Edward Hays ~ Author, Artist & Storyteller
  • Home
  • Bio
  • Haystack Blog
  • Artwork
  • Novels
    • Pilate's Prisoner
  • Prayers
  • Stories
  • Spirituality
  • Advent & Christmas
  • Almanacs
  • Lent

The Door of Death

3/23/2016

 

This was Ed's final blog entry on Wednesday of Holy Week in 2016,
​just days before he opened the doorway to his own Good Friday.


The Door of Death


Dear old and new friends,

     Good Friday honors the death day of Jesus, and on that day we are forced to ponder what we typically try to deny, our own death. We live but a short span of days, and it is our common belief that the day of our death ends all of them, so no wonder we try to deny its ugly reality. Christians revere the image of the cross, a paradoxical sign of the power of repulsive evil and also the triumph of life over death. Among the countless meanings of the symbol of the cross is the End; so it is used to mark grave sites. Traditionally tomb stones have two dates, the deceased’s birth date and the death date…but something is missing! Following the death date there needs to be those legendary words of the Saturday afternoon matinee movies that ended with the hero or heroine in a hopeless situation: “To be continued!”

     This Good Friday consider that Teilhard de Chardin taught the need of new religious symbols, rituals and prayers that embrace our new understanding of the influence of evolution, quantum physics and our place in an ever-expanding cosmos. I propose one new radical change…abandon the cross of Calvary and replace it with Jesus nailed to an old large door! Pause and take a few moments to create in your mind this new image of Cavalry; envision on top of that barren hilltop is a 15-foot-tall, 8-foot-wide, old weathered door to which is nailed the dying Jesus of Nazareth.

     A door symbolizes passing from one state to another. Doors open to the mysterious and are an invitation to dare to voyage into the beyond. Death is integral to ongoing evolution and its doorway to new life. Easter celebrates that death releases us from our human limitations to experience the freedom of the unlimited, unrestrained boundless new existence with an entirely innovative relationship to Life and the entire star staggering cosmos. This new Easter existence is beyond the feeble comprehension of our small human minds. Only our imaginations can create a teeny glimmer of the utter magnificence of this new life of living in communion with everyone and everything. Each of us this moment is an unfinished creation awaiting the process of being fully created into our personal Good Friday and Easter.

     On our fateful day, like the dying Jesus we will plunge into oneness in the Mystery of Life, God, with all the earth and the cosmos of billions of galaxies. Mark and Matthew in their passions stories relate the last human words of Jesus as he died, “My God, why have you forsaken me?” John has Jesus declare the end of his mission, “It is finished.” Luke has the last words of the dying Jesus, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.”

     I propose new final words of the dying Jesus! His last words were the very same as those of Elizabeth Kubler Ross. She was a Swiss-American psychiatrist and famous pioneer in her work on death and dying. When asked where she was going when she died she said, “I’m going out dancing among the galaxies.”

March 25 ~ Fifth Week

3/25/2015

 
Picture

March 25 ~ Fifth Week


Dear old and new friends,

     Agnostics and atheists, non-religious or religious, no one yet has escaped dying! This Haystack reflection is for all to ponder as we anticipate the events of Friday, April 3rd, that remembers the death of Jesus. Believers or doubters, we all need to think about that unavoidable event in life and the reality known to every backyard gardener that the beautiful pictures on the seed packets don’t come alive unless they die. Do garden seeds fear their death as we fear ours?

     More than a primal survival instinct our fear of dying is evident from our daily speech when we politely say, “Mary passed away today”—instead of “she died”! So common is this darkest fear of the inescapable that in the stone business a salesperson never speaks of tombstones, instead refers to them as “memorial stones or monuments.” Regardless what you want to call it, to each of us someday the “unspeakable” will come so we best wisely prepare for it by thinking about it seriously.

