Advoken's Blog

Today is Easter Sunday and most of us are sequestered in our homes, apartments, hospital rooms or jail cells.  There will be no Easter Egg hunts for the little ones; nor will the Christian church pews be squeezed tightly (as they are now but two times a year).  Likely, few families will be together around an Easter ham.

For non-Christians and non-believers, this also will be a different day; even in normal times those folks can’t helped by being engulfed with the wide celebration of the Resurrection.  Not so today.

Yet, let us reflect on the words of Maya Angelou, “This is a wonderful day, I have never seen this one before.”

How can we greet this Easter morning in high spirits, as Poet Angelou entreats us to do?  The COVID-19 deaths are piling up day-by-day, their effect now moving from hard-hit New York City throughout our land, after already infecting virtually every nation, some worse than others.

Maya Angelou reminds us that every day is a new experience, maybe a day of sadness and pain, but also a day of hope and opportunity.  Every new day must be welcomed as “wonderful,” in her words.

What about those suffering from COVID-19?  By all reports, it is mind-bogglingly painful for those with the worst symptoms and facing death.  For those folks, how can another day be “wonderful?”

And, how about those in jails where avoiding close contact and getting the virus may seem inevitable?  Nurses, room cleaners, doctors and medical technicians; and first responders of all types?

Even for many of us who are relatively safe from exposure, the current epidemic has us worried about our jobs and having enough income to pay the rent, buy medications, purchase clothes for the kids and stock up with food.  Economic despair has hit virtually every family, except those at the top of the income scale.

Trying to begin each day with the view that is will be a “new day” that will offer the chances of some “wonderful” things happening can certainly help us get through this current crisis.  For those suffering the greatest, the dawn may seem to offer more pain and suffering; yet, we must seek to find ways to see that the day may bring renewed hope.

I reflect on people facing a terminal illness, recalling how my late wife accepted her coming death as an unstoppable cancer spread through her system.  She never complained and was smiling in greeting visitors while being a cooperative patient to her caregivers.  She knew her days were limited; yet I think she welcomed each new day and what it might bring.

John McCain relates how he welcomed each new day during his 5 ½ years of internment in a North Vietnamese POW camp, including two years of solidarity confinement.  He found his survival, he wrote in 2008, in being able to find “communication with someone, even if it’s only a wave or a wink, a tap on the wall, or to have a guy put his thumb up. It makes all the difference.”  He also kept his mind busy, fantasizing on recalling history or even writing fiction.  Perhaps he instinctively understood Maya Angelou’s hopeful piece of prose.

Today is Easter, a special day and a day for bring joy and hope.  That’s the spirit we need to carry each and every day of the year, and that’s particularly vital when the going gets tough.  Ken Germanson, April 12, 2020.