Sunday, April 8, 2012

Untightness

I wanted to say more about coming out of tight places in relation to the spring holidays we've just come through.

During the Passover seder, for example, it is almost an obligation for the participant to be loose and relaxed, to slow down the flow of events, ask questions, make commentary.

Most importantly, you're almost supposed to recline in the classic Greco-Roman style.  Or if that's not possible, to take on that kind of orientation, to take your time . . . in tribute to the fact that your people are no longer enslaved in acknowledgement of freedom you have come into.

Likewise, for Christians, Easter is all about moving from the tightness of sin and death into the looseness of the atonement and eternal life. (And wasn't Gethsamane one of the tightest of all places?)

For earth worshipers, the Estrus holiday is all about moving from the tight dormancy of winter--the cold unyielding earth--into warmth and grownth.

 Is all of this that easy?  Or are my little conclusions just very English 101?  I'm okay with that if so.

 And is this essential movement towards untightness why I love both of these holidays so much?

Anyway, I took these photos today at the loose, free-flowing carnival that is New York City's annual Easter parade.  And I've come to think more about how untightness can have less to do with my material situation, and more to do with my whole orientation to my world.

Anyway, just thinking . . . .

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