Searching for nourishment on Easter

There is a movement called "done with church." I would like to suggest being done with holidays like Easter and Christmas. And I would emphasize, this is not just to recognize the growing number of non-Christians: people of other faiths or with no faith at all. I invoke demographics. Holidays are disconcerting for the growing number of singles and seniors in our population. 

The way so much of our normal business gets shut down for holidays, can be inconveniencing and even depressing for the people just cited. 

So Easter Sunday comes along. I was skeptical that the best local restaurant would be open. This restaurant is closed for Thanksgiving. So I find out after the fact that the restaurant was open, and not only that had a buffet. Why for Easter but closed for Thanksgiving? See the kind of confusion that happens? 

I'll plug the place: DeToy's. It's the last true restaurant we have locally. "True" means it reaches out to middle class customers and does not serve alcohol. But it appears they will never again be open in the evening. 

Figuring my options were limited on Easter, I went and got a couple donuts and coffee at Casey's for breakfast. We appreciate Casey's - nice to get there without waiting for a train roaring by. 

My church of First Lutheran has in past years had a meal between Easter services. Not this year: just the usual snacks for "coffee hour." There were two services - we used to have three - and I had no problem finding my usual place to sit toward the front in the sanctuary. I realize that contradicts Scandinavian habits - sitting toward the front - but I have a friend who likes to spot me on YouTube. He keeps an eye on me to see if I stand when I'm supposed to. 

So I went downstairs afterward and found it was just snacks. I did stay there to socialize some. Now what? I drove to McDonald's which has really been an issue recently. Have you noticed? They have often had a big homemade sign at the counter: "kiosk only." The fact that it's homemade makes me wonder if it's company policy to do this. 

I went to the counter and an employee did come out to meet me. I asked if they were taking orders at the counter and she said "no." She acted like she'd be willing to make an exception. That was nice but I did not want to be treated like a special case. I left. 

So I was drastically under-fed on Sunday, and I felt the effects for the next couple days. It really helped last night that I got a four-piece chicken strip basket at the Dairy Queen. God bless the DQ: unlike McDonald's, they are willing to always take orders at the counter. I will be shifting my business to them. It's also nice they have house newspapers: the Minneapolis and Morris papers. There is no TV. I once got upset because they had Fox News on there. 

So, a tip of the hat to our Morris Dairy Queen. 

I did seek more clarity at McDonald's yesterday (Tuesday). I sought the moral support of a friend: the two of us went there together. We submitted our orders at the counter. Before I left I asked an employee about the policy. The employee said "we can wait on you if we're not too busy." 

Well, screw McDonald's. I walk in there with my debit card and they might be too busy. Have you noticed the steady price inflation at McDonald's? Can you all sustain this much longer? 

I was very pleased with my meal last night at the DQ. So I opened up the Morris newspaper. I assumed this would be the issue where they'd have a nice spread about the MAHS band/choir trip to Texas. Coverage like this would have been right in my wheelhouse when I was with the Morris paper. I paged through twice and didn't see anything. Meanwhile the paper is under pressure to not miss even one game when it comes to sports. 

All through the years, there has been a lot of understated annoyance in the public about the local news media's emphasis on sports. As someone with tons of experience, let me try to capsulize this matter for you: while sports work at the paper is not "easy," it is easy in the sense that you set up systems and then just plow through it. It is easy compared to churning out non-sports coverage, where no two articles are alike and you have to sort out often-confusing and complicated information. I mean, to sit at a city council meeting? Lordy. 

I wonder what Morris newspaper management says to critics who claim there is too much Hancock stuff. This must happen often. For sure the paper's management has talking points. I wonder what they are. I was the sportswriter for the stand-alone Hancock newspaper - the "Record" - for 15 years. I was so committed. But no one seems to care about that or remember that. 

I would have done a super job seeing to it that band and choir got its due in the press after the Texas trip. As things stand now, I ran a super photo from the trip on my "Morris of Course" blog. I wrote a post to go with that, but it was not trip-specific, as I had no access to the needed information. I'd love to interview the music directors. I have a bias toward the band director. I wouldn't dare confess that when I was with the paper. I can do that now. 

When Hancock had its own paper, the Morris paper wasn't under so much pressure to accommodate Hancock. I was once accused of hyping Hancock interests myself, but mainly that was because Hancock often had teams out-performing Morris in the sports post-seasons. I always had a big sports section to fill, and that was when we published twice a week. Ah, salad days. 

So I began speaking out about why we in Morris should not tolerate the often-seen disparity in sports accomplishment between Morris and Hancock. (Other small schools could also out-perform Morris.) 

Morris was held back by philosophy and by a parochial teachers union. And by speaking out against that, I gained scars and baggage that I could never overcome. That was incredibly sad. You don't hear anyone nowadays saying "academics is more important than sports," as a way to rationalize under-achieving in sports. We needn't compare the two. If the school spends money to sponsor something, it should be worthy of totally high standards and pride. 

It wasn't always the way it is now? Well I'm 67 and increasingly I appreciate the broad perspective with my memories. 

 

Diminished Easter?

I think Easter, Christmas and some other occasions were embraced more when there were more younger and larger families around. Today I think people just want to attend to their affairs without having to "move over" so much when those dates arrive. I sense diminished enthusiasm with Easter anyway. 

A lot of people like me are getting increasingly alienated by the big push of Christianity behind right wing political causes. With each day it worries me more. Christianity was nothing like this when I was young. It was wholesome and mainstream. Now it kow-tows to this mortal person named Donald Trump. Trump of course surrounds himself with minions, just like any political leader would. Let those people back into power, and the existence of Social Security could be threatened. They will strike down Obamacare. They will attack Medicare. 

And so much of this empowerment comes from Christianity. 

The Willie's store in Morris was closed for Easter. But DeToy's was open. So hard to figure all this out.

 

Addendum: So the Greeley's building is for sale? And the Chamber of Commerce is located there? Such a brand-new building out along the new service road. A change of plans for some reason? The only thing I've heard "in the wind" is that a family member has decided that Morris is a lousy place. 

 

- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com