weekly post from April 6, 2007

Hello friends & loved ones,

It's 25 degrees here in Western, NY and the snow is back and doesn't look like it's going to let up; at least not before the end of next week. They are even calling for a snowstorm sometime next week. It's frickin' April, ok, enough with the white stuff! At this rate we won't see summer until August and by then we'll be getting ready for fall again.

It's that time again when we celebrate Jesus' resurrection and the days leading up to that celebration. We had a wonderful Seder at church last night with bitter herbs, charoset, parsley, matzah bread, horseradish, gefilte fish (which was actually quite good but cold) and green beans and chicken. We even used the four cups (which represent Sanctification & Freedom, Deliverance, Redemption, and Thanksgiving & Hope) which were filled with either grape juice or Manischewitz wine.

Jesus Is The Reason For The Season: There's a song that starts with the line, "It's all about you, Jesus" and I cringe every time I hear it. Yes, it is about Jesus but let's not forget that we do all of the work. Having said that, the Man has managed to dominate the news this week....again. Some people may be saying, "Is He still around? Didn't He die?" Well, yes, he did about 2,000 some odd years ago. The first story came out of Chicago where a senior at the Art Institute of Chicago made a papier mache statue of Jesus complete with robes, a neon blue halo and the face of....Barack Obama. Obama's campaign distanced the presidential hopeful from the artwork and many, including Obama's campaign, felt the artwork offended religious sensibilities. Yeah, yeah, yeah, well what about the statue itself. Why couldn't it look like, say, LL Cool J, or Denzel Washington, or even Jamie Foxx. Instead it looks like someone with the initials B.O.

The second story in the news was out of NY. The sculpture titled My Sweet Lord was cancelled at an exhibit in NY due to Catholic (surprise, surprise) protesters. Well, here's the reason. It's a sculpture of Jesus made out of chocolate and, by the way, it's anatomically correct. Well, Jesus was a man, wasn't he? The sculpture was made from 90kg of chocolate and, while it wasn't intended to be eaten, Jesus did say to the disciples at the last supper, "Take this bread, my body, and eat it." (ok, I'm paraphrasing but essentially he was telling the disciples to eat him).

And speaking of eating Jesus you can actually eat a chocolate Jesus; and it's bite size too. Great for freaking people out during Communion or for noshing between meals, you can eat Jesus every day of the week. It's featured at www.chocolatefantasies.com and for those of you who need to get in touch with your feminine side, there's even chocolate Mary.

Also stay safe, stay happy, and stay healthy.

Until next week....

peace,

paul