Holy Days

A student writes that many Coca-Cola consumers stock up on the special version offered for sale during Passover. Apparently, the Passover version has real cane sugar in place of corn syrup. You can tell Passover Coke from Regular Coke because it has yellow caps and has a KP on it or another kosher symbol with a P after it. I found a report from a couple years ago on NPR.

For Palm Sunday today, our church had a donkey from Heifer Project out in the driveway to greet the children. The kids loved it. Heifer International has for many years been one of our family's favorite charities. Its eloquently simple business model provides gifts of livestock to farmers overseas, who value the animals as an income flow (milk, wool) and as a capital asset (dowry, bride-price, or eventually, meat). Then, from the eventual offspring, the beneficiary makes a gift to another farmer family and proudly becomes a donor himself or herself. And thus, paradoxically, does generosity make the poor as great in spirit and heart as the rich.

As you probably know, the donkey is the symbolic animal for Palm Sunday, because the absurd "prince" that Christians worship rode triumphantly into Jerusalem on the back of -- not a warhorse -- but a donkey. Of course, that was a long time ago. Our princes know better now how to keep us safe with mighty weapons.

Happy holy days to you and yours.