Our local newspaper doesn’t publish a paper on Mondays, so occasionally
the comic strips and syndicated columns differ from those printed in other
local papers. On Easter Sunday the paper published the Dear Abby column which
began, “Dear Readers: It’s April Fool’s Day…” I have to say that I was a little
miffed at the newspaper editor. I couldn’t decide if it was just sloppy editing
or if he wanted to move the community quickly past Easter and get minds set on the
next calendar event, April Fools…or both. After some thought, maybe the error
is more appropriate than at first glance for those who reject the resurrection
of Jesus, the Son of God. “The fool says
in his heart, “There is no God.” (Psalms 53:1a NIV)
1 comment:
Gail;
-----The only way you could decide if it was bad editing or bad attitude towards Easter would be to sit down with the editor and start asking some relevant questions. But that would only lead to why he did it. Although why is useful to know, it is much more variable and serves more to set the event into the editor’s situation. Regardless of how it sits there, it sits in a much bigger situation than the editor‘s. In the bigger one it has everything to do with “what”.
-----“What” is easy. In the Dear Abby space on Easter was April Fools. I think the idea of the butterfly effect is overblown. But its grain of truth lies in the fact that everything, no matter how small, pitches its effect into the giant sea of goings-on where it has every bit as much reality as do things causing far greater effects. We dismiss reality too often so we don’t have to deal with trivia. Though trivia is small, in mass, it is yet large. I’ve always been warmer to the idea of facing one great white shark than a whole school of piranha. Its reality is the first thing about what.
-----One thing about reality interests me more than anything else. Reality is what it is without reference to anything any human thinks it is, isn’t, or ought to be. We come to reality; we do not bring reality to us. It is kind of like what God said when He instructed Moses to tell Pharaoh that the God sending him was “I Am That I Am“. Easter is.
-----Now, that’s a little big statement. There is a mass of humanity who wish Easter would go away. Although they are effecting Easter in the minds of a lot of other people, even changing the way Easter is observed and regarded, Easter remains what it is. How could this be? How could the cultural aspects of Easter change and Easter not change? Culture is merely the systemic interactions of people and their ideas. It is a mix of minds. We mistake it for reality.
-----God has a mind of His own. In fact, it is all over the world, all throughout time, and from the top to the bottom and from the inside to the outside of every soul. His mind is not only indelible because it is, but even more so because it is right. Easter exists in His mind probably far different than we’ve ever observed it. And whether or not this editor’s choice was a big deal, it is an existing deal. As such it is automatically measured by its temporary co-existence with God’s deal about Easter.
-----Regardless of the why, the what is the small effect it makes in drifting culture away from reality. I guarantee you that anyone on Easter Day enjoying the Dear Abby April Fool piece while Jesus Christ busted through the clouds would at least notice how badly his attention had been misdirected from what is ultimately relevant. He might even wish that more people would have challenged the piranha of his “reality”. Little is not always small.
-----But there is one more consideration. Regardless of the “what” about it, the “why” might have been that Dear Abby, herself may not have written a piece with Easter relevance. Again, why she didn’t (if she didn’t) would be less relevant than the little piranha it would really be if indeed she didn’t. All these little piranha will be revealed on that great and glorious day of correcting man’s culture.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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