^“After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb. There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men. The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; He has risen, just as He said.”   –Matthew 28:1-6a (emphasis added by moi).

Watch The Lamb

by Ray Boltz

 Walking On the Road
To Jerusalem,
The time had come to sacrifice again,
My two small sons,
They walked beside me on the way,
The reason that they came,
Was to watch the lamb…
And they said,
“Daddy daddy,
What will we see there?
There’s so much that we don’t understand,”
So I told them of Moses,
And Father Abraham,
And then I said dear children,
“Watch the lamb.
There will be so many,
In Jerusalem today,
We must be sure the lamb,
Doesn’t run away,”
And I told them of Moses,
And Father Abraham,
And I said “Dear children,
Watch the lamb.”

When we reached the city,
I knew something must be wrong,
There were no joyful worshippers,
No joyful worship songs,
And I stood there,
With my children,
In the midst of angry men,
Then I heard a crowd cry out,
“Crucify Him!”
We tried to leave the city,
But we could not get away,
Forced to play in this drama,
A part I did not want to play,
Why upon this day were men condemned to die?
Why were we standing right here,
Where soon they would pass by?
I looked and I said,
“Even now they come,”
The first one cried for mercy,
The people gave him none,
The second one was violent,
He was arrogant and loud,
I can still hear his angry voice,
Screaming at the crowd,

Then someone said,
“There’s Jesus,”
I scarce believed my eyes,
A man so badly beaten,
He barely looked alive,
Blood poured from His body,
From the thorns on His brow,
Running down the cross,
And falling to the ground,
I watched as He struggled,
And I watched Him when He fell,
The cross came down upon His back,
And the crowd began to yell,
In that moment I felt such agony,
In that moment I felt such loss,
Till the roman soldier grabbed my arm and screamed,
“YOU! Carry his cross!”

At first I tried to resist him,
But his hand reached for his sword,
So I knelt and I took
The cross from the Lord
I put it on my shoulders
We started down the street
And the blood that He’d been shedding,
Was running down my cheek…
They led us to Golgatha
They drove nails,
Deep in His feet and hands,
And on the cross,
I heard him pray,
“Father, forgive them…”
Never have I seen such love
In any other eyes
“Into thy hands I commit my spirit,”
He prayed,
And then He died.

I stood for what seemed like years,
I lost all sense of time,
Then I felt two tiny hands
Holding tight to mine
My children stood there weeping,
And I heard the oldest say
“Father please forgive us,
The lamb,
Ran away…
Daddy daddy,
What’ve we seen here,
There’s so much that we don’t understand,”
So I took them in my arms,
We turned and faced the cross
And I said
“Dear children
Watch the lamb.”

 

 At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks split. The tombs broke open and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs, and after Jesus’ resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many people.  When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, “Surely he was the Son of God!”  –Matthew 27:51-54

Anyone driving through Pittsburgh today knew that something was awry. Helicopters hovered low, roads were closed, traffic was horrendous, police and fire stations stood empty, and sirens could be heard all over the city for the better part of the day. The reason for this state was the memorial service for three police officers killed this past weekend by a random crazy whose only reasoning was to stick to Obama and gun control (brilliant logic, eh?)

The tragedy hit the city hard. One of the officers was even an alumnus of my own school and our flags waved at half-mast all this week. That gesture of grief seems painfully simple, though. I can’t even imagine what those officers’ families are going through right now, especially now as Easter rises on the horizon. Two of the men were dads with young kids. The third was engaged to be married.

Since I relate everything back to music, I wanted to find a song for them. The closest I could come across was actually a song that Tim McGraw wrote for soldiers in Iraq; but in all reality, it’s just as fitting for those men as it is for the soldiers. I guess the only difference is that they weren’t an ocean away from their families beforehand, but I highly doubt that is making the situation any easier for anyone right now.

So, Eric Kelly, Stephen Mayhle, and Paul Sciullo…this one is for you. Thank you for giving your last to protect our city.

 

If You’re Reading This

If you’re reading this
My momma is sitting there
Looks like I only got a one way ticket over here
I sure wish I could give you one more kiss
War was just a game we played when we were kids
Well I’m laying down my gun
I’m hanging up my boots
I’m up here with God
And we’re both watching over you

So lay me down
In that open field out on the edge of town
And know my soul
Is where my momma always prayed where it would go.
If you’re reading this I’m already home.

