The True Meaning Of Easter For Me

Warning! If you are the least bit serious about religion, then turn away from this screen right now, because the true meaning of Easter for me is View Master. When I was little, I had a really nice collection of View Master reels. How I loved them. One set in particular brought me endless hours of entertainment; The Easter Story as presented by View Master in 21 scenes, "faithfully reproduced" in 3D!!! The reels included were EA-1 The Resurrection, EA-2 The Appearances of Jesus and EA-3 The Ascension. Although an up close and personal shot of Thomas sticking his hand into a nasty torso wound was pretty compelling, and The Last Supper (which a friend of mine calls "Separate Checks!") was also rad, nothing was more fun than switching back and forth between #6 and #7 on the last reel, for these were the images of Jesus ascending into heaven. In #6 he's standing among the apostles, instructing them to "Go forth and teach all nations". In #7, he's hovering about 15 feet above the apostles, bathed in a beam of light and headed home. Wow. I loved clicking back and forth between the images in a move I have since come to call "Now you see him, now you don't". PLEASE, don't be offended. I was raised a Catholic and I loved the whole mystery of the Mass and the Latin and the rest of the hocus pocus, er, "rich pagentry". When I was ten I announced to my parents that I planned on becoming a nun, after spending a year at a convent boarding school. Instead of being pleased, my father reacted as if he were going to have a coronary (which eventually did materialize, but it was a few years further down the road and thanks for not taking your blood pressure meds, by the way) and I was prohibited from going back. What the hell, they were the ones who gave me the "nun doll" for my First Communion. The doll who curiously had no underpants. They also gave me a miniature printing press, so as a result I didn't dwell on the pantless issue too much at the time. It was public school for me from that point on. When things switched to English and the guitar strummers took over in place of the Latin liturgy, which I loved then and still do to this day, they pretty much lost me. But this weekend I will return to a time of innocence and deep mystical contemplation as I do every Easter. Thanks to a strategic purchase on eBay a few years ago, I will be happily clicking my vintage 1950 Reel 3 between #6 and #7 as I engage in my own personal celebration of The Easter Story. Yeah, Mea culpa. And if all of this really bothers you, feel free to spend $65 on the ultra-collectible reel entitled (no lie) "Jesus Teaches Forgiveness" and then let me know if that one does anything for you. Remember, it's "Forgiveness in 3D!!!". The best kind there is.