21 April, 2019

ask yourself, where do we go from here?

This was sent as a text notice from one of my groups (actual name of group redacted):
"[XXXXX] extends our warmest wishes to you and your families on this important day. Whether you're religious or not, Easter is symbolic of resurrection and renewal, something wonderful replacing something awful, a spiritual rebirth. We each get to choose every day whether to be reborn as someone different and hopefully better. That's what SL and [XXXXX] are all about. Happy Easter!"
What's killing my brain about this? That "religious or not" line, followed by "spiritual rebirth". Christians, I get that Easter is important to you, and I even get why, but telling someone that it doesn't matter whether you believe or not, then following that with something that only Christians would say to each other....it's disingenuous at best, and outright hypocritical at worst.

Plus, good gods--and brace yourselves, you may need to sit down--NOT EVERYONE IS CHRISTIAN. I know, I know, shocking, right? But there are other holidays. Like Ostara for Celtic Wiccans. Like Pesach (Passover) for Jews. Like Ram Navami for Hindus, which falls near Easter some years. Or Hanuman Jayanti for Hindu followers of Hanuman, which also can fall around the same general time. Like Vaisakhi for Sikhs. Like the first day of Ridván for Baha'i, which falls generally around this time. Like Mahavir Jayanti for the Jains. Sigrblót for Ásatrúar falls around Easter, as well. For Zoroastrians, there's Nowruz. And I'm sure I'm leaving out a ton.

We're not asking y'all to stop saying Happy Easter. I think what we are asking is to keep in mind you have a multifaith audience, people. So wishing people spiritual rebirth, resurrection, and the importance of rebirth...It's just going to piss some of us off.

In other news...I know the designer behind Hayabusa is Japanese. I know that the Cassia fistula is a real tree. I know what it's commonly called.

And it must be said that the real version:



is very close to the in-world version:



But...all of that being said...it still struck me as odd that Hayabusa sent out a notice about their "Golden Shower" trees.

At least they're pretty.

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hide away, they say, 'cos we don't want your broken parts

Yeah, so...remember that thing I was recovering from? You know, last year ? Yeah. I did it again. So this is Em Faw Down Go Boom part ...