If you’re reading this
Half way around the world
I won’t be there to see the birth of our little girl
I hope she looks like you
I hope she fights like me
Stand up for the innocent and the weak
I’m laying down my gun
Hanging up my boots
Tell dad I don’t regret that I followed in his shoes

So lay me down
In that open field out on the edge of town
And know my soul is where my momma always prayed where it would go
If you’re reading this, I’m already home

If you’re reading this, there is going to come a day
You move on and find someone else and that’s okay
Just remember this
I’m in a better place
Soldiers live in peace and angels sing amazing grace

So lay me down
In that open field out on the edge of town
And know my soul is where my momma always prayed where that it would go
If you’re reading this
If you’re reading this
I’m already home

Well, I’d like to think of myself as a scientist, and what do we scientists do? We observe the world around us! So, for my own amusement, I have been making observations of what I consider to be the facts of life.

• The waitress won’t check on your table until your mouth is full of chewy steak.
• You won’t realize you have to go to the bathroom until you see a sign that says “Next Reststop 146 Miles.”
• Your washer works fine when the Maytag guy comes to look at it.
• Music will affect your mood as much as anything else in the world.
• Saran wrap will stick to everything but the plate of leftovers.
• Cheesecake tastes better when you’re on a diet.
• Change isn’t always easy (actually, it’s usually pretty rough), but you always gain something from it.
• The phone won’t ring until after you go to bed.
• Experts tell you that travel by air is safest, but the first thing the flight attendants do is prepare you for a crash.
• The first moment of laughing through tears feels like dropping a heavy load from your shoulders.
• You will only have black underwear clean the day you only have white pants clean.
• Running through a wide open field of wild flowers really is as magic as it seems in the movies.
• Ice cream will always cure what ails you.
• Wal-Mart is the root of all evil.
• Androgeny exists, but gender roles persist.
• If you are ever in a dark, creepy house and a madman killer in a hockey mask is chasing you, don’t run into the dark, creepy woods behind the house.
• That hot guy/girl will be ten times more attractive once you realize he/she is already taken.
• Life is contstantly undergoing revision. This could all be wrong tomorrow!

So I was working in my lab today when in walked a leprachaun! A relatively short red-haired man, he had green tights, the green jacket and top hat–the whole package. I paused with my pipette in mid-air and just stared at him, his impish face grinning and a bag of gold dust in one hand. Oddly enough, I don’t think anyone else saw him, and I was too stunned to speak. Should I laugh or call the campus police?

Before I could think of something logical to do or say, he snapped the fingers on his free hand and suddenly I was spinning in a blinding darkness–it was so dark the tiny stars of light seemed too bright for words! Then I crash landed in an open field of grass on the edge of a big city. The leprachaun grinned again and sped off towards the city–gold dust spilling here and there from his sparkling bag. The closer we got to the city, the more I realized that this was no ordinary city. The skyscrapers were made of giant slabs of sugar cookies and gray icing while the cars were made out of hard candy. The leprachaun disappeared into the crowd of gummy bear people, and I was left alone next to the city square, where a giant cake made town hall.

Suddenly, a roar of gushing water came from nowhere, flooding the streets and washing away the sugary denizens. I was trying my best to stay afloat when a group of mermaids grabbed me and kept my head above water. They were swimming us over to the edge of town, where the current wasn’t as strong, when I saw the leprachaun come floating by on a raft made out of a giant Tupperware lid. He laughed at the struggle it was to keep me from succumbing to the rapids and dug his hand into his bag of gold. When he raised the hand back up, he let a fistful of gold dust sprinkle into the air and it fell all around us. With a bit of surprise, I realized that I was no longer having trouble swimming–because I had a mermaid tail! The other mermaids all laughed in delight and dove into the depths, waving me on to follow.

I swam behind them, almost keeping up. Though I would have expected below the surface to be be like the city that had just been deluged, I was amazed to find an underwater castle glittering silver and blue. The mermaids, whom I suddenly realized were princesses, led me to the castle to meet their brother, the merman prince. And considering he was half-fish, he was pretty hot. Before I had even reached the throne room, he was swimming through the castle’s great hall to greet me, and it was true love at first site. We swam through the underwater octopi gardens where Beatles music seem to emanate from the very corals. But just as leaned in to kiss me, I saw that leprachaun–inside a giant air bubble–impishly grinning just behind the prince. He snapped his fingers and I was jetted out of the water, through the sky, and landed back on my seat in the lab, with my pipette still in mid-air.

I frantically looked around. Everything was just as it had been before. YouTube still was playing songs on the computer behind me, Steph was still at work at her lab bench, and the undergrad was still working on physics homework. What a weird afternoon.

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APRIL FOOL’S!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Had you going, didn’t I? You thought I had a crazy sweet day, didn’t you? Alas, I did not…but there is a trail of gold dust leading to my apartment door.

Ever have one of those days where you just want to turn on some Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, lay on some thick eye liner, squish yourself into a pair of skinny jeans, and wear a checkered button down over a thrift store t-shirt of an 80’s band while wearing a bandana around your neck and with your majorly side-parted hair combed in front of your face so you can only ever look at people with one eye? I thought you did. And I’m totally having one of those days now.

