Easter
Happy Easter & Trans Day of Visibility
Yesterday was not a good brain day. I try to have one additional post every day so that you don’t look over at the list of recent posts and see a string of Morning Updates. That wasn’t possible yesterday. My brain could not complete something as simple as sharing a YouTube video. There was no solid cognition. I’d read something and the content would immediately be gone. I’d watch a video and have no idea what I’d just watched. I baked chicken drumsticks for dinner and forgot to add any seasoning (we still ate them). I forgot to put my phone on the charger before going to bed. The dogs did remind me to take them outside, so that was done, but I can’t claim any other completed objective for the day.
In fact, yesterday was such a bad-brain day that I almost considered running for president. 🤣
Today isn’t starting off much better, just in a different way. It’s raining. The arthritis pain kicked in a little after 4:00 this morning. My overall pain level is sitting at an eight. There are still meds I can’t take until after I’ve eaten breakfast, but it still doesn’t bode well for the day. My typing is slow. I guess it’s a good thing I don’t have to play for anyone’s Easter service, not that I’ve been asked any time in the past 20 years. My fingers object to every move, the pressing of each key. I can only imagine what it would feel like if I had to use Poppa’s old manual typewriter to create this post!
I still find it incredible that there are people so fucking stupid that they think the President had anything to do with setting Trans Day of Visibility on the same day as Easter. I’ll say it again: Trans Day of Visibility is static: March 31 every year. Easter moves around: the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Spring Equinox, because you need a little paganism in your religious holiday. No politics in any of it. Get off your fucking stupid hobby horse.
There are no Easter baskets in our house this year. The kids aren’t remotely interested. Kat did get them both a chocolate bunny, which they’ve already devoured, but it wasn’t out of any religious commemoration; the bunnies were on sale. Yes, they do make sugar-free Easter chocolate, but you have to order it directly from Russel Stover two weeks in advance and there’s no discount. Besides, Russel Stover’s sugar-free chocolate gives me the runs.
We also won’t be having any big Easter dinner. I’m not sure we ever have, though I can’t remember any past Easters with any level of detail. Kat’s with Brandon’s family and even if we had the money the kids aren’t interested in dining out. So, leftovers it is.
My hands want nothing more than to stay balled up into fists. We’ll see if I post anything else later. Thanks for reading.
Many Xian people went to great lengths today, and throughout the week, to attend worship services. Some in South Africa even died trying to get there. (Their bus ran off the side of the road. Only a child survived.) Each year during Holy Week, the truly committed go to great lengths to observe all that happened in the week leading up to Easter. Whether one believes or not, we have to admire their commitment.
Then, there are those who pretend to be xian simply for the political optics. After all, no one gets elected to any office in the South without claiming membership in one church or another. The only commitment here is to get rich off the power that comes with holding public office. They’ll occasionally go through the motions by attending a worship service somewhere, but for the most part, they’re only in it for the votes that accompany the religiosity of it all.
For example, both the Republican National Committee and the Democratic National Committee released new music this week. When did the RNC and DNC suddenly become music-oriented? They’re not. Both records are absolutely horrible, do not need to exist, and are an insult to anyone who actually writes decent music. There’s nothing good about these events and we all need to hope that it never, ever happens again.
Yet, this type of pettiness is exactly where these pseudo-xians’ minds are this week. It’s almost as if they’re asking “Jesus who?” to all the rites the committed are going to. If only the records were the worst offense this week.
Meanwhile, down in Texas, a group of hardcore Republicans is looking for excuses to kill women, including those under 18. Hood County has a population of 66,000 bodies, but apparently not that many brains. During a meeting of elected offices that included Constable Scott London, County GOP chair Steve Biggers, and Hood County GOP chair candidate Greg Harrell, the discussion swirled around executing women of any age who get IVF or seek an abortion.
Paul Brown, director of Abolish Abortion Texas, told the group, “Other forms of abortion… would include IVF, when a fertilized egg is created and is often times destroyed. Those that do {IVF{ are terminating or destroying a human life. Their lives don’t matter any more than the babies they are killing.”
MeidasTouch Network has the video secretly created by Adrienne Quinn Martin, Chair of the Hood County Democrats if you question the content’s veracity. If you have a strong enough stomach, I strongly encourage watching the whole thing. Don’t just take my word for it. These idiots, every one of which identifies as a xian, seriously talk about executing young girls who have an abortion after the rape and claim that carrying the rapist’s baby to term will make the raped girl happier.
WHAT THE LIVING FUCK IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE? Easy, they’re xians who fetishize Old Testament law. They’re inhuman monsters who have weaseled their way into office to influence laws so that we revert back to the same existence as a cultish group of illiterate nomads around 5,600 BC. Oh, if only their god would strike them dead by lightning.
