Theologian's Almanac for Week of March 26, 2023
Welcome to SALT’s “Theologian’s Almanac,” a weekly selection of important birthdays, holidays, and other upcoming milestones worth marking — specially created for a) writing sermons and prayers, b) creating content for social media channels, and c) enriching your devotional life.
For the week of Sunday, March 26:
March 26 is the birthday of American poet Robert Frost, born in San Francisco in 1874. He won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry an astonishing four times. He said, “One thing I care about and wish young people would care about, is taking poetry as the first form of understanding. If poetry isn’t understanding all, the whole world, then it isn’t worth anything.”
In this age of distance and division, Frost’s famous poem, “Mending Wall,” is worth revisiting.
March 27 is the day in 1912 that First Lady Helen Herron Taft, along with the Viscountess Chinda, wife of the Japanese ambassador, planted the very first of the Yoshino cherry trees that now grace Washington, D.C. Those first cuttings were from the most celebrated trees growing along the banks of Tokyo’s Arakawa River. Eventually thousands of cherry trees were planted around the Potomac River Tidal Basin in Washington, each one a gift from the Japanese people. During World War II, many cherry trees were destroyed in the allied bombing raids of Tokyo, and after the war, American horticulturalists took cuttings from the Washington trees and sent them back across the Pacific to Tokyo. Likewise, when some of the American trees died years later, Tokyo sent cuttings to Washington.
March 27 is also the day in 1915 that “Typhoid Mary” was put into quarantine. Mary Mallon was a vigorous, hard-working Irish-American woman who worked as a cook in many wealthy households — and every one of them suffered an outbreak of typhoid fever. Eventually, health officials noticed the pattern, and doctors discovered that Mallon’s gallbladder was shedding typhoid bacteria in great numbers. She admitted that she never washed her hands, even before cooking — but she saw no point in doing so, she said, since she was perfectly healthy. An asymptomatic typhoid carrier was unheard of at the time, and Mallon refused to believe she was sick. She changed her name and continued working as a cook for years, with disease and death following in her wake, until authorities placed her permanently in quarantine.
March 28 is the birthday of St. Teresa of Ávila, born in Gotarrendura, Spain, in 1515. After growing up in a privileged household, as a teenager she decided to become a nun. Shortly after her decision, she contracted malaria and nearly died, suffering paralysis of her legs for three years. During this period, she had several mystical visions, including many of intense rapture — and these shaped her theological and spiritual life for the rest of her life. She eventually founded the Discalced Carmelite Order (“discalced” means “shoeless” — think Francis and Clare!), a new reform order in which the sisters lived in poverty, simplicity, and prayer. Teresa crisscrossed Spain on a donkey, establishing 16 new monasteries for women. Her books, including The Way of Perfection and The Interior Castle, are now considered masterpieces in the Christian mystical tradition.
March 29 is the birthday of comedian, author, and composer Eric Idle, best known for his membership in the surreal comedy group, Monty Python. He co-wrote and performed the classic theological film, “Life of Brian,” a send-up of the life of Jesus of Nazareth; in particular, Idle wrote the film’s most famous song, “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life.” He also wrote a “comic oratorio” called “Not the Messiah,” a parody of Handel’s “Messiah” loosely based on “Life of Brian.” Blessed are the cheesemakers!
March 31 is the birthday of poet and novelist Marge Piercy, born in Detroit, Michigan, in 1936. In middle age, in her work and life she became newly intrigued by her Jewish roots, and especially by Reconstructionist Judaism: “The seasons are very vivid and real to us. Living seasonally is part of what I love about Judaism, as well as the tradition of social conscience, and the historical, religious, and spiritual aspects of Jewish holidays.”
April 1 is April Fools' Day, a day for benign foolishness, tricks, pranks, and other nonsense. In 1983, Professor Joseph Boskin, an historian at Boston University, explained that the practice dates back to the Roman Emperor Constantine, whose jesters challenged him that a fool could run the empire as well as he could. The emperor accepted the challenge and appointed a jester “king for a day” — and one the new king’s first actions was to decree an annual day of tomfoolery.
After interviewing Professor Boskin, the Associated Press published the story nationally — and only later realized that Boskin, true to the spirit of the day, had made the whole thing up!