Actually, it’s just been one of those weeks. And considering it’s Tuesday, I don’t just mean yesterday and today; I mean the past 7 or 8 days have just been stressful and full of surprises that didn’t include anything particularly pretty, happy, or chocolately. Now granted, I did get a 24 hour break from my string of bad luck in the form of my younger sister visiting me over Saturday night. That was cool. But as soon as she left, I had to dive into the world of cell and molecular biology (which is not a pleasant world for me, I might add) to study for a test that I took and cringed at today. On top of worrying about my test, I was dealing with some struggles in the labs I teach, I had a rude awakening about what it means to live a state away from the people you care about, I learned that some things will never change no matter how annoying or bad they are, and worst of all…I learned that I can even screw up box mix brownies.

So what does this all mean? This all together calls for a session of self pity while eating the aforementioned screwed up brownies and listening to My Chemical Romance

I hear about the scientific method a lot. Of course, in my line of work as a bio grad student, this makes perfect sense. Within academia, the scientific method is hailed as the only way to find real solutions to real questions. As an undergrad, it was beaten into my head with such force that I would never have forgotten it–even without continuing on. If science is a worldview, then the scientific method is it’s dogma.

For all its praise, though, I just want to say that science will never solve all of nature’s mysteries because the scientific method has one huge flaw. For those of you who don’t know what I’m referring to, this is a basic order of events that make up the scientific method:

1.) Make an observation

2.) Make a hypothesis based on said observation

3.) Formulate an experiment to test hypothesis

4.) Cycle through the process of refining the hypothesis and redesigning/repeating the experiment

5.) Draw conclusion based on evidence from the experiment

6.) Eventually dub the hypothesis a theory (actually quite a feat to reach this point; saying “just a theory” is not a good rebuttal for anything.)

The flaw in this is that the scientific method is based completely on our own intellect, and I’m not so foolhardy as to suggest that we humans have it figured out. Good grief, look at scientific journals from ten years ago, and we’re already light years away! Back when I was a freshmen, I wasn’t even allowed to look at literature more than two years old, and many biology textbooks today are out of date before they go to print! Since our knowledge is constantly changing, and the universe is–for lack of more impressive wording–unfathomably huge, I think we need to be very careful whenever we claim to have any/all of the answers. Unless we want to look as smart as the ancient Egyptians who claimed with assertion that the human brain served no function. (And don’t say we don’t make mistakes like that anymore! It was within the last decade that we realized that tonsils and the appendix actually do have purposes!)

If you’re reading this blog, and you don’t know me, you might think I hate science at this point. On the contrary, I love it! But to quote Adrienne Rich: “To love a human face was to discover the cracks of paint and varnish on the brow.” So science isn’t a person, but the gist of it is true. When you love almost anything (and I genuinely mean love, not starry-eyed infatuation), you get close enough to discover its flaws. Those who don’t see flaws in science are kidding themselves because, for some, the scientific method is all they have to ground them in reality.

You could probably try to make the same argument against me, though, saying that if I love God enough, I should see His flaws. You might also say that if I retort that God has no flaws, that I’m contradicting myself. Well, I’ll have to accept that as your rebuttal, but I don’t think God is flawed. I think He does things I don’t like and don’t understand. But He’s the one Constant. Science is different today than it was yesterday. People are discovering new species, understanding new processes, and updating old ideas all the time in science. I can’t put all my trust in something so temporal or something that is based on my own reasoning. I don’t understand all of God, and I never will! But I trust that fact more than the scientific method.

Ok, this is so cool! Sea World posted a video on YouTube about a new behavior their dolphins are exhibiting, and it’s crazy! The dolphins somehow figured out how to make a ring out their air bubbles, and they play with these rings! Have I used enough exclamation points?! Ok, sorry, got excited. Watch the video, even if you aren’t a nerd like me, it’s still at the very least interesting. (“Interesting”=lame word, but you get the idea.)

I suppose I have to admit that this pure gloating: I finally made my video from Costa Rica into a media file on computer and loaded it on Facebook! I was able to get a cable (whatever kind it was) that plugged into my camera so that I could play the video tape and it would be recorded onto my laptop. Then I used Windows Movie Maker to divide up the whole video into smaller segments that would fit on Facebook and be just a little more manageable; I also added a few opening pages with my own witty rhetoric. From there, I published my movie maker project into a video file or…something like that…and I uploaded it onto Facebook! And right on time for the first year anniversary of going to Costa Rica, lol.

Not gonna lie, I’m really proud of myself!