Oh, wait, that god doesn’t exist.
Meanwhile, all over the country, conservatives have their panties all in a wad over the fact that this year Easter and Trans Day of Visibility fall on the same day, March 29. Now, before anyone goes thinking that this is intentional on anyone’s part, know that TDOV happens on the same day every year, March 29, and does every year. It doesn’t move. At the same time, there’s a whole formula applied to when exactly Easter is, and over the past 2,000 years xians who are unreasonably obsessed with the date have argued about it. The date is generally set by the first Sunday after the full moon on or after the Spring Equinox. If the full moon falls on a Sunday, then the following Sunday is Easter. None of this like likely to be accurate from a historical perspective, but apparently someone, somewhere, thinks it has some meaning. The net result, though, is that it’s never on the same Sunday any two years in a row.
But oooooohhhh, if there’s a non-xian conflict with the xian holiday, then surely something’s wrong, at least in the eyes of the pseudo-xians who enjoy making noise over such things. There must be a conspiracy of some kind. Maybe trans people are organizing to offend xians. Or, in the view of one nut job, it’s a demonic spell of trans-gnosticism. In his opinion, the “culture war” (huh?) is simply a front for a deeper spiritual war.
Dude, you don’t have a war if only one side is fighting. The trans community knows a nut job when they see one (better than anyone) and just roll their eyes at the stupidity on display.
Nonetheless, Fox News helped spread the lies (per usual formatting) and so the alarm has spread among the pearl-clutching people fearing that some version of the devil is going to come marching through their small town without warning and ruin their egg hunt.
By the way, Easter, and egg hunts, and the bunny rabbit? All pagan traditions that have nothing to do with being xian. Zero. Zilch. It has nothing to do with chocolate, either, but all things considered, I’d rather have the chocolate stuffed down my throat than the religion.
I’m sure there are plenty of other insidious things xians have perpetrated this week, I just don’t have the energy to look them all up. A great deal of them have the fingerprints of the 45th president attached to them and I am not of the mind to give him any more fuel than he already has.
Seriously, someone call Thor. We need those lightning strikes.
While the world seems to spin wildly out of control, nature keeps on doing its thing.
Sitting here looking through Saturday’s headlines for The Boston Globe (because it’s the first to hit my inbox), I’m seeing words that would have seemed incredible this time last year but now are just part of the “new normal.” A Guatemalan immigrant who worked 60-70-hour weeks in grocery stores succumbed to the virus. Deaths among racial minorities unmask systemic racism throughout our culture. Divorced couples with children don’t know how to deal with court-ordered visitation while still staying at home. Trust in the president’s virus response is failing. French police kick London jet-setters out of the Riviera. New, larger wave of locusts threatens millions in Africa. Baseball struggles to find some way to save its season.
Meanwhile, I’m sitting here at home watching tulips bloom and retreat. The closest I’ve come to a model was watching through the window and two of the teenage girls across the street took cellphone pictures of each other in last night’s setting sun. Had this happened BC (before caronavirus), I would have been out there offering mild advice (the shadows they were picking up were regrettable). But no, I had already been out too much by that point. Allergies fueling anxiety limits my external activity to floral observations.
Feelings of desperation began to set in this week. I sent out invoices marked “payment deferred” because I know no one has had any revenue incoming the past month. They’ll pay when they can if their businesses survive, but the absence in their revenue means absence in my revenue and as I watch my bank balance drop, knowing what automatic payments lie ahead, I worry.
I’m not alone. Millions of people now question the necessity of every purchase. Non-profits have watched their donations slide as much as 85% as even those whose income is largely unaffected still pull back, putting discretionary income toward things such as improving their home work space, adding additional streaming services to help keep kids occupied, and purchasing larger quantities of alcohol. I have fantastic pictures for sale, but oh, you’re framing the four-year-old’s colorful work from this afternoon’s craft time instead.
So here I am, yet again posting pictures of flowers because at least they’re reasonably reliable. They bloomed bright and wonderful as the temperatures soared into the low 80s early this week then retracted into a protective mode as frost warnings returned. There was a tornado this week just to our South and I slept through the entire storm. There have been tornadoes across the US almost every day this week. They make local news in the areas affected, but even there it comes below the fold, or after the commercial break at the seven minute mark.
Is there a metaphor to observe in the fact that as Christians adjusted ways to observe Good Friday, and Jews observe Passover, New York began burying virus victims in mass graves? As this posts on Easter Sunday, is there a chance that the resurrection we want doesn’t look anything at all like the resurrection we ultimately get? Politicians are not saviors. Billionaires and celebrities tweeting and streaming from their well-furnished mansions are not messiahs.
