Posted on 04/16/2006 8:24:35 PM PDT by formercalifornian
Renew: I cringe whenever the library calls. Overdue. Your books are overdue. To avoid overdues, I avoid the library. We have enough books at home as it is.
A better solution? Renew. All I have to do is call before the book is due and the library renews it. But do I take advantage of book renewal? Almost never.
I, too, am renewable. But I forget.
Restore: For years, my grandmother's bed and dressing table deteriorated in the basement and gathered cobwebs. I dreamed that someday we'd hire someone who could repair them. Then, one astonishing day, a strong, chemical odor wafted up from the basement. It was varnish.
My husband had taken on the job of sanding and refinishing my prized furniture pieces. He had never done anything like it before. I don't think I've been more surprised.
When he finished, I was impressed. Sure, there were some drips and imperfections, but the gift of his effort compensated for those, and all in all, he did a pretty decent job.
I, too, sometimes need a good sanding down. I need the unpleasant, rough exterior to be scraped off, to be stained - perhaps in rich, red mahogany. I need a fresh, protective coat of varnish.
With Easter, it's possible.
Recreate: Recreation? No. Re-creation.
When I was a kid, my brother had a collection of Cat Stevens albums. Compared to some of the acid-twang songs of the '70s, Stevens' songs were musically and lyrically unusual and enchanting - "Moon Shadow," "Tuesday's Dead" and "If I Laugh."
My favorite - strange for the devoted atheist I was then - was "Morning has Broken." The last stanza of the song is this: "Mine is the sunlight, mine is the morning/ Born of the one light, Eden saw play/ Praise with elation, praise every morning/ God's recreation of the new day."
Then, I had no idea these lyrics were taken straight from a hymnal, and I had no idea what "re-creation of the new day" was. It just sounded cool. To be able to re-create the first day. Do it all over. Start again. It went right along with the Earth Day, anti-war, pro-ecology mindset of the '70s.
Still, there was something in the idea of re-creation, and a whole, new start, that moved me.
I can be completely made over and given a fresh start, even when old, tired or forgotten. That's an Easter promise.
Reclaim: The Bureau of Reclamation finds ways to reuse water, to reclaim it. To make it potable, drinkable. You turn on the tap; you don't think about where the water came from or what used to be in it. It's just there, and you drink it.
Bird droppings; squirrel fur; fish carcasses, rotting as they float downstream; snail excretions. All filtered out! Isn't reclamation great?
Angry outbursts; gross exaggerations; cruel, manipulative silences; unfair characterizations: All filtered out with Easter reclamation.
I am reclaimable. The pollutants and sewage of my life can be cleaned out. I can become something useful, fresh, sparkling.
Redeem: "Is there anything redeeming in this series of teen books?" a parent on an online forum wants to know. The characters sleep around, care only about shopping and are spoiled beyond imagination. Since I haven't read the series, I can't say whether it's "redeemable."
But what can redeem a bad book series? Characters who grow, or gain insight into themselves or others? Really inventive dialogue or plotting? Great descriptive passages?
If the theme is horrible, you can dress up the other parts, but the series isn't really redeemable.
What if the author redeemed the theme, though? What if the characters started caring for something other than material pleasure, like people? Or what if the author added altruistic insights and noble purposes? With a new theme, the characters and the series could be redeemed.
I am redeemable. No matter what I've done, no matter where I've been. No matter what objectionable plot twists have occurred in my life.
Easter lilts, in a still, small voice, "You're resurrected: renewed, restored, recreated, reclaimed, redeemed."
And I respond: I know. I know that my Redeemer lives.
Beeyootiful. Such a great Truth.
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