Easter Sunday. For a number of years this day was the most sacred of days for me. A day to reflect on the death and resurrection of the savior of mankind. Years prior in the fundamentalist sect in which I was raised, there was a similar observance around this same time of the year–albeit one that focused mostly on the death part. (They literally use the same term for said observance as they do when one of their own members passes away: memorial.)
What do I make of this holiday today? A day to give my kids some fun hunting for plastic eggs in the backyard? Or a day largely to forget? My feelings are a bit conflicted, but at this point I think my relationship to Easter is the same as my relationship to anything else related to the West’s great archetypal Hero. That is to say, that it is the story of our own great potential. The story of the world of which we are a part, connected to and instantiated in. We are each vessels for the ongoing incarnation of the universe–whatever or whoever that ultimate fulcrum might really be. And in that regard, this story is one of perpetual birth, death, and rebirth. New life springing into being from the remains of death, like the phoenix rising from its own ashes.
I think there’s hints of this throughout Judeo-Christian scripture itself, for whatever worth that has. It’s likely not the authorial intent behind such texts–but then who’s to say what was, exactly?
In that regard, I would refer the reader to a number of passages from which I drew inspiration in the bit of prose I have quoted in the image below. A quote from the latter half of my own novel Different Vessels.
For anyone interested, these passages are as follows: Isaiah 45:7, Revelation 12:9, Numbers 21:8-9, John 3:14-15, John 17:21-22, and Exodus 3:14.
In short: You can be the hero of your own story. You can embrace your own self-worth–the only logical basis for honest ethical reasoning. You can truly take up your own cross and follow the advice of your own conscience to live a life of perpetual death and new renewal to reform who you are now into who you want to be. If you need forgiveness, give it to yourself. If you need to make amends with anyone else, do it yourself. For better or worse, you have this power. Use it wisely.
As the days of spring grow longer, we can all remember that the sun has risen. It has risen indeed.