Morning breaks and cumulative directors of state health departments compile new lists, hoping that today’s isn’t as long as yesterdays, longing for the day when there’s no list to make at all, unsure if that day will ever come. Hospital administrators count bed availability. Doctors make difficult decisions as to who gets a ventilator. Parents struggle between feeding children and paying rent. Another person lying alone in a room with no one around take their last, hard-fought breath.
And still, the flowers bloom.
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The horror was real, the bravery astonishing
[dropcap]Few still remember that day, for witnesses to the tragic invasion of Peeps™ are not many. Some have died since then. Others moved away and never speak of it. But it was real. We have the pictures to prove it.[/dropcap]
It was a bright, sunny day in April. Easter was on the horizon so stores had dangerously stocked careless numbers of the treacherous marshmallow offenders. For years, experts had warned that the creatures had been massing for an attack. Their legions were great. From season to season, they grew. No one ever threw them out. No one was able to dispose of them. They just sat there in dark cupboards and back stock rooms, waiting. Â Then, on this April morning, they decided their time had come.
Children were in school and most people were working so they didn’t hear the clutter as the Peeps pushed their boxes off of shelves and onto the floor. Deftly, their years of training coming into play, they removed the cellophane covering, painfully separated themselves, and left their boxes, searching for victims.
Numbering in the millions, the Peeps might have been successful had they not underestimated the temper and aggression of the humans they encountered. No one had warned them about the sharp, ferocious teeth nor the dangers of being crushed by these giant beings. The Peeps swarmed but found themselves no match for the creatures they encountered.
The scenes were gruesome. The fatalities were many, numbering more than those at Bowling Green. Thanks to the determination of a few patriots, the terror attack was thwarted. The remaining Peeps ran for the cover of their packaging.
Beware, though. Defeated once, they have not given up. The Peeps still grow in number. Our national security depends on you. If you see Peeps, trash Peeps. That is our only hope for survival.
Click on any of the images below to open the full gallery.
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When you accept a picture of the deity assigned to you by another people, you become the spiritual prisoners of that other people. —John Henrik Clarke
If we’re going to resurrect a deity, why not resurrect ourselves?
The morning is still quiet as I write. The only noise is that of the heater trying to balance the temperature between the West end of the house, which is always warm, and the East end of the house, which is always a bit cool. For the moment, everything is peaceful and I am enjoying that temporary situation as I know it won’t be long before the younger children are  awake and anxiously chasing the myth of some rabbit. I could do without the myths associated with today, but in this momentary tranquility, my mind involuntarily yields to thoughts of deity and our roles not only in creating them, but maintaining them as well.
I realize that, for some, challenging the concept of deity encroaches upon sacred territory. Â People are protective of their gods because to challenge one’s deity is to put the source of one’s faith at risk. Yet, I would argue that if one does not understand their god how can they truly understand matters of worship or devotion to the faith in that god? Dissecting deity is a requirement if one ever expects to hold their faith not as a corporate purchase of a cosmic mythology but as a personal belief system that is foundational to their lives.
Therefore, the first question one must ask is this: Who created your deity? Many would hold that their god(s) were not created, but rather revealed their presence either through some event or in the presumed creation of nature. Yet, before we begin accepting as gospel the stories and legends of past millennia we must realize that the oral tradition in which they were handed down factors prominently in how one’s perception of god takes shape. Even if all the story tellers of old had witnessed the events of which they told, and few did, their representations of those events would still differ dramatically and it is in those differences that our perceptions begin to take shape. We then create an interpretation of our deity based less on the event and more on our interpretation of those story teller’s version of those events. We create our own gods.
Our belief systems are very personal, and so are our deities. Ask a million people who god is and a million different answers ensue. Millions are monotheistic, firmly convinced that a singular deity rules all. This works for us because we, too, view ourselves in some fashion as singular rulers of our own lives, attempting to control the chaotic cosmos of our immediate situation. We can relate to that god because he faces the same struggles we do, just on a larger scale. Still, millions of others view god as a concept, an energy, or a life force rather than an actual being. That concept works as well for those whose inherent view of this life is temporal and regenerative as part of a greater spiritual whole. While we may work within the greater framework of a religious structure, we still create a god that best fits our view of life.
