Hope Springs Eternal

I hope you had a wonderful weekend.

The staff at ILIM had a fabulous weekend. First of all, the weather was sublime – near or above 50 degrees both days and mostly sunny. But more than that, our women repeated to the crown, our men are in the Frozen Four, and Duke lost/the Big Ten was vindicated.



On Saturday, we did a wine testing Chez Duf, and tasted for tannins (tannins are several compounds that are obtained from oak galls and various tree barks – they add a gripping texture to a wine). We drank an elegant pinot noir against a frisky cabernet, and the contrast made the tannins in the cabernet really stand out. Our guests were two wonderful friends, one of whom is a regular reader of this humble blog.

I spent a lot of time this weekend thinking about 3 things:

The Red Lake tragedy
Terri Schiavo
Easter

Or, stated differently, I spent a lot of time thinking about death and rebirth.

Initially, I did not come up with much. I don’t consider myself a Christian – I consider myself someone who strives to be Christ-like. So, the Resurrection is a point of struggle for me. Growing up, I would have been hard pressed to tell you a significant difference between Easter and Halloween (in one you go out for the candy, in the other, the candy comes to your house?). So, with all of my thoughts of death and rebirth, I wasn’t making much progress. Until…



On Easter Sunday, we went to the First Annual American Indian Center of Rochester Pow Wow (held at the National Guard Armory in beautiful Rochester, Minnesota). It was amazing and wonderful. I really enjoyed the ceremonies and the culture. We saw the grand entrance, the Men’s Traditional Dance and the Women’s Traditional Dance. The MC spoke of the tragedy in Red Lake but did not dwell on it. Somehow, he found the perfect balance between noting it, responding to it, but not allowing it to remove the celebratory nature of the event (the Pow Wow was scheduled long before the shootings). After a tasteful reflection on the tragedy in Red Lake, there was singing and dancing. There was a celebration, and it was perfect. It ended up being a fine metaphor for my thoughts on death and rebirth. If a nation of peoples can continue to sing and dance in the wake of a tremendous tragedy, then rebirth is possible.

And if that did not make it clear, walking around and seeing signs of Spring (warm weather, tulips just pushing through the thawing soil) really helped to further it all along.