Home with the family for the long holiday weekend. It's been an ugly month of travel, a poor excuse for Lent. I've done my best, but my best wasn't very good.
My aim was to work toward detachment. There's probably little more distracting than business travel, the nightly team dinners, the long days, the separation from family, home and routine. I did read Simone Weil's Gravity and Grace over Lent, and I decided that it's a book I'll need to revisit. I think she holds a lot of the keys to detachment, I just need to find the mindset to come and look afresh at her words. I'm too busy to be detached. Sad.
I was at the vigil last night, beautiful, sung, somber...long! The homily was devoted to the central events - the exodus from Israel that showed God's favour and then the simple "He is risen". The message was that the reality is not enough if you only hear the words.
I've been watching the Terri Schiavo thing from the sidelines. There's a lot of discussion about the "culture of death", and I tend to agree with some of the arguments. It's really incomprehensible to me why life cannot be the most important thing here. If Michael Schiavo wants nothing to do with Terri, her parents do. He could have everything he wants except her death and the whole thing would resolve satisfactorily. Shouldn't we always err on the side of life - if we're wrong, it's murder. The life-agenda people are personified as zealots, and some are, but that doesn't justify what everyone else seems to accept as the inevitable. As I write, Newsweek is already using the past tense about Terri.
I find myself sort of hoping that she dies on Easter. God working in mysterious ways to force us not to forget our "playing at God" - how flawed it is. The suffering of another Theresa/Therese. Your Mercy Lord.
We are enjoying our family holiday. I think we've had the best of the weather already. This morning the kids were out in the garden finding the eggs the Easter bunny had hidden. We dyed them yesterday - I found work-arounds for the difficulties of finding white eggs and dyeing kits in the UK, where the tradition is more choco-centric (of the "Easter Egg" variety). And there's a fair bit of that, too. My daughter wanted to find more eggs, so I had to phone the Easter Bunny to ask about his best hiding places for Round Two.
We're making sausage again today. Four varieties - "plain", leek, garlic and chili, and chipotle. I can't wait to try the last. But today's feast will be pork loin. An interesting discussion on the radio this afternoon about why there's no strong tradition for an Easter feast the way there is at Christmas. The comment was made that because of the timing of Easter, after Lent, which corresponds to the "hungry gap" when last year's crop is running out and this year's has yet to come in - people don't have the uniformity of choice. Leg of spring lamb is a popular choice these days, but by no means a standard.
I've been away too long. It's good to be home.
I'm just back from spending two weeks in Romania. What's the reward for that? I'm headed straight back again this afternoon. Thankfully only for a couple of days this time.
Anyway, looks like I won't be back before next week. In the mean time, here's an interesting link about free land in the US Midwest, courtesy of Megnut.