EASTER FOR THE NON-CHURCH-GOING KIND

I'm not a church-goer. I'm just not. And I'm sure my family, both dead and alive, are rolling over in their graves and planned family plots as I write this.

As much as I loved being chastized for just being me by the church and the religion and the general tenets of the society in which I was raised; and as much as I truly adored in the prime of my vulnerable teen years being outcast for thinking differently, feeling differently, loving differently; and as much as, you know, love the sinner, hate the sin, is by far my favorite of the hypocritical Christian hype, I just haven't been able to find my place in that world again.

[Hmm. May need to revisit that one in therapy.]

And I have tried a couple of the non-denominational churches, the Unitarian churches, the MCC churches, and for me they just felt like they were lacking. But that's likely because Mexican Catholicism is just so heavy and bitter and laden with guilt and shame. Comparatively, everything else is only ever gonna feel like marshmallow fluff.

But there's gotta be a middle holy ground, huh? I mean, doesn't there? Shouldn't there be?

Ok, enough of that.

So, anyway...we had our Easter breakfast, had our little egg hunt (6 1/2 dozen cascarones and 2 dozen plastic eggs with quarters inside), and then spent the rest of our day watching the animated The Prince of Egypt (with the voices of Val Kilmer, Michelle Pfeiffer, Patrick Stewart, Sandra Bullock), The Ten Commandments (with the glamalicious Anne Baxter, and, let's face it, the beyond beautiful Yul Brenner), and The Greatest Story Ever Told (with Max von Sydow as Jesus).

We watered the tulips and the Easter Lillies (and by watered, I mean we put them out in the rain). We talked about the differences in the movies, and the various interpretations and significance of Easter and Passover in Christian, Jewish, and pagan terms (with as much knowledge as I could possibly google), and then ended our day with back-to-back Julie Andrews (Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music).

Welcome to a non-traditional Easter in the year 2010.

So, of the 3,000+ videos and pics I shot, this was by far my favorite. Right about 10 seconds in is the moment that just kills me (and then again at 18 seconds).