Happy Easter!

For all you non-Christians out there, and for all you who call yourself Christian but who perhaps have forgotten, today is the biggest event of your religious year. Oh, I know, we like to do things up right at Christmas, but if you stop to think about it, Easter is t-h-e Christian holiday. No Easter, no Christianity.

According to the story, it was Easter when Jesus arose from the dead. It was the resurrection that distinguished the belief of those who came to be called Christians from all other believers at the time. I know a lot of theological baggage has been added over time, but the heart of the matter is that Jesus is the one who many have come to believe has conquered death.

Death, however, is a very touchy subject, is it not? There are not few cultures who have a really difficult time - as a culture, not as individuals - dealing with it. Americans are perhaps the best example. In their obsession with youth and beauty and, more than almost anything else, fun, they tend not to spend a lot of time contemplating death. OK, contemplation may be a bit much, but I really think it is time that we realized that death is as much a part of life as life is.

Death is not as bad for those who die as for those who remain. We can believe what we want about what happens to us when we die, but we can't be sure. We can be sure, however, of how we feel when we lose a loved one, when someone close to us is no more. No, we don't live forever, at least not on this place of existence, and we have to realize that all that we do is constrained by this simple fact. I think a healthy awareness and acknowledgement of this fact can help us think a bit more about what we do, and even more importantly, what we don't do.

We too readily blame, threaten, intimidate, harass, ignore, disparage, or look down on others. We too readily manage, control, order, suppress, force, coerce, or even abuse, others as well (that's really what modern management most legal systems are all about, in the end). We too readily send young people off to war. We too readily accept pain, suffering, despair, hunger, illness, willingly blaming the victims for their fate. We never quite seem to be able to muster the courage, the fortitude, the humanity to just say "no" to greed, corruption, and power.

I like to think that holidays were once the opportunity for us to stop and think, to reflect upon what we do and do not do, what we believe and what we reject, but as it is, most of us no longer know why we have holidays, why we celebrate, or what we could possibly make of such days. You know, there are a lot of ways to die, the most overlooked is simply no longer being able to feel compassion or empathy for others.

Easter eggs and chocolate can help sweeten up the day, to be sure, but do yourself a favor and make a more lasting contribution to overcoming the death that is so widespread in today's world. Resurrect your own feelings and put them to good use.