Jesus | A Serene Scribe

Easter eggs (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I was so excited to have Good Friday off yesterday. The spirit of the season was at hand and I had the bright idea of going into town to buy plants, mulch and other springy things. Lowes was jam-packed with lines in all directions. Obviously I wasn’t the only one thinking SPRING. The feeling of rebirth and renewal was in the air.

The funny thing was, when I tried to pull my car around for a Lowes employee to put bags of mulch in my car, no one would let me in to get there. This was after I was practically run over by someone with one of those industrial sized carts with not so much as an “I’m sorry,” and had someone cut in front of me in the 20 minute line I was on. Trying to go anywhere was a nightmare. Every store was packed. And best of all, as I drove around a tight curve, I inadvertently went over the yellow line a bit. A man coming in my direction, and no I was not in jeopardy of hitting him, actually yelled out in a heavy Southern drawl, “you’re over the line, bitch!” Bitch? Are you kidding me? That was a bit harsh, no? I could not believe my ears and felt assaulted. On the eve of one of the holiest holidays, on Good Friday itself, I was shocked to see how many people were NOT peaceful, were NOT charitable and were NOT showing any signs of brotherly love! Are these the same people who will be sitting in church in their finest clothes on Sunday?

Usually around Christmas and other holidays there is a softening, an “oh go ahead of me we’re all in this together” sort of atmosphere. But not yesterday, no way!

It’s more striking to me here in the South when there is such a focus on Jesus and bible teachings. Many churches here even act out the scenes and hundreds come to view a ‘living bible’. One would think then that the teachings of Jesus would be foremost in people’s minds here if anywhere right? I’m not bashing people from the South or their religions, I know a lot of good people here and it doesn’t just happen in the South. And I know that many people do practice what they preach. But it’s so funny to me that all the ideas of love, acceptance and forgiveness, those ideals we hold dearest in our hearts and nod to as we are reminded of them by a minster or priest, just go out the window by Monday morning or when we happen to have a lot of Spring shopping to do! Why don’t we look into each others eyes and hug each other Monday morning instead of mumbling “morning, I need coffee.” Why don’t we take out our wallet when the person in front of us at a store has to put items back because he doesn’t have enough money to pay for them? Why do people with money just buy more things instead of giving it to people who don’t have it to put food on the table or clothes on their backs? And, why don’t we let impatient Italians into a stopped line of traffic when we can’t go anywhere anyway? Why aren’t we living the ideals, that millions of Christians are celebrating this weekend, every single day?

And people wonder why I’m not religious! But…. I do believe in the truths and ideals that all religions believe in, specifically the ones mentioned above. If we lived these daily we wouldn’t need drugs or material possessions. If we lived these daily we wouldn’t have crimes and we wouldn’t hate. There wouldn’t be us and them. I believe if we lived the principles of Love, Acceptance and Forgiveness, there would be peace on earth and I think someone tried to show us that. Happy Easter!