     Surprisingly the best preparation for a happy death is to become an expert lover who never tires of more unselfishly loving—more totally and sacrificially loving—regardless if married or not! Single, divorced, widowed or vowed religious, the wandering teacher of Galilee who died crucified on a cross calls everyone to wisely observe his one and only commandment: “Love God and each other.” Every act of love requires death of self; dying to the self’s powerful demands to be always right, first and in control. The need for the self to die is essential according to theologian Ilia Delio, “A self that is full of itself can never receive the love of another nor make a genuine movement towards the other.” Infallible is this ironclad rule of how to love.

     The legend that Adam, by sinning against God, ushered death into this world was the way the ancients tried to explain the existence of this dark horrifying fate of all life. Science has shown us that death and life appear together after evolution’s Big Bang as dying stars exploded outward in space all the raw ingredients of life. These star deaths were repeated over and over in the billions of years of evolution as galaxies appeared, and then our daystar, the sun, was born out of the clouds of various gasses and atomic hydrogen. The other planets in our solar system along with our planet Earth were gradually created from cosmic clouds in like fashion until, most amazingly, we humans became living Easters of long dead stars.

           Good Friday is the Great Valentine’s Day! Believers and unbelievers need to see the cross with all its suffering, pain and death not as a sacrifice-payment to redeem humanity from the punishment of its sins but rather as a cosmically gigantic act of love. The cross symbolizes the deeply profound cost of authentic loving and the sign of a willingness to go to extreme limits of genuine true affection and faithfulness. Even if it appeared God had abandoned him in his agonizing death, Jesus never once curses, asks why, or abandons God. The cross then is the ultimate sign of a love that knows no end. There is an old Russian expression that says you can tell the depth of belief of a woman or man by the way they make the sign of the cross.

The Final Exam

4/16/2014

 

The Final Exam

 Dear old and new friends, 

    Scientific studies of human population estimate that since 50,000 B.C.E. over 100 billion people have died! This Friday, April 18th, out of those 100 billion deaths one will be remembered worldwide—the death of Jesus of Galilee. It is also estimated each day between 150,000 to 250,000 people die, and one day we know for certain our own death shall be included in that number! That being an unavoidable reality, we should prepare for our final exam.

    The Galilean Teacher taught his most important lesson as he died on the cross. Are we, his disciple-students, asleep or playing hooky whenever we see a cross? Each year we have the opportunity to learn that final lesson on the Friday of his death. Among Latin nations it is called “Holy Friday,” and by Slavic peoples, “Great Friday” and by the English or Dutch, “Good Friday.” If we have become good students of his Last Lesson then whatever day we die will truly be a good day. But excuse me for forgetting again that in our culture it is bad taste to speak of “death or dying.” So, should we rename this Friday, “The day Jesus passed”?

    For so many, dying isn’t any gentle “passing” but a fierce, determined clutching onto life since the possibility of nonexistence after death is so terrifying. The Teacher’s final lesson is contained in an easily remembered two word expression, “Let go.” These two words sum up his life, teachings, spirituality and death. Giving away anything deeply valued or loved is a small death, so check the list below to see your progress as one of his students.

            Let go of hated and harboring anger.
            Let go of seeking revenge, even by speech.
            Let go of always having to be right.
            Let go of needing to be important.
            Let go of irritation and impatience with others.
            Let go of fear of strangers, aliens, and those different than you.
            Let go of prejudices and judging others.
            Let go of trying to control life, others and God.
            Let go of your greatest fear of dying.

    If daily we practice letting go, embracing each as a small death, then when it’s our time to die we will pass our final exam by dying gracefully. The spirituality of Galilean’s teacher is “Do not cling!” Do not clutch the moment regardless how beautiful, or anything or anyone, for in this life everything is short-lived! You have two choices: (1) you can let go of what you tightly cling to or (2) you can wait until old age, financial disaster or terminal illness rips it away from you.

    From his cross Jesus taught us to just “let go,” as he did of protests of his innocence, of accusations of those who had tortured and crucified him, of denouncing his disciples for cowardly running away…and even God for “seemingly” to have abandoned him. Then, with his final breath, he let go of his life.

