Saturday, April 11, 2020

Who What Where When Why

My brother supplied the word of the day today and it's a toughie. I had to really think about how to incorporate this one into a blog post because I think this word has the potential to rile people up and I am all about not riling people up, particularly the day before Easter.

Day 10-J is for Journalism

We could ask what is journalism in 2020? What does that word mean in the era of social media where everybody and their brother has an opinion and a keyboard and a platform? Where who we look to as an actual authority on a particular subject is open for debate? 

Where we have entire websites devoted to fact checking every spoken and written word but don't know if we can trust the fact checkers? Where news people no longer make any attempts at hiding their political biases on either side of the fence? Where how someone feels about the way something is said matters more than the facts of the matter. 

Let's talk about Easter, k? Specifically this sweet picture- 


And we're going to do it the old fashioned way, using the standard 5Ws taught to high school journalism students about 100 years ago. 

Who? There's my dad with his infectious grin and my blue eyed baby girl in his arms. And there's my niece and my girl wishing mom would take the picture already.

Some things don't change. 

What? Doing what children have always done the weekend before Easter. Dropping eggs from a bit too high a distance into plastic cups of dye on a plastic cloth covered table. Raise your hand if you or a child you know dyed eggs this weekend. 

Tradition is a little bit like glue. It holds families together apart. 

When? 1991. I can still feel the sweetness from some 29 years away. 

Where? My parent's kitchen. The one where so many of my dearest and favorite memories are lodged. Where my mom cooked a thousand trillion meals. Where we were taught to 'put your napkin in your lap' and 'Mabel Mabel if you're able, keep your elbows off the table.' 

Where grace was said and floors were swept and whose turn it was to wash and dry was a debate for the ages. Or till Dad stepped in. 

Where new generations joined the party and the beat rolled on. 

Mostly life is full of change. 

Why? Why what? Why do babies grow up and move oceans away? Why do granddads leave us far too soon? Why do little girls worm their way into your heart and leave their mark in every nook and cranny forever and ever amen? Why are grown up children smart and able yet always and forever the little girls captured in a photo snapped three decades before? 

Memory and forward motion can live side by side. 

How? How do we celebrate Easter in this strange new world? How do we get back to the life that was before? Will we? Do we even want to? Will we emerge from this time of social isolation changed in some way? 

How can we not? 
Life is full of change. 

On Easter I hold tightly to what never changes-

God's love for each one of us. 
So deep and so wide nothing can ever separate us from it. 
Not our fears for today or our worries for tomorrow. 

It brings light and hope to a world full of questions with no easy answers. 

"Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face. 
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim. In the light of His glory and grace." 

6 comments:

  1. I enjoyed your post. I was thinking just this morning back to 2008. We had bought this house while still owning a home in Memphis Tennessee where Honey Bear was still working. We moved just the necessary furniture to get by with on weekends and when I was here during the week. I had my grandson and granddaughter come over to color eggs at the card table in the kitchen and then made grilled cheese and tomato soup for their lunch. They were 8 and 11 at the time. I think when this is over we will still have our traditions to some extent although those grandchildren are grown up, maybe someday it will be their children who sit in my kitchen coloring eggs. I hope so. Blessings to you and yours during this holy season.
    Mama Bear

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  2. This is a beautifully written post. I really enjoyed your phrase..."I can still feel the sweetness from some 29 years away." Lovely!

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  3. You tackled a difficult subject admirably! Easter blessings to you and yours!

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  4. You did a great job with a tricky word!

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  5. Love your wonderful memories and thinking of my own also.

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