March 25 - Watching, Waiting

Easter is once again upon us, and while I am not a Christian, I have been a part of a more cultural tradition to celebrate Easter every year. I know that may seem strange - and to some even insensitive, but the fact remains that I grew up in a country that shuts down from Maundy Thursday through The Monday after Easter (with the exception of a few hours on Saturday, which is called Easter Eve - Monday after Easter is known as the second day of Easter). On these five days, it appears to be mandated that Norwegians pack their skiing gear, chocolate, and mystery novels and have their annual pilgrimage to the mountains, preferably a cabin about 10 miles (16 kilometers) from the nearest place to park. And yes, we get our Easter eggs, which are the size of ostrich eggs and filled to the brim with all sorts of good candy. Then I moved to the US, where the Easter egg hunt is a necessity. Still far more cultural than religious in nature - but here there is more focus on the message of Easter than back in Norway.

And all of that brings us to today, which is Good Friday - a Friday that really is anything but good. Just think about it: Crucifixion was a torturous way of killing the most heinous and vile offenders - and to dissuade rebellion, which is why 6,000 followers of Spartacus' rebellion were crucified on the road between Rome and Capua. In Norway, we refer to it as Long Friday, which is a lot more appropriate, in my humble opinion (I am trying to avoid too many acronyms here - writing in long hand is still my style). I can see that the message about resurrection is good, but I cannot in good conscience call the long, slow, torturous execution good. Of course, I could start going on a rant here (as if I haven't started) about using an instrument of torture and execution as the symbol of a religion, but others have done that before me - and probably better than I'd ever do it as well - so I will let it be.

Now, before you stop reading completely (yeah, I know, it might be too late for that), I will say that I actually respect Easter - and I respect religion and religious people. I didn't always use to - I remember pulling out Christian records from a collection of a friend at a party and laughing at the titles when I was a teenager. That's over and done with now. I cannot go back and change that - and to be honest, while I wish I hadn't done it, knowing that I did and realizing what impact that might have had on others, has made me a better person now - at least I think it has.

So, in picking a song for today, I thought about Long Friday, and I started wondering if I have any music that matches it. Then I remembered that I just had realized that a song that has more the feel of a romantic power ballad actually is about Long Friday. The band Extreme is most known for More Than Words from their second album, Pornografitti, but working at the rock show at Radio Ung in the late 80s, I remember picking up their debut album from Rockin' (Trondheim's best rock and metal record store which let us borrow one new record a week to play). While my favorite song was Mutha (Don't Wanna Go To School Today), a fun romp about wanting to have fun rather than learning, another song that really stuck with me was today's song of the day: Watching, Waiting.