Note:

This Friday, April 18th, a special Easter reflection will be posted here.

March 27th, 2013

3/27/2013

 

Easter People or the Walking Dead?

Picture
Dear old and new friends,

    In 19th-century America there was actually an organization called “The Society for the Prevention of People Being Buried Alive.” Good Friday and Easter Sunday are excellent days to use your imagination to feel the suffocating awareness of being confined inside a narrow box buried under six feet of dirt! In past centuries that had been the tragic fate of some before the medical knowledge developed that could determine the difference between a coma and death.

    Before the era of embalming, our first president George Washington, fearful this might be his fate, ordered he was not to be buried until three days after his death. At that time you could purchase an Escape Casket constructed with a hollow eight-foot long pipe with a warning bell at the top to which was attached a rope going down into the casket. Such Escape Caskets should be sold today!

    A glance at our society shows the need of a revival of The Society for the Prevention of People Being Buried Alive since many are entombed alive by their life work. They are buried not under 6 feet of dirt but beneath the tons of pressure to meet deadlines and expectations. Those interned alive include members of all professions, the arts and even non-profit organizations. Religion also sepulchers its clergy and believers in shroud wrappings of “shoulds.” The darkness of this mausoleum prevents believers from seeing the validity of other religions.

    Easter is not about an event thousands of years ago—it is about today! Easter cries out to those who have buried themselves alive, “Wake up and live a full life.” It shouts loudly to the Walking Dead, those who cynically maintain that after death there is only nothingness, and also to all of us whose destination is the grave, “Remember the dead crucified carpenter of Galilee who heard Easter’s voice to arise—and did!” He wasn’t resuscitated to his former life but was raised up into a totally new and endless existence.

    Created by Divine Love, we were given a destiny to become fully human by following Jesus through death to the last stage of our evolution—endless Life. At this very moment this beautiful evolution is unfolding in us, and those awake to living in this miracle in their daily lives are the Easter People. They confidently can say, “I am, I shall be, and I shall continue to be forever.”

    The saintly Russian Baroness Catherine Doherty, founder of Madonna House, said, “One day I shall wake up and I shall realize that I have lived in the splendor of God’s life within me, the likes of which I never understood.”

The Good Friday Victory Snake Dance

3/20/2013

 

The Good Friday Victory Snake Dance

Picture
Dear old and new friends,   

    The Lutheran pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who died in a Nazi concentration camp, said, “The figure of the Crucified invalidates all thought which takes success for its standard.” Indeed, the Crucified Christ seems the most un-American of images, for it proclaims that God prefers defeat to victory and is able to work more good from failure than from success.

    The Victory Snake Dance of Calvary celebrates the victory of:

        Evil over Good

        War over Peace

        Violence over Nonviolence

        Hate over Love

        Injustice over Justice
       
        Greed over Charity

        The Powerful over the Weak

    Whenever the vulnerable are suppressed and exploited, even in the name of the common good, or a just cause, or the bottom line, or orthodox theological correctness, the Snake Dance Victory of Good Friday is repeated.

    Whenever great rejoicing follows military victories in which multitudes of the innocent are slaughtered, or financial victories in which employees and stockholders are left penniless, the Snake Dance Victory of Good Friday is repeated.

    Whenever Religion is victorious because heretics are burned at the stake, or those who speak truth about science or theology are silenced “to protect the simple beliefs of the faithful,” the Snake Dance Victory of Good Friday is repeated.

    Whenever politicians and governments have defeated the opposition by creating anxiety about criminals, or have catered to greed with inappropriate tax cuts, or appeal to flag-waving nationalism instead of justice and peace, the Snake Dance Victory of Good Friday is repeated again.

Illustration by Edward Hays


    Edward Hays


    Picture
    Haysian haphazard thoughts on the
    invisible and visible mysteries of life.

