Dear Editor:

Easter was always a special day in our house. Mom and Dad were married on Easter Sunday and celebrated the day with new clothes made by Mom and family photos, which are a history of our growing up years. Every year as Easter approaches images of those photos dance in my head.

The fourth Commandment was easy in our family – honor your father and your mother. At least I thought so until reading Joan Chittister’s “The Ten Commandments | Laws of the Heart. Suddenly the floor of understanding opened wide and the depths of the fourth commandment became the law of caring. I had always wondered and sometimes worried how did this apply if parents could not love, or if there were no children in the home or even when the children were adopted.

Sister Joan opens the breadth of meaning by using Gustav Vigeland’s Wheel of life - a symbol of eternity executed as a garland of women, children and men holding on to each other. When we remember those who were part of our own creation, we are reminded of our own debt to generations to come. We do not honor our parents because they were loving, but because they accepted our mistakes, understanding that was how we came to respect all who played a role in our development.

Perhaps every Easter we are called to remember that the fourth commandment is about our caring for others and cherishing the gift of creation that grows through all human relationships of life.

Jarryl Larson

Edgecomb