Easter Blessings…

Folks, it’s Easter. I usually try to write something, anything about the huge observance of Jesus Christ’s resurrection and assumption into Heaven as it’s one of the most interesting stories ever told.

I mean, really. Think about it. The Deity sent Jesus, the Deity’s child, to save the world. Jesus’s path was not easy. He was betrayed by one of his best friends and apostles, Judas. His death was treated as a type of spectator sport, and he died in agony. He really didn’t know why the Deity had seemingly forsaken him, and he had no idea of what his destiny truly was.

Why was this? I think it’s because life ground Jesus down somewhat. Jesus came into this world knowing he was special. His parents traveled to save his life, and his titular father, Joseph, was not Jesus’s actual father. Mary, Jesus’s mother, had been impregnated by the Deity, and was still virginal; she married Joseph, who by accounts was a kindly older man, to have some protection and some status while she carried the son of God/Deity.

So, you are told your whole life that you’re special. There were Wise Men who blessed your birth and gave your parents unusual and very expensive gifts. (Think about how difficult it was to get or pay for stuff like frankincense and myrrh back then. I don’t think it was something that just grew and could be harvested anywhere.) Your parents had more children, yet Joseph knew you were no part of him genetically…he was more like a foster Dad, or a Stepdad, and all of Joseph and Mary’s other children were Jesus’s half-sibs. Then he was trained by various scholars and legalists, something his half-sibs did not get and probably did not want. His rise was seen as almost assured.

Then, Jesus took up carpentry. This probably wasn’t what anyone had expected of him. He was not a rabbi at that point. He was instead a hard-working man, but at most he was probably lower-middle class as we see it today. He worked hard, he probably drank with his buddies, he may well have looked at women (he always liked women and did not look down on anyone who did what she did to survive, including prostitutes), and lived as close to a normal life as was possible.

Then Jesus was reminded of his special nature, and started to walk among people as a prophet of sorts. He gathered allies, many of whom were men; they gave up all their worldly possessions to follow him and help others.

Think about this for a moment. Our analogue for this would be something like hippies. Well-meaning, granola-crunching hippies. They wanted to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, treat the sick and comfort the elderly. Rabbis already did some of these things, but they weren’t doing enough and Jesus and his followers knew it.

Consider that, the next time you wonder why people didn’t listen to Jesus from the first.

Following what Jesus taught is not easy. Writer G.K. Chesterton once said something along the lines of “Christianity is the best religion that’s never been tried,” and there’s a lot of truth in that. Most of us are going to fall short in our observance of helping to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, treat the sick and comfort the elderly. The modern world — no matter what age we’re in — makes it tougher to have deep and meaningful relationships with people, and without such relationships, we as human beings tend to founder.

Anyway, it is Easter. If you are alive to read this, you are blessed.

If you want to help someone today, I think Jesus would like that. I also think that if it’s possible, you should pray for the Palestinians starving in Gaza, pray for the Ukrainians as they continue to fight a huge war against Mother Russia and Vladimir Putin, and do what you can to help those in your communities live better, healthier, and happier lives.

At bare minimum, though, remember this: Jesus said to love one another as he loved us.

This world needs a lot more of such selfless love, so try to give some today.

Sunday Mourning

Folks, we’ve had a couple of tragedies in Wisconsin in recent weeks that have deeply affected me. Because of that, and because it’s Sunday, I wanted to discuss them in the hopes that someone out there has some ideas as to comfort those who remain.

First, a young couple from Racine County, Gina and Emerson Weingart, died at Gina’s workplace, the Sports Page Barr in Elkhorn. They were killed on February 1, 2024, just after midnight. Gina worked for Wisconsin Vision during the day and bartended at night; her husband was a meat manager at a grocery store in Mukwanago. He was there to protect her…and perhaps he did, as he died along with her.

The suspect in the shooting is a fifty-seven-year-old convicted felon. (As is my wont, I am not going to name this man. He’s gotten enough publicity already.) He shouldn’t have had a gun. He did. He shot them to death. And he ran…but was caught.

This individual now has pled not guilty to this crime, but his reasoning is ridiculous. According to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel (behind a paywall so I can’t link to it), this man said he only shot Gina Weingart when she tried to take the gun away from him. He said, again according to the Journal-Sentinel, that he took the money out of the cash register and only then shot Emerson Weingart. He clumsily tried to dispose of the weapon, and went straight home…and the police found him, very quickly.

I realize we’re all presumed innocent until proven guilty. But this man’s explanation of why he killed two young lovers makes no sense.

Mr. and Mrs. Weingart married in June of 2023. It sounds like, to me at least, that they waited until Covid died down so they could celebrate their wedding with their families.

So. They were newlyweds. Deeply in love. Working hard, as people do when they’re able. She had two jobs. He had one that was tough, as being a meat manager is no sinecure. Their whole lives were in front of them.

This suspect, who I remind you all was a convicted felon, snuffed out their lives for no reason at all.

In case anyone out there is thinking, “Well, a good man with a gun could’ve killed that guy,” please spare me. We have too many guns in this country already if a convicted felon can get one and do this, all right? Besides, my heart is sore for these people and their loved ones. They should both be alive today, enjoying themselves, and appreciating their life together. That they’re not is a crime whether this guy gets convicted or not.

If you want to help with final expenses for the Weingarts, there is a GoFundMe set up. They have raised $15K. Now, that probably did cover most of the expenses…but considering how people have donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to people who mostly don’t need it in the past (such as Mary Lou Retton, or even though I approved of it, Damar Hamlin after his near-death experience on the football field), I’d like to see more help for this couple if at all possible.

Now to the second tragedy. There was an awful crash in Clark County (rural Wisconsin) between a semi truck and a bus. Nine people died. One person, a two-year-old child, lived. We don’t know the names of everyone yet, but apparently seven of them were from a small town, Burke’s Garden, in Virginia. They were Amish. There is also a GoFundMe set up for these victims, which makes sense when you consider that the Amish do not in general buy life insurance nor do they have much in the way of health insurance either.

Both of these tragedies have deeply upset me. First, the young couple…my goodness, why did this even happen? Second, the Amish minding their own business on the bus…this particular place in Clark County, apparently, is known for being a deceptive intersection where many accidents happen (this according to a few news reports I’ve seen on television and heard on the radio). The semi was on one road; the bus was on another, it intersected, they hit each other, and all but one person died. (One of the folks that died on the bus was a six-month-old child.) As I said before, a two-year-old lived; his grandparents found a way to get to him (as they are Amish, it sounds like, as well) in order to take care of him as every single last other member of his family along for that trip died.

The Amish certainly believe in the Higher Power, known as male and monotheistic, and believe everything happens for a reason. Yet it seems utterly absurd to believe that a two-year-old was supposed to be left alone after the rest of his immediate family has died. How is that cosmic justice?

Both of the Weingarts believed in God, too. Gina was raised Catholic. Her husband was a member of an evangelical Lutheran church. (Both of them had a joint obituary, seen here.) They were doing the right things in the best of ways, it sounds like; they were considerate people, caring people, and honest people. They were the type of folks who would give you the shirts off their backs if you needed it…and their lives were snuffed out by someone who seems completely unworthy of the sobriquet “human being.”

Too many people forget those who’ve died, who’ve predeceased them, especially when they die by accident (as in the Clark County traffic accident) or have died on the job (as happened to Gina Weingart and her husband, Emerson Weingart). I refuse to be among those who have forgotten, already, the victims of these senseless tragedies.

I don’t know why terrible things happen. I wish I did.

All I do know is that I mourn for them all, but most especially Gina and Emerson Weingart. They should be alive today, and that they aren’t sickens me.