Singing to the Easter sunrise

Thursday April 8, 2021

The church congregation I belong to has held an Easter Sunrise service for at least 40 years. The last two years, however, Covid-19 has thrown a virus into the works. Health restrictions prohibit any gathering of people. And any singing.

This year, for some reason that I cannot fully define, I felt that I needed a sunrise service.

If we couldn’t have one collectively, I decided, I would have one individually.

Which is why I found myself, half an hour before dawn on Easter Sunday, climbing a steep trail up Spion Kop, a local peak.

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Categories: Soft Edges

Tags: Easter, sunrise

Apr

2021

Who gets protection last?

Author: Jim Taylor

I got my Covid-19 vaccination a couple of weeks ago. I’m glad that my age puts me near the head of the line.

But then Jack Knox, a Victoria columnist, asked who should be at the end of the line?

Because somebody has to be last. Don’t they?

Most of us would agree about those who should get preference.

The residents of long-term care facilities, whose health is fragile already.
The front-line medical workers, who spend all day, every day, in close contact with the infected people the rest of us want to avoid.
The essential workers, the ones who keep supplying groceries, hardware, and emergency services. Even if only one in every hundred people they encounter is a Covid carrier, that’s still way more than the rest of us.
Teachers and child-care workers, who deal daily with little germ factories.

But who’s not on the list?

The question implies a deserving factor. Which is rooted, I would argue, in a belief that the universe is supposed to be fair. Those who are good get rewarded; those who aren’t, get punished.

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Categories: Soft Edges

Tags: COVID-19, vaccination, fairness

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Singing to the Easter sunrise

Who gets protection last?

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