Happy Easter! Do Something Good!!
My back was aching.
The priest was reading the prayer.
I glanced over at the other altar boy, Al DeCarlo, as the prayer at the 7th station of the cross dragged on.
Al rolled his eyes.
I was only about ten years old back then.
It was Good Friday.
We had been at one service or another for three straight days.
I remember that we had Saturday off, but Easter Mass would be another long church event.
Cut to about a month ago.
At the Springsteen show.
Bruce was talking about The River being the first time that he actually thought that there would eventually be an end to life as we know it.
"You reach a moment when you figure out that your time here is limited. We all have limited time to do something good. (He repeated the line) "To do something good."
I thought of both, the serving mass on Good Friday, and listening to Bruce talk about mortality, a lot over the last few days.
I heard about the death of a young man.
I considered his devastated and shattered family.
I spoke to my buddy with a very sick wife.
"It makes you think differently about a whole lot of things," he said.
(A lesson I had learned some time ago).
And I thought back to the stations of the cross and how Jesus fell down.
Those were the stations that caught the attention of a young man.
Jesus fell and got back up.
He was thirsty and they gave him vinegar.
Our time is limited.
It flies by, actually.
"There's so much sadness," another close friend mentioned to me.
Limited time.
Sadness.
Vinegar.
Falling Down.
That is life and it sounds about right, for all of us.
No one gets through unscathed.
My former altar boy buddy, Al, reached out:
"Was just thinking about 40 years ago and being in church all week long," he said.
We traded a couple of texts about it.
What was the point?
Easter makes me think of renewal and starting over and it actually really does inspire me...
...to do something good...
...with the limited time that we have.
The priest was reading the prayer.
I glanced over at the other altar boy, Al DeCarlo, as the prayer at the 7th station of the cross dragged on.
Al rolled his eyes.
I was only about ten years old back then.
It was Good Friday.
We had been at one service or another for three straight days.
I remember that we had Saturday off, but Easter Mass would be another long church event.
Cut to about a month ago.
At the Springsteen show.
Bruce was talking about The River being the first time that he actually thought that there would eventually be an end to life as we know it.
"You reach a moment when you figure out that your time here is limited. We all have limited time to do something good. (He repeated the line) "To do something good."
I thought of both, the serving mass on Good Friday, and listening to Bruce talk about mortality, a lot over the last few days.
I heard about the death of a young man.
I considered his devastated and shattered family.
I spoke to my buddy with a very sick wife.
"It makes you think differently about a whole lot of things," he said.
(A lesson I had learned some time ago).
And I thought back to the stations of the cross and how Jesus fell down.
Those were the stations that caught the attention of a young man.
Jesus fell and got back up.
He was thirsty and they gave him vinegar.
Our time is limited.
It flies by, actually.
"There's so much sadness," another close friend mentioned to me.
Limited time.
Sadness.
Vinegar.
Falling Down.
That is life and it sounds about right, for all of us.
No one gets through unscathed.
My former altar boy buddy, Al, reached out:
"Was just thinking about 40 years ago and being in church all week long," he said.
We traded a couple of texts about it.
What was the point?
Easter makes me think of renewal and starting over and it actually really does inspire me...
...to do something good...
...with the limited time that we have.
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