A somber and random thought: Considering the scenes of Mardi Gras, I can't help but think that Christianity is getting what it deserves. Christianity adopted, co-opted, and re-imagined so many pagan holidays, is it any wonder that paganism is fighting back and conquering Christian holy days? Pagan materialism is retaking its old holidays (Christmas and Easter) and finding ways to compromise uniquely Christian ones (Lent). The great wheels of history that had carried Christianity forward seem to baring away its dying carcass. I am reminded of Matthew Arnold's Dover Beach:
The Sea of Faith
Was once, too, at the full, and round earth's shore
Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furl'd.
But now I only hear
Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,
Retreating, to the breath
Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear
And naked shingles of the world.
A consolation is that the sea, whether advancing or retreating, is still the sea.
My wife reminded me that last year I gave up video games for Lent. I had blocked that painful memory out of my mind. She claims that I was a very productive member of the household until Easter. Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday...hmmmm
RIP Don Knotts 1924-2006
Peace
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