    Picture

    The Haystack


    Archives

    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012


    Categories

    All
    4th Of July
    Acedia
    Adam
    Advent
    Advertising
    Advice
    Affection
    Agape
    Agnostics
    Alleluia
    All Hallows Eve
    All Saints
    All Souls Day
    Alms
    Alone
    Alzheimer’s
    Amish
    Anger
    Anno Domino
    Apocalyptic
    Apostles' Creed
    April Fools
    Arrows
    Ashes
    Ash Wednesday
    Atheist
    Authenticity
    Awe
    Axe Handle
    Aztec Prayer
    Beauty
    Begging
    Belief
    Beliefs
    Believe
    Bethlehem
    Big Bang
    Blessing
    Blind Faith
    Bog
    Bondage
    Book Of Proverbs
    Born Again
    Boss
    Boundaries
    Brevity
    Broken Heart
    Bug
    Bull's-eye
    Bullying
    Carnival Of Grief
    Catalyst
    Caveman
    Celts
    Change
    Chaos
    Chardin
    Charity
    Cheating
    Child-Heart
    Chinese New Year
    Christmas
    Church
    Climate Change
    Clocks
    Coach Jesus
    Cold
    Commercialism
    Compassion
    Competition
    Conflict
    Congress
    Congress Of Fools
    Conscience
    Consumerism
    Cooking Food
    Cosmic Evolution
    Cosmic Prayers
    Cosmos
    Costumes
    Courage
    Cousins
    Cq
    Creation
    Creativity
    Cross
    Crucified Christ
    Crucifix
    Cupid
    Dalai Lama
    Dancing
    Daredevil
    Daring
    Dearly Beloved
    Death
    Debts
    Decisions
    Dementia
    Denial
    Depression
    Dieting Problems
    Disciples
    Discipline Of Listening
    Discovery Of Fire
    Disease
    Disobeying
    Disobeying Religious Laws
    Disruptive
    Divine Mystery
    Divine Presence
    Doctor
    Dogs
    Doomsday
    Doubt
    Dying
    Earth
    Easter
    Easter People
    Ecology
    Economy
    Ed's Funeral Homily
    Ed's Memorial Card
    Elderly
    Emancipation
    Emmanuel
    Emmaus
    Empathy
    Enjoyment Of Life
    Enslaved
    Entombed
    Environment
    Envy
    Eq
    Equality
    Eros
    Erotic Attraction
    Eroticism
    Escape
    Eternity
    Euthanasia
    Evil
    Evil Eye
    Excellence
    Expectations
    Explorer
    Eyesight
    Faith
    Family
    Fear
    Fear Not
    Fear Of Loss
    Fences
    Flu
    Flying Off The Handle
    Fools
    Forever
    Forgetfulness
    Forgiveness
    Freedom
    Free Will
    Friendship
    Frustration
    Funeral Homily
    Galaxy
    Galilean Teacher
    Gandhi
    Genealogy
    Generosity
    Gift Of Ears
    Gift Of Tongues
    Gimmick
    Giving
    Godlike
    God Of Love
    God Within
    Good Better Best
    Good Friday
    Grain Of Salt
    Gratitude
    Growing Down
    Grudges
    Gullible
    Gut Feeling
    Habit
    Halloween
    Hallucinations
    Happiness
    Happy New Year
    Harassment
    Haystack
    Haywire
    Healing
    Health
    Hearing
    Heart
    Heartache
    Heaven
    Helen Keller
    Holiday
    Holy Spirit
    Holy Thursday
    Home
    Homesickness
    Homogenized Spirituality
    Homosexuality
    Honest
    Hope
    Hunger
    Hunters And Gatherers
    Hurrying
    Hyacinths
    Hypnotic
    Iceburg Spirituality
    Icon
    Ill Will
    Immigrant
    Imprisoning Habits
    Incarnation
    Infallibility
    Influenza
    Injustice
    Inspiration
    Interruptions
    Intoxicating
    Iq
    Ireland
    Islam
    Jealousy
    Jesus
    Jesus The Challenger
    Jingo
    Job
