Easton Easter Saturday

The equinox has past.  And Easter is today.  I was awakened by a cough bothering me.  The end of a mild cold I've had for two weeks.  Or allergies, or both.  So I got out of bed.  When I went downstairs to the kitchen and looked out the window,  there was the sunrise.  I stood there and stared. The bright orange large ball had just broken over the eastern horizon.  Bare trees were softening the brightness which helped my eyes and  I could  see the sun's shape perfectly.  I watched the sun rise through the trees and then over the trees.  It always happens faster than I expect.  And halfway through I could no longer look directly at it.  It was a real Sunrise Service just for me.  And my thermometer was just above freezing.  I was maybe going to have a spiritual rush,  But I couldn't slow my mind down enough to meditate.  My "me" was standing still at the window watching.  My "self" was suggesting things: Hey maybe I should go outside to watch.  Hey maybe get bundled up real quick and put shoes on,  brew some coffee?  Hey that fence line scrub brush really needs some attention.  Is my wife awake?  Etc.  It was over so fast.  I was too keyed up to play my sunrise/sunset game where I force myself to visualize the earth spinning.   Standing on the earth like you're on a surfboard and you are moving toward that sun and revealing it as you ride. 

Then I came upstairs and started writing to you.  That's Easter so far.  So good.  Wife and I are going to Easter dinner with family on the Western shore today as well as visiting her father on the way.

Yesterday was pretty and windy.  I had a small load of straw in the truck for my wife's friend and my wife lead me to the location in the Subaru.  They were going to lunch,  but I was afraid my cold might be contagious.  So I took off on my own and spent a few autonomous hours in Easton,  my favorite town. I parked the truck on the street downtown and did some walking.  I went to the library.  (I can say that sentence in Spanish).  I wanted any book by my hero Bart Ehrman.  I asked and was directed to the card file.  Oh God I thought.  Will I be fingering through cards?  But no, it was just a dedicated computer that could tell you if they had a book and how many copies of it they had.  They had one book by Ehrman.  So I inquired again and the nice lady came up with a number by looking at her computer.  So I checked out the book,  his latest.  I walked half way across town which takes five or ten minutes and went to the Goodwill store.  I looked at the books,  but didn't get any.
I looked at shoes and found two pair perfect for me.  They must have just come in because usually all the 9's and 10's are gone.  High quality leather dress shoes for $15.  Kinda gross?  Yea I agree.  But I love these shoes and will wear a pair to the Easter dinner.   Next stop: "Rise Up"  a coffee brewery.  I'd been hearing about it and had to see it.  Fantastic is all I'm going to say.
Then to Easton Diner.  I had a long slow meal in a hidden booth.  Started my Ehrman book.
Then the last stop before home.  The "Dollar Tree".  I've talked about dollar stores before.  They are a phenomenon.  In this store:  everything is actually a dollar.  I bought 18 items.  One item is worth mentioning here,  this Easter morning.  I'll get to it in a few more lines.  The Dollar Tree had loads of Easter bunnies.  Candy eggs.  Stuffed animals.  Cute stuffed bunnies.  Also an isle dedicated to the fourth of July.  The stars and stripes on anything you can imagine.  They had a top hat made I guess of paper and foil.  I will be getting one of those for sure in the near future.  Don't know why I didn't buy it,  but I will!

OK,  I'll tell you about the most AMAZING thing I got at the Dollar Tree and this will wrap up my story.  In with the candy eggs,  the candy bunnies, bags of jelly beans,  Chinese versions of Chuckles,  etc. an item caught my eye.  It was a chocolate cross.  A chocolate cross!   For $1.  You can't get a very big piece of chocolate for $1. Yet the "presentation" of this product is fairly large.  About the size of a paperback book.  A cardboard box with a clear window on the front displaying the product.  The cross is surrounded and embedded by gold plastic shrink mold.
Unlike virtually everything else in the Dollar Tree,  it is American made!  When I saw this,  I had to buy it.  Had to.  And I can't explain why.  It seems to me that it would be offensive to devout believers and Christopher Hitchens fans alike.  And on many levels.  I both hate and love this cross.
I'm a cultural Christian.  And I want everyone to like me.  If I have problems with all the faiths,  I think I'm better off  keeping them in the closet.  I could write a separate post just about this candy cross,  but I'm not going to.  You can think about all the weird things about the cross.  The paradoxes.
I could say a lot.  But I'm not going to.

Just permit me one little remark.  I want to imagine a Vampire.  Picture a defenseless woman  cornered.  She has no silver bullets,  nor a wooden stake.  But she had been to the Dollar Tree in Easton and there on the table within her reach is the Palmer Happy Easter Candy Cross.  She grabs it and faces it to the bloodthirsty creature.  He yelps and backs away like Superman being hit with a kryptonite snowball.  He cries in horror.  The woman is saved.  He agrees to leave,  sunrise is near.  Then his eyes turn from red to aqua blue and gleam a bit.  The woman thinks he is leering at her sexually.  The gleam increases and the vampire says:  "hey is that cross milk chocolate?  Does it have nuts?  I don't like nuts or mint.  It's not bittersweet is it?   I'll be human in an hour.  I can hang out."

For me, it seems it's always about the carbs.

Happy Easter.

LLITTY                ::::+::::