"Happy" Easter

I find Easter to be depressing. Here we are, celebrating a feast of, as Douglas Adams puts it, "a man getting nailed to a tree for saying how nice it would be if we all just got along." Wonderful. Spring is supposed to be about new life, renewal, anticipation, hope. But Easter clouds that wholesome image.

Since I don't believe in the literal resurrection of Jesus, all I can think about is the central act of the passion play: the crucifixion. So being around Church and Christians during Eastertime is not too appealing, especially on Good Friday. Even the name is macabre. What is "good" about a poor, hungry, innocent carpenter being betrayed, arrested, whipped, beaten, scratched with thorns, stabbed, mocked, dragged to a hill, spat upon, nailed to a cross, forsaken, and finally killed? Man, does that sound grim.

When I was a good Catholic boy, I thought the crucifixion was a singular event. Hidden from me was the simple historical fact that crucifixions happened weekly in ancient Rome. And to this day there are crucifixions of all sorts, and on all levels: from petty street crime, to systematic torture, to state-sponsored death penalty, to war and genocide, people all over the world are being sacrificed to appease our insatiable lust for blood.

So please forgive me if I have a subdued response to Easter. I can't get too excited about celebrating the death of an innocent or the folly of humanity, bent on continuing the tradition of bloodletting.