    John The Baptist
    Joy
    Joy As Gratitude
    Judge
    July 4th
    Justice
    Karl Barth
    Karl Marx
    Kindergarten
    Kindness
    Kingdom
    King Solomon
    Kkk
    Kowtow
    Last Supper
    Learning To Unlearn
    Lent
    Letters
    Letting Go
    Liberation
    Listening
    Live
    Loneliness
    Lonely
    Loony Rabbi
    Lord's Prayer
    Lottery Rule
    Lottery Winner
    Love
    Love Of Self
    Lover
    Mad Delusions
    Mad Messiah
    Madness
    Mantra
    Manure/dung
    Mark Twain
    Marriage
    Martin Luther King
    Mascara
    Masks
    Meditate
    Memories
    Mennonite
    Merry
    Mindfulness
    Miracle
    Miraculous
    Mirages
    Misbehavior
    Mohandas Gandhi
    Money
    Moon
    Mother As Teacher
    Multiverse
    Mystic Merriment
    Naked
    Natural Creed
    Natural Disasters
    Near-sighted
    Needle
    Neighborhood
    Newness
    New Wine
    New Year
    No Littering
    Nonbelievers
    Nostalgia
    Obituary
    Olympic Games
    Olympics
    Open Minded
    Oppressor
    Our Father
    Out Of The Woods
    Overweight
    Pain
    Palestinian
    Parable
    Paradise
    Passion
    Peace
    Penance
    Pentecost
    Pious
    Play
    Playfulness
    Poison
    Possessions
    Poverty Of Spirit
    Prairie Spirituality
    Pray
    Prayer
    Precrastination
    Prejudices
    Pretending
    Primitive Tendencies
    Purpose
    Pyromaniac
    Quantum
    Question
    Quiet
    Reality
    Reconciled
    Recycling
    Religious Experience
    Religious Garb
    Renaissance
    Reputation
    Resurrection
    Revolution
    Rich And Poor
    Risen Christ
    Ritual
    Robert Frost
    Robin Williams
    Robot
    Rumi
    Sainthood
    Saline Savior
    Salt Of The Earth
    Samurai
    Sanctuary
    Santa Claus
    Scapegoat
    Self-deceit
    Sensuality
    Shiite
    Shinto Monks
    Signs
    Silence
    Sinning
    Slavery
    Smile
    Solar System
    Solitary Confinement
    Solitude
    Solstice
    Soul
    Souvenir
    Space
    Spark Of Madness
    Speech
    Spirit
    Spirit Of The Holy
    Spiritual Renewal
    Sports
    Spring
    Spring Renaissance
    St. Benedict
    St. Nicholas
    Stories
    Stranger
    Strength
    Struggles
    Submissive
    Suffering
    Suffering As A Toy
    Summer Solstice
    Sunni
    Sunrise
    Sunset
    Symbols
    Sympathy
    Tale
    Tears
    Technology
    Television
    Temporary Insanity
    Thanksgiving
    Thank You
    The Last Psalm
    Thinking & Acting
    Thirst
    Thomas Edison
    Thoughts Equal Deeds
    Time
    Touch
    Trash
    Traveling
    Trick-or-treat
    Trip
    Trust
    Truth
    Truthfulness
    Unbelievers
    Unethical Behavior
    Unhappiness
    Universe
    Untruth
    Vacation
    Vaccination
    Valentine's Day
    Valentine's Gift
    Valley Of The Blind
    Vatican
    Violent Behavior
    Virus
    Visionary
    Visiting
    Vow Of Poverty
    War
    Wastefulness
    Way Of The Cross
    Wealthy
    Wellness
    Whimsical Spirituality
    Winter Solstice
    Wishes
    Women
    Wonder
    Woods
    Work
    Wrestling With God
    Writing
    Zealot
    Zen
    Zeus


    RSS Feed


Home

Blog


Biography

Stories & Parables


Contemporary Spirituality

Pilate's Prisoner


Daily Almanacs

Novels


​Lent

Prayers & Psalms
Christmas & Advent

​Artwork

Copyright © 2023 Thomas Turkle. All rights reserved.