Erin Go Blah

I normally don't go for puns in these messages, but this just seemed appropriate.  The local Irish pub has a bagpiper out front playing his instrument but there won't be any revelry as they announced yesterday they'd be closed for the duration of the coronavirus outbreak.  Making matters even sadder, it's cold and overcast and a light snow is falling this morning.  All of this is, indeed, blah inducing.

It's easy right now to feel sorry for ourselves.  But if we reflect on our reality, most of us are pretty well off in this situation.  We have roofs over our heads, access to food, TV, internet.  If the worse thing that happens to us over the next few weeks is an acute case of boredom, we won't have much to complain about.  This is a crisis with severe ramifications but it isn't the Black Death, where a quarter of the population died.

Perhaps this is a bit Pollyanish of me. But I think as we deal with this situation, we must maintain our hope.  To give into to despair or to hide in the comfort of obliviousness is futile.  Easter is all about God doing the improbable, of God emphatically rejecting the power of evil.  During this Lenten season let us resolve to be Easter people.

P.S. the local pub has said it will reschedule its St. Patrick's Day celebrations, so there!

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