The Sunday Next Before Easter

The “noise” of our everyday lives is relentless, and it is particularly problematic in recent years. Restaurants not only have multiple TVs, but our houses, and indeed our persons, are so connected and Bluetoothed we dare not walk alone, or travel, without some sort of entertainment or sounds.

The culture tells us firmly: Do not be alone with your thoughts. You have no right to them, anyway. Always be amused and entertained. Watch another Reel.

At the moment of this writing, here comes an editorial press release that somehow made it past the automated email spam filters at Google. It is from Monaco-based Ocean Premium, a nice couple who like to give ideas on the toys that charter operators put on megayachts. Ocean Premium folk are at the Fort Lauderdale Boat Show. There is wonderful absurdity, and reality, in the message about the toys for the one percenters. Please know this for the good of your megayacht’s reputation:

• “Charter brokers notice when a toy lineup hasn’t really changed in a decade. In a competitive charter market, the small edge is real.” 
• “The most underserved guest onboard is a 52-year-old woman who doesn’t want a lesson, doesn’t want supervision, and doesn’t want to be handed a helmet.” 
• “Pain Point: A small swim platform.”

Oh, this is good. So good. You are not reading the Bogus Beacon. Apparently, it is VERY stressful these days when the charter route is the following: St. Maarten, Anguilla, St. Barths, Nevis. This gem, too:

“Every yacht has the ‘day four slump.’ The toys that wowed on day one are suddenly background noise. The fix isn’t buying more toys. It’s using what you have (plus smart swaps) to make the deck feel brand new.”

Doesn’t everyone have a four-day slump if they have too many toys? Perhaps we all do. Perhaps the end of the four days is when the guests leave? Is it AI writing the press release, or a person? Why did AI not stop it? Whatever the origin, it is truly time to slow down, quit with the purchases and schedule some “smart swaps” of the toys you have on hand.

A good time to start might be this Sunday, Palm Sunday, the week before Easter weekend. Palm Sunday, at least for American Protestants, is a 20th-century reinvention. In the Protestant tradition around the world, this is merely the “Sunday Next Before Easter,” and the idea of calling it Palm Sunday was common only for Catholic Americans. The Protestants were suspicious of the blessing of palms and wished to put the focus back on the story of Jesus, and removed the name Palm Sunday back in the 17th century. But the palms survived, for obvious reasons. They help us to tell a great story.

Whatever we call the day, the church readings for the day are the same and speak of the crucifixion of Christ in Jerusalem, a place that is in the news at the moment. 

This is not a paper of international affairs, thank goodness. Suffice to say, it is a grievous time for Christians across the Middle East, indeed a time of worry for anyone of any religion across those lands. At writing, 13 American soldiers are now dead as well. This year, the Israeli government has actually locked the doors of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Franciscans from the Custody of the Holy Land, the order that runs many Holy Land churches, continue their prayers.

How does one, in our place and land so removed from danger, properly contemplate the world? We must carry on in our merry way, but perhaps we can also carry with us the sorrows of 2,000 years ago, and the sorrows of American and Middle Eastern families today. One cannot sort it out. One just has to take a moment and think about it, remembering the Palm Sunday reading of Matthew:

“And behold, the vail of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom, and the earth did quake, and rocks rent, and the graves were opened …”

There is no fix for worldly things as it is as we approach this Palm Sunday. Perhaps the best that can be done is to pay attention to our part of the universe, and our families and friends.

And on a very separate local note:

There was some good news this week, on our front page. On Wednesday, Charlotte Commissioners voted 3-2 against a Cape Haze apartment complex that would have torn up wetlands at the head of Coral Creek. Many residents worked hours to gather the information that showed commissioners the flaws in the plan. After hours of meeting, developers were foiled.

One issue heard, over and over again, is that the system is corrupt, that the system cannot be beat and that we are all doomed. This week proved that we are not pawns in this land of palms. Indeed, the most powerful lawyers and capital are no match for a group of determined citizens who wish to speak their minds and gather the facts necessary to prove their case.

Garland Pollard is editor of the Boca Beacon. Email editor@bocabeacon.com