Cinco de Mayo

Cinco de Mayo is one of those holidays blown up by beer companies to sell Mexican beer and food. It’s not like a big national holiday in Mexico. It’s not like Mexican independence from Spain which comes on September 16, 1810. 16 de Septiembre is as big of a day for Mexico as the 4th of July for the USA.
 
Almost 20 years ago, I worked at a Mexican radio station selling advertising and I learned a lot more about the culture than I did in Spanish class back in school. The 5th of May is the anniversary of the Mexican Army’s victory over French forces during a skirmish in 1862 in the state of Puebla. The holiday is still celebrated in Mexico, but mostly in Puebla—not so much everywhere else. My Mexican co-workers were happy to tell me that Cinco de Mayo in the USA is all about selling beer and food to the blancos.
 
I can’t believe all that time has passed.
 
Time flies! Even in COVID-19, the time has passed so fast! Last year at this time we were in full-on lockdown! We weren’t even worshipping in person anymore. The bars and restaurants were closed except for take-out. You couldn’t find toilet paper anywhere. We were making our own masks. The virus was raging! People were dying. So much loss and little did we understand, there was so much more to come.
 
Yet here we are, a year later, looking at opening the Sanctuary again for church this weekend and celebrating another holiday created by American business—nevertheless, a nice holiday to recognize—Mother’s Day! And maybe with the declining COVID numbers and increased vaccinations, we’re going to be celebrating Mother’s Day more like we usually do. Bring it on!
 
I read something this week in one of my ham radio publications that was buried in the midst of a technical article on the electronics of a piece of gear. But the author (who is a retired minister from the UK it turns out…) talks about the Greek two-fold understanding of time.
 
Chronos, or chronology, which is a basic linear sequential understanding of time: one thing happens, and then the next, and the next, and so on as time passes.
 
Kairos, on the other hand, is the opportune nature of time. Think of kairos like good timing for action, or the sense of time we lose track of when we’re caught up in the moments. We’re having a good time, or having a good conversation, or into a book or movies or series we’re binge-watching. That is when we lose track of time.
 
So, I love to write, I love to read, and I especially love to read good writing. And when I read good writing, I notice that I feel the Kairos sense of time. Time flies. I get lost in the moments. I lose track of time.
 
No doubt, even as the moments of COVID lock-down kept dragging by through the tragedies of our losses, missed birthdays, family holiday traditions interrupted, hugs not given—as horrible as all that is—even as we’ve lost track of the time—I pray that we can remember the chronology.
 
I pray that we remember what it feels like in the moments. Grief, sorrow, frustration, anger, little victories like finding hand wipes on the shelf, recognition of all the things we take for granted. Yes, time flies. And we get lost in the moments. We lose track of time. And I pray that we remember the chronology even in the Kairos.
 
Whatever it feels like.
 
Reminds me of the Counting Crows song, “Long December:”
 
…It's been a long December and there's reason to believe
Maybe this year will be better than the last
I can't remember all the times I tried to tell my myself
To hold on to these moments as they pass.
 
This Sunday feels like a new beginning. A new marker. The beginning of the end.
 
I’m excited for another Cinco de Mayo, another Mother’s Day, another Sunday. And another, and another, and another.
 
Let’s hold on to these moments as they pass because there’s reason to believe that maybe this year will be better than the last.
 
It just has to be.
 
Grace and peace,
Scott