The National Geographic Channel begins a new series tonight that I find timely. The Story of God with Morgan Freeman attempts to take an objective yet personal view of the deities we worship through the quest of one who has portrayed someone else’s version of god but has historically stated that he is not a “man of god,” but rather a “person of faith.”  Even in choosing Morgan Freeman to lead this journey, the program’s producers are playing to one of the more common construction elements of deity with an actor whose voice is deep and authoritative. Morgan Freeman’s voice sounds like what we want god’s voice to sound like. Here’s the 30-second version of the trailer for tonight’s show:
Over the course of the series, the program takes a look at the larger umbrella of deity through personal stories. While I cannot imagine that such exploration uncovers anything we didn’t already know, what the stories ultimately show us is exactly what I have posited here from the beginning: our deities are of our own creation, even if we call them by the same name, even if we worship them corporately with thousands of others, our concepts of god are as personal and individual as each of us.
Where does that leave those who don’t believe in a god? I would argue that we all create gods of some form or fashion even if we choose to not refer to them by that name. We place our faith in something. Some construct deities of science and philosophy. Others hold the belief that there is nothing that exists outside one’s self, therefore making themselves the deity. Whatever rules one’s belief system becomes one’s deity.
I would not dare to challenge that anyone’s concept of god is wrong but I am abhorrent of those who would just as soon kill anyone who disagrees with their construct of a violent and wrathful god. That such views exist, again, emphasizes the sometimes severe degree to which we create deity in our own image, to justify our own views of life, and to act as an authoritative bully in manipulating the behavior of others.
Whether or not one is observing a celebration of today, I hope you might take some time and consider this deity you have constructed. Consider how it serves your faith and the ways in which your faith constructs your perception of god.
And may everyone find peace.
We will never have true civilization until we have learned to recognize the rights of others. —Will Rogers
Love is such a beautiful thing, so why is there still an effort to deny people the right to love?
I don’t watch reality television as a habit, so I wasn’t even aware that celebrity personal trainer Jillian Michaels has her own show until yesterday. Apparently she does, however, and having all that production ability available allowed her to create a touching video which she used to ask her partner of seven years, Heidi Rhodes, to marry her. I could be cynical and question whether the whole thing was done just for the television cameras, and certainly, since the show isn’t done live, the timing is ratings fodder, but why choose cynicism over love? The video, which you can watch here, is one of those that can only be the product of a long-term relationship full of ups and downs and tugs at the heartstrings of anyone with a romantic bone in their body. I find it wonderful that they’ve not only had such a great relationship, but that their rights to recognize that relationship through marriage have been affirmed across the whole country. This is progress.
Oh, wait, those rights may not actually extend to the entire United States. Because Puerto Rico is not a full-fledged state, there is a frightening chance that last year’s Supreme Court ruling regarding gay marriage doesn’t apply to the unincorporated state. The federal judge based his ruling on the concept that only fully incorporated states enjoy the full protection of the Constitution and that, by extension, the 14th amendment does not apply to Puerto Rico. This is significant not only in terms of LGBT rights, but the full realm of civil rights based on the 14th amendment. If the judge’s ruling that the 14th amendment doesn’t apply at all, then all the civil rights gained over the past 60 years would not apply either. Maybe this will be what pushes Puerto Rico toward statehood.
Even on the mainland, though, the fight to deny rights to LGBT peoples continues. Democratic senators in Missouri filibustered for 39 hours this week in an attempt to block a so-called religious freedom bill that would, in the name of preserving religious rights, denies rights to LGBT peoples. This is significant because the bill is part of a push in that state to create a constitutional amendment that is inherently restrictive in the name of religious freedom. The bill still has to pass the state legislature before going for a statewide vote, so the matter is far from over. Still, the fact that the denial of basic rights is still an issue is severely disturbing.
That religious freedom would be on the wrong side of human rights is hardly anything new. That Christianity, specifically, has to be coerced over time to accept even the most basic of human rights has been a well-documented fact in the US since the mid-19th century. Christianity has been pro-slavery, against women’s rights (including the right to vote), anti-semitic, anti-segregation, and anti-voting rights, and ultimately found themselves on the wrong side of each of those issues. The fact that the Ku Klux Klan, as hate-filled as they are, is based on what they consider core Christian values does not go without notice.
Yet, even among Christians, there is division when it comes to LGBT rights. I was severely disappointed when the Stockton Leadership Foundation, a non-profit religiously-motivated organization, decided to cancel Stockton, Arizona’s community Easter Sunrise Service rather than include a church comprised largely of LGBT members. How these people can celebrate Easter at all after such a disgusting display of anti-Christlike attitudes is beyond me. The Foundation had never planned on inviting the Valley Ministries congregation, but after that invitation was “accidentally” sent their attempts to disinvite and then further diminish any role of the small 70-member church were more like the actions of the ancient Sanhedrin rather than the teachings of the one crucified with their approval.
