seeds and speeds

I'm not late. My blog server failed. Here's the end of April stuff.

While a small island country watched a prince get married, my brother turned 75 and invited me to have lunch with this group. Easter gathered the larger family together at my sister's retirement community dining hall. She treated. Thanks, Evie. And I did the annual rototilling of the garden.

Easter dinner

Here's the kitchen of my sister's church in Akron. The five in their twenties had already gone when we thought of taking a photo.

invisible power

I'm playing organ at a Lancaster church this Sunday, Easter. That's an invisible product, right? Useless if you are deaf. The resurrection will be the subject. Two thousand years ago visible. Today, invisible. So here comes a guy from this truck to my door with a bill for $84 for some invisible stuff. Precisely 20.8 gallons. How do they measure this stuff out? Fine print says deduct ten percent if paid in ten days. I'll do that. The box is checked beside sniff test--which gives me my theology thought for the day. If you can't see it, try to smell it. Or, if it lights your fire it's something.

how early can Easter be?

This year Easter falls on March 23. Could it ever be earlier? Technically, yes. It can fall on March 22. That is quite rare. The last time it did was the year 1818, when James Monroe was President of the US.

Think you can stick around for the next time Easter falls on March 22. Good luck trying. The next year it is that early is the year 2285. March 23 happens a little more frequently.

The last time Easter was on March 23 was in 1913. If you're 95 years old or older you were around then. The next time it comes March 23 will be 220 years from now, in 2228.

What's the deal? The celestial spheres, that's the deal. Easter is fixed to come the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox, which is March 20 or 21. How do I know all this? I read it in the Christian Century. I figured out myself the Monroe thing.

Easter can come anytime in your subjective heart you want. But I like the objective reality of the system we have had for centuries. It also makes it harder for secular societies to co-opt it and make it fit in the commercial flow of things. Oh, those daffodils are not from this year. I had to use a late March, 2007, photo, taken behind my barn.

Easter is a response to universe-wide reality. Hallelujah!