Easter Sunday. That’s today. Apparently a big deal. It’s just another Sunday for some, a major religious holiday for others. It’s a big holiday for Bill, since he’s the religious minded one in our relationship.

Last month he asked me if I wanted to go to services with him and his mother at church and I figured why not. He’s always mentioning how his church friends always ask about me so I decided to show up. Bill’s mother was able to make it.

She’s now ensconced at Bill’s cousin Elsie’s apartment. He knows better than to deal with Andy Capp, and so far so good. His mother seemed alright at the church. She was obviously welcomed and looked after.

Bill is a Deacon in his church so that meant midway through the service he had to go and hand out the bread and the wine. It was a full house and unlike the catholic ceremony where you have to go and get it yourself, here they brought it to you on a silver platter and it gets passed down the pew.

It was the usual length for a service, a little over an hour. This was interesting for me, when the Pastor started his sermon I immediately went heavy lidded.

I remained awake and it was a fairly interesting sermon but like in the past when I used to attend mass, meaning when I was forced to attend mass, I would invariably drift off when the priest would sermonize.

And this guy was more interesting than the sermonizers I had when growing up. Except for Reverend Pat at Bill’s former church, Metropolitan Community Church. The LGBT church.

She was a fired up pastor and usually politicized her sermons which always got my attention. But Bill doesn’t go there anymore and neither do I, obviously.

Bill and his mother were staying for the next mass as well. Deacon duties you see, plus his mother can’t get enough church.

I walked from 85th street and Park Avenue down to 42nd Street and Eight Avenue, enjoying the sunshine and smoking a Padron.

Quite a few people on Park Avenue dressed up and either going to or coming from their respective churches. I crossed over to Madison Avenue when Park started getting crowded, then over to Fifth Avenue when Madison Avenue was getting crowded.

I had an idea to check out the Easter Parade on Fifth but when I saw the crowds headed towards it I had a change of mind. Walked down Sixth Avenue then over to the bus terminal, timing it so I would only have to wait for a few minutes for the bus back to Hoboken.

Came home and turned on the news which was all about the ship captain that was being held hostage off the shores of Somalia was freed. Didn’t end well for the pirates though. 3 of them killed, one captured by the US Navy.

Here is a link to an informative article from the Independent in the UK about the climate that has created these Somali pirates.

Cut n’paste if you will….
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/johann-hari/johann-hari-you-are-being-lied-to-about-pirates-1225817.html