Good Friday. The Christian day of ritual remembrance of sacrifice. Also Earth Day, the secular day of ritually remembering, noticing, the sacrifice we have been requiring of our Mother. Are we making real changes?

In his online Daily Meditations, Richard Rohr writes that sacrifice is the "deep recognition that something always has to die for something bigger to be born." He says the real requirement is to let go our "beloved ego," that false self that we hide behind, beneath, within. "The central issue at work is the human inclination to kill others, in any multitude of ways, instead of dying ourselves—to our own illusions, pretenses, narcissism, and self-defeating behaviors. Jesus dies 'for' us not in the sense of 'in place of' but 'in solidarity with.' ”

In the final chapter of The Alchemy of Illness, a chapter titled "Mythology and the Dark Heart of Healing" (and I am informed by the idea that, as Aviva Zornberg says, a myth is not a story of what never happened but a story of what happens over and over again) Kat Duff writes of various Native American mythologies, each of which requires sacrifice. She writes, "Of course, we are not always equal to the task, capable of longing, crying or singing, giving or receiving assistance; sometimes our hearts are shut tight with pain or bitterness. The continued trials and losses of chronic illness, like all adversities, strip away our margins for error and eliminate the easygoing trust, tolerance, and generosity of well-being. We get fussy, rigid, and particular about our ways and needs, beg for help while resisting intervention, complain bitterly, and take offense readily, in our wounded vulnerability. The places we cling to, hoarding rather than sharing, are often the places that must give way to the sacrifice: our pocketbooks, privacy, or pride. Doctor's visits usually take all three." (139)

I have not made clear, here, the connections I see. Perhaps, though, my reader will ponder his own understanding of sacrifice, and it's role.

Meanwhile, besides being Good Friday and Earth Day, today's Bernie's Birthday. We shall do our best to have a celebration.