Playing By The Rules

I have one Easter egg hunt memory that has coalesced in my mind to the perfect storm of unfamiliar surroundings, not knowing the rules, and embarrassment. Near Easter one year, I spent the night at a friend’s house with plans to go to a church egg hunt with her family the next morning. As a contribution to the hunt, we spent a couple of hours that night meticulously decorating eggs we knew we couldn’t keep. Which was a strange sensation that I didn’t particularly care for, but you have to grow up sometime, right? So, I carefully dyed each egg knowing some “little” kid would enjoy finding it for their basket in the morning. We started off bright and early the next day, excited for the festivities. I was unused to attending public functions without my mother and felt a bit out of place, even scared. So, I hung back from the action at first. My friend came to me and said she’d found a perfect collection spot for us--which turned out to be all the excess eggs never hidden for the hunt, including those we had decorated. I guess I should have known better, but it seemed fine to gather up our favorites and keep them. But that was a no-no and we got in big trouble and I’m still confused as to why. In Janet Morgan Stoeke’s Minerva Louise and the Colorful Eggs, Minerva doesn’t know what’s going on with the egg-hiding stuff. I know how she feels.

http://www.amazon.com/Minerva-Louise-Colorful-Morgan-Stoeke/dp/0525476334

http://www.janetstoeke.com/

Easter

It is Easter--a day of celebration and polarity. It seems everyone I encountered today has a very set opinion about what Easter means. For some, this day represents a time for introspection, gratitude and jubilation. For others, it is a season of mystifying beliefs met with skepticism or downright incredulity and ham. There are very few in-betweeners and haven’t-decideders. Since I’m still working my way through a personal theology revamping, I can’t quite find a comfortable new spot in the former but feel wary of the latter. Even if you are a believer, the day is complicated. And if you’re a kid, it’s just not happening. At church during Children‘s Time, the pastor tried to explain resurrection with two different colors of cord “inexorably” intertwined. I could see where he was going, and the kids like his energy, but I can’t say that even the adults understand the concept, let alone toddlers with faces full of jelly beans. I suppose I should have chosen an Easter-themed book for today in an effort at tutoring Scarlett in the basis of Christianity, but we didn’t have a simple enough one and I’m not even sure that’s possible. So, I chose what I think is a fair compromise. Clare Turlay Newberry’s Marshmallow is about a pampered house cat whose only-pet status is challenged by an adorable little bunny addition to the household. Oliver works hard at making peace with Marshmallow. They play, snuggle and become fast friends. That’s an Easter message for everyone.

http://www.amazon.com/Marshmallow-Clare-Turlay-Newberry/dp/0060244607


http://www.harpercollins.com/authors/12536/Clare_Turlay_Newberry/index.aspx