The feeling you get
when you are thinking of someone who just makes things look so different, the
sense that the world is a place of indescribable beauty that you want to
explore with a person that makes each moment so special and to be cherished.
When you recognise
that this person makes you glow and fills you with light because they radiate
such extraordinary flair and personality that consumes you with yearning. I can
strive toward a sense of completeness and fulfilment with them by my side.
Love is something I
am understanding better each day in the person who allows me to extend beyond
myself in ambition, in hope, in prospect, in life, and in heart. I found in
Brian a person that makes it all matter.
Thank you for giving
me every reason to smile whenever I see your smile and hear your voice in
anticipation of being with you soon. It makes me holler to the world; I love
you.
During the
processional hymn, the clergy filed into the church, in resplendent vestments, rich
in colour, the Bishop of Manchester, The Right Reverend Dr. David Walker, with
mitre and shepherd’s crook and always to my fascination, sandal-shod, bringing
up the rear.
He was the president
of the Easter Sunday Sung Eucharist as a surveyed the church in which I stood,
barely a seat vacant, the fullest it has been since before the pandemic. The
worship conventions suffused in the mystique and mystery of Latin hymns sung by
the lay clerks, but for the English translations, we would be in another heaven
of tongues roaring like thunder to our hearing.
Onto the new
The sermon was
predicated on newness excerpted from part of the Collect, “Lord of all life and
power, who through the mighty resurrection of your Son overcame the old order
of sin and death to make all things new in him.” We were
encouraged to begin to see the new in a new from that which we once knew. The
new normal will never be back to normal, but it has to be a better normal in
every aspect of life.
After the dismissal,
we were in for a surprise treat, the Bishop said we could follow the clergy out
in the recession where we would all congregate outside on the grounds of the
church, socially distanced with essential safety measures to then sing the
recessional hymn together. For the first time, we sang as a congregation in well
over a year, it was uplifting and rousing. The first line introducing us to the
amazing story of Easter. ‘Thine be the glory, risen, conquering Son.’ [Wikipedia: Thine be the
glory]
After a short chat to the Bishop, leaving church, I
thought I will get a few things from the shops, it never dawned on me as I have
rarely been in the UK at Easter to realise that like Christmas Day, the main shops
and shopping precincts are closed for Easter Sunday. I guess you always find
that you learn something new.
At church earlier
today, it dawned on me that I probably have never attended a Good Friday
service. In the Netherlands, Good Friday is usually not a holiday, though the
Monday after Easter is. Thinking of Nigeria, the only observance I can recall
was we did not eat meats at home on Good Friday, only fish. The only day of the
Passion weekend we celebrated was Easter Sunday.
As I sat in church, at
one point the dean of the cathedral born a large cross that he walked down the
aisle to the altar where the cross was set up and a mallet was used to knock it
into place. The sound of the hitting was quite impactful almost like hearing
the nails being hammered into the palms and the feet of the Lord as narrated in
the gospels.
Traditions holding
firm
Again, there was no
sermon as the readings were long enough to pass for a sermon itself. There were
a few familiar hymns sung by the lay clerics along with Latin recitations which
had accompanying English translations. During Communion, an African American
spiritual was sung which had none of the inflections or stirrings of African American
spirituals, yet, a very good rendition, all the same.
At the end of the
service, the clergy walked to the back of the hall just under the tower and as the
last hymn was concluded, the doors were slammed shut, signifying the closing of
the tomb. All the symbolism and back at home, I had a slow-cooked fish curry
bubbling away. I think, in terms of celebration, I have upheld to an extent the
traditions of old.
Two Easter weekends
ago, I had arrived in South Africa, met up with Brian in Johannesburg, and we
both travelled to Cape Town where we spent 12 days, the blossoming of a new
relationship and probably one of the most exciting times in my life. It was an
opportunity to get to know each other better, after the sudden opportunity to
meet in Johannesburg in late February 2019.
The Easter meeting
had been planned from mid-January, I just knew I wanted to see him again and
find out if there was a prospect of something between us. After that April
meeting, the plans to meet over the summer were thwarted that it was not until
September and then December that we met again.
By then, I was sure I
was ready for a lifelong relationship with all the formalities that would
establish us as a couple and married. My projection was for last year’s Easter,
but the pandemic had taken hold, I was out of work and we were in lockdown.
Every prospect of meeting up just looked ever so distant, opportunities quickly
fizzling out as our host country was not accepting guests and England ended up
in a second lockdown.
The plan waits for
its time
Surely, when we next
meet, I thought again, we could get it done, tie the knot and finalise the
formalities. That is what I thought we would do when we met up in December after
11 months apart, but things did not go our way. Bureaucracy, officialdom, and an
absence of waivers even in the midst of a pandemic meant we had to schedule it
for another time. However, we now knew what to do.
I cannot say we would
have been able to consider it this Easter weekend, much as I would have loved
to get or steal away. There is an international travel ban from England and our
countries are in various forms of lockdown that militates against our plans. We
are hopeful and looking forward, and even if our apparently well-laid plans
have been tossed by circumstances beyond our control, I have the feeling that
by the next Easter weekend, we would be telling a different and amazing story.
