Magna Carta.
To Old Navy its time to put away the long sleeves and bring out the pastels. It’s trendy candy coated colors and fresh breeze fashion looks. It’s teenage sales clerks who stare at your fat ass and old man face with compassion if not silent amusement.
“Yes sir, those straight leg jeans are in fashion this year.”
Hilarious, and sad at the same time.
To coffee shops, it’s time to clean off the deck chairs and get the outdoor patios ready. Sweep away the spider webs, scrub off the dried bird poop. Percolate a caffeinated haze of deliciousness and serve it hot and fresh to a tired throng of hipsters. Sure the deck over looks an alley where junkies are smoking crack out of an aluminum foil pipe, but that’s the young cool vibe, right?
Easter is more than church and pink bonnets. It’s more than just a day of celebration and prayer. It’s not just stained glass in a cathedral drowning in organ music.
Easter is a mile marker in life’s journey around the sun. It signifies a re-birth, a re-start, a do over. Easter is life’s mulligan, a chance to breathe in the warm fresh forgiveness of adventure and opportunity. Easter is the chance to clean out the refuse that has been cluttering the garage of your life.
It’s Easter Bunny’s and Charleton Heston and Sunday Brunch with mom.
Happy Easter every one.
Embrace the spirit of the holiday as we fly at break neck speed around the solar system yet again. Take stock in the fact that we are hurtling through the cold void at 24,000 miles an hour, yet you can lay in your Sunday hammock and stare at the deep brilliant blue and see dinosaurs in the puffy white clouds.
Sit back in your easy chair and watch March Madness. Go for a run and challenge your best time in the mile.
Put an offering in the collection plate. Think a good thought for someone less fortunate.
Say a secret prayer to the universal force that guides you like a light house on a Cape Hatteras coast line.
Get on your riding mower and listen to the Rolling Stones on your ipod as the fresh smell of spring is churned in your cutting blades and spit out in a diced, manicured layer of freshness.
Happy Easter ya’ll. So much to so many.
Live it, embrace it, cherish it.
Life’s Crazy™