Office Closed for Good Friday

I've been taking Good Friday off since I was a junior agent working for another agency and was asked to help move to a new office on that day. I told my boss that not only would I not help with the move, that I was taking the day off. She turned to the other commissioned salesperson agent on her staff, who had worked for her for 7 years, and said, "what's with this Good Friday? I never heard of it." My co-worker said, "as a matter of fact, I've been meaning to tell you I'm taking it off too." From then on, we went to church services at noon at Marble Collegiate Church together every Good Friday for years, until she moved her office to Toms River.

As I've shared with you, my mom is a liberal Protestant minister and I grew up listening to (and knowing) Norman Vincent Peale, who held the pulpit at Marble. So when I take the time to reflect on Good Friday, it's also a time to reconnect with my roots and all those services with my parents.

I do the big Easter dinner as well, with lamb and ham. I shop, I clean, I cook and serve and clean up. And then I'm supposed to be in my office bright and early on Monday. The Europeans have it right, with Easter Monday off, although I know that fewer and fewer Americans do anything to celebrate the holiday.

I believe that my liberal Christian up-bringing is one of the reasons I am so drawn to horror.

After my mother retired, she asked me why I had become an agent of horror fiction and I said, "because it's the most religious form of fiction there is." She smiled and said, "good answer."

It's amazing that so many religious holidays fall on March 21st this year. See the yahoo article for the complete story. Fascinating. There is certainly an end-of-the world fantasy novel someone could come up with based on this rare occurrence! http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20080321/wl_time/goodfridayhappypurimeidetc;_ylt=Au9HCsBycnm09TZERd3dadUDW7oF

I wish all of you who celebrate something on this day a joyful holiday and a swift advent of some real spring weather.