Alrighty, let’s look at a quick fact: everyone on this planet has a belief system and a worldview. They might share it with someone else, they might have been brainwashed into believing it, they might have done serious research before adopting, they might say they don’t, they might say they don’t care…but no matter how you roll the dice…EVERYONE believes in something. Picture the most apathetic skateboarding bum you know who shrugs and looks completely disinterested when asked if he believes in higher power; his view is that religion isn’t important. Now picture a staunch atheist who refuses to believe anything without concrete evidence; that’s her belief system and it shapes how she will live her life. Now picture the elderly man who has attended the same church all of his life and lived fully devoted to God; the Christian belief system gives definition to his worldview.

Of course, you’re going to notice that of those examples, in the end of all things, at least one person, most likely two, but potentially all three are going to have been wrong all along. The purpose of this post isn’t to point out who was wrong; it’s to point out that different belief systems exist and it’s logically impossible that some of them are correct together. Rather, the purpose of this post is to ask for respect for each other.

Before I go any further, I want to clarify what I mean by respecting other beliefs. First of all, I don’t mean accept. For an atheist to accept Islam…that just doesn’t make sense. For a Hindu to accept Buddhism…that doesn’t make any sense either. You can respect someone without accepting their beliefs. Second, I don’t mean to ignore. If Christian just ignored the other belief systems out there, yeah, that will add to the church’s credibility. And if people of different views never talked about their differences, there would be no enrichment, no gain of knowledge, no sharing of culture, no understanding of what probably was an influential history!

What I do mean is for people to be gracious enough to understand that someone is not going to agree with you. Don’t belittle someone, even if you think they are the most confused, dim-witted, misinformed human being on Earth. It works both ways across the board. Those who purposely chose not to believe in any god may not understand those people who do live a life devoted to a higher being, but that doesn’t give them the right to assume themselves superior–even if they think they have all the evidence of the Earth on their side. Similarly, those who adhere to a religion would do well to remember that they are often called to love those who oppose them (depending on what faith system you operate from), and just because you think you worship the right god doesn’t give you a right to turn up your nose at someone who doesn’t agree with you–even if you think you have all the evidence of the heavens on your side.

I will make one notable exception in my plea for mutual respect because I can’t offer it myself–I refuse to respect a viewpoint that demands hurting innocent people. I think many Muslims would agree that a few extremists nearly ruined the image of all of Islam; though I can respect a Muslim view, I do not respect the distorted militant view. Similarly, Christians have faced battles with a few extremists hiding in cults or massive groups of idiots parading in sheets and masks using a twisted version of their faith to justify racist bigotry. There is no way I can justify that no matter how hard I try (…not that I really tried that hard…or tried at all…)

Before you fire away the comments pointing out where I need to take my own advice, let me assure that I am well aware that more than once I have most definitely responded to those with a different belief from me (particularly atheism) with an unhealthy dose of scorn. In fact, part of my reasoning behind this post is recalling my own instances of bad behavior. Recently, I have taken to following an atheist blogger just so I could be a bit more educated on his side of the matter. The only thing is, his comments section gets intense sometimes. I try to stop myself from joining the rabble, especially when I have a counter-argument to something either the blog or one of the comments said, but the problem is, I’m opinionated and have little/no self-control. Let’s add that to the fact that, in this setting especially, people are far less likely to use common manners. Things I would never say to someone’s face I am way more likely to blurt out when they only know me as a little icon and screen name. I’m guessing the same is true for many others out there, or at least I would hope that all of that wouldn’t be said to someone’s face! But what all those comments always boil down is people berating each other. Christian vs. atheist especially; I can’t think whether I’ve seen any people from other faiths challenging the said opinions, but I could easily have missed those. But anyway, both the Christian and the atheist/agnostic camps dive into belittling each other’s beliefs, intelligence, knowledge and all sorts of territories. And let me assure you, neither side is doing their campaign any good. Some of the arguments may be well thought out and well written, but emotion is running so high it doesn’t matter. Both sides lit each other’s fuses bcause of a complete lack of respect for each other. Absolutely ridiculous. But I have to admit that I’ve joined the madness more than once, and I share the blame with anyone else who realizes the error a lack of respect (and good heavens, tact!) can bring. (As a side note, the blogger himself tends to be a little more respectful than the commentators, which is why I will read his page. He at least gives reasoning for what he believes. It’s kind of pointless to read an atheist blogger who just sits and whines about “delusional” Christians with nothing to support his insults. That’s totally the way to get people to abandon their faith and join his side.)

Good golly I’ve been droning again.

Ok, well to conclude this, even if the context was technically race, I’ll end with the words of the distinguishedly handsome Denzel in Remember the Titans, “You don’t have to like each other. But you will respect each other.” C’mon folks, it’s really not that hard. You don’t have to believe, like, or understand someone else’s faith, but for pity’s sake, we can get along.