Spring is a time of renewal, of growth, and newness; a perfect time for love and engagement and all those cute emotional feels. The ancient pagans seem to have gotten it right, with celebrations that involved dancing and singing and naked frivolity. Doesn’t that seem so much better, to celebrate love, than to create loss by diminishing and removing someone’s rights and dignity? Perhaps, in the name of religious freedom, the answer is for all of us, Christian, Jew, Muslim, gay, straight, transgendered, bi, curious, questioning, Pagan or atheist, to dance naked around a bonfire together. Why? Because when we strip away all the titles and labels, we’re all just human, we’re all brothers and sisters, one species of being. Create love, not loss.
Stupid Things Xians Say
Christianity is getting a lot of attention today (and all this past week) because of it being Holy Week. However, as they so often do, some pseudo-Xians just don’t seem to understand the whole concept of peace, love, and inclusion. They prove this by opening their mouths and saying some really inappropriate and ignorant things.
Take for instance, please, that time this week when the presumptive Republican presidential nominee said, “If you don’t like our religion [xianity], then we don’t want you in our country.” What this part-time Bible salesman is saying is that he’s more than willing to implement a religion litmus test for anyone wanting to come into the country. Now, where that gets interesting is trying to narrow down what he means by “our religion.” Obviously, he doesn’t like Muslims, Hindus, atheists, or Buddhists. However, he links religion to politics when he says that a Jewish person who votes Democratic (and most do), “hates their religion” and “everything about Israel.” So… are Jews getting in or not? Now, any reasonably-minded person knows that such a litmus test is a violation of the First Amendment. However, let’s just go crazy for a moment and assume he could get away with it. How long would it be before he tries to deport, round up, or terrorize anyone who doesn’t fit without his narrow (and farcical) religious expectations?
Then, there was all that hullabaloo today over the annual White House Easter Egg Roll. Somehow, pseudo-Xians just noticed this year that religious themes are not allowed on the decorated eggs used for the roll. Cue right-wing outrage because they’re an ignorant bunch of people who don’t seem to realize that the ban has existed since 1978. Take another look at that. 1978. Over 40 years ago. And they’re just now realizing it. And all this over a fictional rabbit that allegedly places eggs all over the yard. Apparently, these pseudo-Xians are also ignorant of the fact that Easter Eggs are a pagan tradition that predates xianity. Seriously, do these people ever pull their heads out of their asses and take a look at the world around them?
Taking the ugly lamb-shaped Easter cake is SBC megachurch pastor Josh Howerton who told his Dallas-based Lakepointe Church congregation that, on their wedding night (actually, he specifically emphasized “his” wedding night), the women should: Â “Stand where he tells you to stand, wear what he tells you to wear, and do what he tells you to do.” Incredulous, isn’t it? You would think, especially after all the abuse and marital cheating scandals the SBC has endured, that such misogyny would, at the very least, be kept on the down-low. Nope. Here it is, right out in the open. We even have it on video.
Dismantling this statement a bit, first, let’s realize that, by most accounts, fewer than 30% of people, male or female, are virgins on their wedding night. Most sane people realize that sexual experience is a good thing; find out what you like and what you don’t, take away the mythology of losing virginity, and hopefully avoid the pain and mess of your first sexual experience. If 70% of men are not virgins (and the real number is likely higher), then they have not necessarily been planning for their wedding night their entire lives.
Second, this is putting wayyyyyy too much pressure on the wedding night for it to be pleasurable. Weddings are a big deal and by the time the happy couple gets away from the reception and all the people and checked into the hotel for the night, they’re fucking exhausted! Why put all that pressure on the wedding night? It’s insane to create those kinds of expectations that are almost certainly going to lead to disappointment.
Third, and perhaps most important, if your spouse is telling you where to stand, what to wear, and what to do and this isn’t a sex game to which you’ve both agreed, then you’ve married a misogynist and need to get out of this marriage as soon as possible! Abuse, emotional and physical, is right around the corner. Nothing good comes from being in a relationship with a misogynistic person. Nothing. Get the fuck out while you can. PLEASE. A chocolate bunny would make a better partner.
If it seems like I’m picking on pseudo-Xians it’s only because they’re making so much noise as they show us how incredibly ignorant, thoughtless, and cruel they actually are. There’s no true spirit of love here. There’s no intention to bring peace. There’s no desire for inclusion. Everything they’re doing is fake and they’re loud enough with their actions to make sure we don’t miss them. As long as they keep doing and saying stupid things, I’ll keep calling them out for it.
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