Sunday, April 16, 2017

Happy! Easter!

Things are better today, thanks, now that Easter is here. Hooray!

Here's some Easter thoughts for you:

1) Remember on January SECOND, when I was going berserk because the local supermarket was selling Easter candy? Yes, that was three and a half months ago, or more than a quarter of the year. Well, it's okay now; eat your Easter candy. The Halloween candy will be on the racks tomorrow.

2) Speaking of Easter candy, if you like jelly beans, or if you don't but you like Jolly Rancher hard candy, get down to the store for the sales tomorrow and get some Jolly Rancher Jelly Beans. These things made a jelly bean queen out of the tasteful and talented Mrs. Key and will make a believer out of you. (I told y'all about these last year; hope you remembered to get some!)



3) Does anyone know the second verse to "Here Comes Peter Cottontail"? Sure, it's easy to look up, but as far as I know everyone when freesinging gets as far as the "Hippity Hoppity Easter's on its waaa-yay" and just peters (ha!) out. The lyrics are here: for the record, the next verse is:

Bringin' every girl and boy
Baskets full of Easter joy
Things to make your Easter bright and gay

So now you know.

Contrary to common belief, Gene Autry, who wrote "Here Comes Santa Claus," did not write "Peter Cottontail"; Wikipedia tells us Steven Nelson and Jack Rollins wrote it and asked Autry if he'd sing it, which he did. Rankin and Bass made an animated film based on the song in 1971, but they seldom run it on TV. Featuring the voices of Casey Kasem (really!), Vincent Price, and Danny Kaye, this is one of the most bizarre Rankin-Bass productions you'll ever see, and they gave us the Island of Misfit Toys, the Archipelago of Last Years, The Mad, Mad, Mad Comedians, and Mad Monster Party--and, for those of you who grew up watching WPIX in New York, Rankin and Bass did the horrifying six-finger hand for the opening of Chiller Theatre. I would run from the room.

Anyway, since Freeform (formerly the Family Channel, back when it didn't suck) has not done any Easter programming (shocker!), you can watch it on YouTube:


4) In other news, Jesus Christ is risen today. As St. Paul says,

Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen: And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not. For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.

Scoffers may use to this say that the only reason people believe in Christ is because they fear death, and let's face it, being fearful of death is a powerful motivator. But that's not what brought me into the fold in adulthood. (For a young healthy adult in peaceful times, death is pretty much an abstract concept with little power to scare, unlike Chiller Theatre.) I came to understand how empty life was if there was no creator; that tracing the origins of everything and finding no Prime Mover, no Uncreated Creator, was illogical; how (in my experience) life lived with no guiding God tended to turn selfish, hedonistic, and sick. It's more complicated than that, of course, but that led me to the long road that I'm still trudging. This Easter I suspect that I may be heading someplace good, and I am glad.

May God bless you, also.

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