Raising the Dead

Is it useful - or possible - to raise the dead?

Not in the necromatic sense, of course (To paraphrase the genie from Aladdin, "It's disgusting and I don't like to do it!").  Not really useful to talk to them, even if were possible and weren't forbidden.  At best the dead could only tell us of what has been, not what will be.  That is the arena of the living.

No, I mean raise the dead in terms of things that we put behind us.

Not everything in the past is bad, of course.  We tend to put such things into two categories, either that of the nostalgia ("Boy, wasn't that fun") or things we have moved beyond ("I used to be a 25th level paladin with a +12 vorpal blade, but that was back when I was playing").  The past for most of the time is the past, things pleasantly hidden away from our current daily life.

But not all in the past - not all that has either died or been put to death by us - is a bad thing.  In fact, sometimes the very thing we need lies beneath the rubble of our former lives.

A simple example, one the mighty An T-sagart og used one morning in church:  as he was doing communion, he gave out water floaties to the children that weren't taken communion.  The point he made was that we have become so accustomed to communion, so accustomed to the physical presence of bread and wine that we don't look forward to it with anticipation as our encounter with the Risen Lord.  Look at the children, he pointed out:  watch them.  And it was true.  They were almost barreling over the adults in the line to get at what was at the end.  They had anticipation mixed with joy - something that we with adults have buried beneath years of simply living.

Well of course, you say.  We should take communion more seriously.  Still doesn't address the other parts of our lives, you know.  We're adults.  We do adult things, important things, not like we used to do.  Once I thought like a child, but now I gave up childish ways.  It's in Paul, you know.  Very religious fellow.

But is that true?  For most of us, the reality is that our work and lives will scarcely outlast our participation in them -they will certainly not ourlast most of our lives.  Those personality traits we abandon to become "successful", those relationships that we put behind us, even in some cases the things we used to do that we enjoyed but abandoned - yes, they will probably not outlive our lives either, but is that any more reason to have abandoned all of them?

When I was young I believed in chivalry, in honor and the Knights of the Round Table, in good and truth and justice.  Slowly over time, these got ground away into the dust of daily living and trying to get along.  But just because they were buried doesn't mean they weren't (or aren't) worthy.

Is there pain involved?  Probably.  Moving rubble is never easy, and breathing the dust of ages past will aggravate your allergies.  You'll find all kinds of artifacts there as well, some you intended to find and some whose memories will bring you to tears.

We spend so much of our time trying to get away from our dead.  Maybe it's time to reconsider having tea with some of them.  We're no worse for having tried, and perhaps we may even be fortunate enough to discover that old acquaintances renewed can bring as much joy now as they did then.