RSS FEEDEaster happening…
Earthsprings. Outside, at the picnic benches, surrounded by white blooming dogwood trees, my grandsons and I are starting to dye Easter eggs. We have carefully measured the vinegar and water and stirred the dye. We have each gently dropped a boiled egg into separate cups of lovely color.
The seven-year-old counts how many more eggs he will get to dye. The four-year-old begins immediately to try to get his egg out of the dye.
“Leave it there awhile,” I say. “Let it dye.”
He does as he is told. He sits silently and stares at the egg in the colored water.
For a few minutes. Then, again, he struggles to get the egg out of the cup.
“The longer you leave it in there, the more it will dye,” I say to him.
He looks up at me in astonishment and disbelief, his dark eyes wide in his sweet round face, and says, “But Grandma, do you really, really want it to really die?”
After my awareness dawns, I spend a few moments attempting to explain to him the difference between those two words. I can tell he never really trusts my reasoning abut this issue, and so I help him get his precious egg out of the dye/die.
Later, I reflect that this is indeed a valid question for Easter, and a valid distinction. So many things “dye” my consciousness, what do I “really, really” want to be careful to keep eternally alive.
Certainly love. And the passionate concerns of innocence.
I think I once saw mention of a beauty salon with the slogan, “Curl up and dye.” Oh, well. English is a strange and sometimes confusing language. I once mentioned this in an ESL class where I was subbing. Bad idea. They found it disturbing.
Wonderfully ironic ! Memorable teaching/learning for us all! Love it …