Recently I was standing in the grocery store and I was drawn to a display that had plastic Easter Eggs for sale. I was drawn to some one's that had been produced to look like Chocolate with frosting on it. But then to my horror I discovered that next to it were packages of ....yes Camo Eggs. I actually felt a little nauseous. I have unfortunately gotten use to that ever since the Iraq war started that people dress their little boys in cameo clothing. (Really it was not common before that, but we have probably lost site of that in the mean time.) And I have resigned myself for decades to some men walking around as if they are on a battle field. I was pretty upset the first time I saw pink cameo outfits for girls (but after all we have to start preparing a certain number of girls to also serve in the all volunteer military!)
But for me the cameo eggs are over the line. Whether you celebrate Easter as the resurrection of Christ or as a Pagan celebration of spring/new life/fertility....Easter is a celebration of life overcoming death. It is a fun time for small children. So the idea that someone would turn an egg, itself a symbol of new life, into a grenade like symbol of death and destruction is more perverse than I can really give words to!
We are living in times where that which is sacred is regularly under threat and frequently defiled. From the pollution of earth air and water, to the unsustainable mining of every resource from oil, to nickel, to the destruction of our fundamental public support structures like the post office and the public schools. It is important for us to name the sacred and to act in its defense.
It's not always clear what to do to defend the sacred. Does it make any difference these words I type and post on a small blog? Hard to say. I just know I have to name the profane so that we do not begin to find it normal and unobjectionable. The woman who cried over the dead Jesus did not do it to be effective. They did it because they were heartbroken. The resurrection was unexpected; the transformation that comes unbidden. I have to focus very hard here on the idea of the egg breaking open to sweet candy insides, to the idea of resurrection that Life overcometh even that which looks like sure death, and the idea of reclaiming the sacred from that which is defiled.
