Heroes and Losers

Just got a year older. It happens once a year at Easter, and the years keep adding up. I don't remember much from the early days, but I do remember being a superhero. I must have been four years old at the time, because I wasn't in school and had to fill up solitary hours each day with imaginary adventures. Comic books showed me what life was about, and I was impatient to get into the story. Mum helped. She cut out a paper star and pinned it on my chest. I would spend a happy hour outside peering around corners of Gram's house looking for bad guys until snack time. Later when I started school, I discovered that there really are bad guys, and sometimes I am one of them, and things don't always stop for snacks when you're hungry. 

The ultimate epic of good and evil is the Easter story. It raises questions about who's good and who's bad, which team we are on, who makes the rules, and who wins. The closer I get to the end, the clearer it becomes that life isn't a competition between good guys and bad guys. It's about people like us who don't know what we're doing and could use a friend to listen patiently while we sort it out. The closer I get to the last page, it's less about glory and snacks and more about everyone getting what they need and becoming what we can be together.

We thought he was a loser
when he answered aggression with open hands.
But now, as then,
ignoring wounds from nails,
he listens to us not-so-good guys
talking tough and taking what we want
until at last we understand
that nailing is a loser's game
since even nailers can get nailed.
When we lay down our hammers
to be the heroes of our own stories,
the world grows kinder and everyone wins.