Easter (practice resurrection)

Easter was fairly uneventful this year. For the first time in as long as I can remember I did not attend any holy week festivities other than the normal Sunday gathering. I believe Jane attended the Good Friday service.

The Sunday service was actually strangely crowded. And, for the second year in a row (it seems) there was apparently no one scheduled to be greeter (because that's how we roll). So Jane and I served in that role unofficially. She also made a casserole for the carry-in breakfast. Perhaps the highlight of the morning service was the kids getting to sing, and Drew got to lead with Addison (woot, woot). Here is a youtube clip of the service - complete with Caleb picking his nose at the end. :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrNFuSaKZRA

I did finally break down and post my Holy Week David Gilmour liturgy on Facebook (just Thursday through Sunday). This will probably be my last year of doing so because, you know, who cares. However, I did come to the conclusion that if I ever write a book it will probably be that. Some kind of Holy Week devotional with the music of David Gilmour guiding us on the path of Jesus (or something).

Easter lunch/afternoon was just us and the Feipel Five. We had tiny ham sandwiches, mac and cheese, chips, and "cherry goop." We hid eggs for the little kids in the basement (too cold outside), ate lunch, then just lazed around the house until they went on to Drew's side of the family. We did talk to my parents and Isaac on the phone. The boy was home alone, as Ricci apparently went to some Islands near Portugal with her mom.

Other than that, I wanted to share this piece by Wendell Berry. I supremely like his idea of "practicing resurrection." I usually share a link on Facebook, but I'm not sure that's the place to fly my freak flag anymore. So, I am posting it here. It's a good, quick read (imho). Enjoy!


Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front by Wendell Berry

One of the articles in Reclaiming Politics (IC#30) Originally published in Fall/Winter 1991 on page 62 Copyright (c)1991, 1996 by Context Institute.

Love the quick profit, the annual raise,
vacation with pay. Want more
of everything ready-made. Be afraid
to know your neighbors and to die.
And you will have a window in your head.
Not even your future will be a mystery
any more. Your mind will be punched in a card
and shut away in a little drawer.
When they want you to buy something
they will call you. When they want you
to die for profit they will let you know.

So, friends, every day do something
that won’t compute. Love the Lord.
Love the world. Work for nothing.
Take all that you have and be poor.
Love someone who does not deserve it.
Denounce the government and embrace
the flag. Hope to live in that free
republic for which it stands.
Give your approval to all you cannot
understand. Praise ignorance, for what man
has not encountered he has not destroyed.

Ask the questions that have no answers.
Invest in the millennium. Plant sequoias.
Say that your main crop is the forest
that you did not plant,
that you will not live to harvest.
Say that the leaves are harvested
when they have rotted into the mold.
Call that profit. Prophesy such returns.

Put your faith in the two inches of humus
that will build under the trees
every thousand years.
Listen to carrion – put your ear
close, and hear the faint chattering
of the songs that are to come.
Expect the end of the world. Laugh.
Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful
though you have considered all the facts.
So long as women do not go cheap
for power, please women more than men.
Ask yourself: Will this satisfy
a woman satisfied to bear a child?
Will this disturb the sleep
of a woman near to giving birth?

Go with your love to the fields.
Lie down in the shade. Rest your head
in her lap. Swear allegiance
to what is nighest your thoughts.
As soon as the generals and the politicos
can predict the motions of your mind,
lose it. Leave it as a sign
to mark the false trail, the way
you didn’t go. Be like the fox
who makes more tracks than necessary,
some in the wrong direction.
Practice resurrection.

Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front” from The Country of Marriage, copyright © 1973 by Wendell Berry, reprinted by permission of Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc.