Repetition

A naive luxury of Christianity is that Good Friday has been repeated for centuries. The paradox of repetition is that either it creates a complete desensitization or it creates an obsession. The familiarity of Good Friday is such that it surpasses meaninglessness, becoming a blindspot, as seen among many American Protestants, who focus only on Easter.

Today we remember that we are dust - just like last year and the year before and for as far back as we can remember caring about this day, Ash Wednesday. But we must be told we are dust. We tell each other we are dust. It's not enough to tell ourselves that we are

It can be easier to learn, to retain information in cadence. Rhythms offer repetition. A kind of re-membering, reattaching significance to each other and to ourselves. Gilgamesh, Iliad, Odyssey, Job, Aeneid, Metamorphoses. These are all poems, all ancient stories. These are also all religious poems. Gods are everywhere. And they interact with humans. There is