Holy scapegoats . . .

It's Sol's day with storms forecasted tonight and tomorrow here in Okieland …

It's also Easter Sunday in many parts of the world.

Today, Oklahoma! opened on Broadway in 1943 and began a run of 2,200 performances along with several hit revivals.

It's the 428th birthday of philosopher René Descartes, born in 1596 La Haye en Touraine, France. His declaration “I think, therefore I am,” famous though it was, is challenged today by a more quantum-physics-grounded one: “I am, therefore I think.”

Two composers of note share birthdays today. Johann Sebastian Bach was born today in 1685, Eisenach, Thuringia, Ernestine Saxon Duchies [Germany] and Joseph Haydn was born in 1732, Rohrau, Austria,

Regardless of the presence or absence of religiousity in our lives, today provides us with a worthy reflection. The “Easter celebration” is a season unto itself, a season of the scapegoat. The scapegoat is an ego defense of displacement, in which uncomfortable feelings such as anger, frustration, envy, guilt, shame, and insecurity are displaced or redirected onto another, often more vulnerable, person or group. Who are your scapegoats?

We avoid awareness of our own scapegoating. Surely, we only have legitimate enemies. Really? Do you hold grievances? Who do you turn “who” into “what?” People of color. A religion. People who profess faith. The poor beggar on the street corner pushing a stolen grocery cart. LGBTQi people. Artists. Scientists. Deep thinkers. Shallow thinkers. Men because they deserve it. Women, just because. The entire universe swarms with scapegoats of our making. The persecutor is always someone else.

Can you conceive of the non-violent community quietly emerging notwithstanding the violence and insanity that seems to be the dominant characteristic of our present world? – after René Girard.

My heart is moved by all I cannot save: so much has been destroyed.

I have to cast my lot with those who age after age, perversely,

with no extraordinary power, reconstitute the world. – Adrianne Rich

The only thing we need to be saved from is our own insanity. – Marianne Williamson

In dreams we are forever alone walking the ghost
road beyond our lives. Of late I see waking

as another chance at spring.

– Jim Harrison, in “Songs of Unreason,” Copper Canyon Press (2011),