Out on my walk this
evening, as I approached a bus stop, a lady with her mask on was frantically
waving down the double-decker bus to stop, I am sure the driver saw her, but he
did not stop, the driver had forgotten to change a sign on the destination
indicator on the front of the bus, ‘Bus Full’, or something to that effect, it
should have said.
Down at the park as
dusk turned to dark that without lights or a reflection, you will not notice
anything a few metres ahead of you, the sounds of revelling from all directions
met my ears. People in groups of sometimes more than six, sitting on the grass
chatting or chuntering away, oblivious of others and the pandemic that kept us
sequestered for months.
Signs of change
The rubbish bins stacked
and overflowing, empty bottles of all kinds of drinks standing on and around
the bin. Bags of rubbish that did not fit in the bins strew around for others
to clean up after the many who cannot keep their litter until they get home. I
guess that is what our council tax goes towards.
The theatre down the
road that has been closed since early March last year has become a beehive of
activity, not that there are patrons or theatregoers about. The signs for The
Phantom of the Opera that was to be playing this time last year have remained
up, you wonder if things would take off from where they left off. Two long caboose
trailers without their cabs are parked outside, I think they are preparing for
an opening.
Some hotels that have
been closed for months now have their lights on, someone or people should be
there, for in these observations, you can feel that things are coming back to
life, we might not return to normal, but we are setting ourselves up for a new
normal and hopefully a better normal.
There is something
about Montero Lamar Hill, also known as Lil Nas X that is
enthralling, engaging, and arresting. Now, I am not a fan of rap music or any
music where the apparent absence of enunciation leaves you having to attune
your ear to patterns, rhythms, cadences, and much else to understand what is
being said. I guess I will always need subtitles.
A story in antiquity tells
of the town of Hamelin in Germany where an infestation of rats might well have introduced
a plaque. Then came a stranger who promised to rid the town of the rats for a
payment, he did do so playing his pipe and attracting the rats out of the town
into the River Weser where the rats drowned.
On returning to the
town to collect payment, he was refused. The Pied Piper then returned one day,
playing a magical tune, had all the children follow him out of town into oblivion
as certain legends have it, never to be seen again. The evil of not keeping
promises and treating a person with courtesy, respect, and dignity was visited
back on the town of Hamelin by the loss of their children. [Wikipedia: Pied
Piper of Hamelin]
The piper in his
element
I just watched the
video of Lil Nas X’s new release, Montero
(Call Me by Your Name), it is filled with a lot of mystical symbolism, and
the lyrics have much hedonistic context for suggestion, eroticism, homosexual
sex, drugs, and drink. Whilst a lot of this is Computer-generated Imagery (CGI),
he descends the longest pole into the belly of the earth where he apparently lap
dances the devil before strangling him and wearing his crown, thereby sprouting
wings like the angelic being that Lucifer once was.
You can imagine the
outrage, hot flushes, disgust, recriminations, and agitation from people who
think they are good parents, the conservatives and the religious at all this
with their confected rage about protecting children and all that. Let’s hear
what Lil Nas X has to say.
Your responsibility,
not mine
To the parents: “I
am an adult. I am not gonna spend my entire career trying to cater to your
children. that is your job.” [Tweet]
In another tweet, he writes, “I literally sing about lean & adultery in Old
Town Road. U decided to let your child listen. Blame yourself.”
About the depictions
in the video with a mind on the ultra-religious that have preached about
homosexuals going to hell, he says, “I spent my entire teenage years hating
myself because of the shit y’all preached would happen to me because I was gay.
So, I hope u are mad, stay mad, feel the same anger you teach us to have
towards ourselves.” [Tweet]
So, there you have
it, you tell someone that he is going to hell because of who he is, he uses his
creative talent to give you a vision of your words and you are angry about him,
about it, fearful for your kids and much else?
Love your rats or pay
up
Therein is the advent
of a modern-day Pied Piper, the parents who loved the music but failed to
listen to the lyrics and gave their children full rein to enjoy the song and
the video that won even a Grammy are like the people of Hamelin who were happy
to see the rats piped out of town.
Now, as Lil Nas X has
continued to showcase his talent with a full expression of his sexuality and
giving life to the stereotypes thrown at many of us who just happen to be gay,
everyone is pulling their children away, but they are hooked and joyfully following
the Pied Piper.
The morale in every
case is, pay up, pay your dues, pay what you agreed, be nice, reckon that difference does not make
others less human, if you cannot show love, it is unnecessary to express vitriol
and hate.
An appeal to our
better selves
Be careful what you
wish for, whatever nasty thing you say to another might well become a picture of
your worst reality, at which point, you have nothing left to fight with, the
battle for hearts, minds, and souls, was lost when you dehumanised a fellow
human being because of their sexuality amongst other things.
Like always, from
time immemorial, just because you pick a fight with someone does not mean they
will fight you back if there is someone or something else that pertains to you
where they can get an advantage. Love heals all things, hate destroys many
things, including our faith in humanity.
Lil Nas X, thank you
for being your true self, for that alone, you might well be in front of the
queue to heaven leaving your earthly detractors in the other place.
