Lammas (Lugnasad)

Well, what an interesting summer it has been for our family. We spent three weeks in Europe early in the summer, arriving in London just seven hours after bombs ripped through three underground trains and a double-decker bus. It made for an interesting trip with no busses or undergrounds running when we arrived in London and not a taxi to be seen. It took about two and a half hours to shepherd my family to our hotel as we passed through the first of what we learned were referred to as diversions, taking a surface train to the suburbs and then taking another back into town nearer our hotel. We were diverted twice more during the week and evacuated twice, including once from our hotel and once from the British museum. And I asked myself repeatedly, how many must die, and for what?

Lughnasad, or Lammas is the cross-quarter festival half way between summer solstice and fall equinox. In ancient times, the seasons began on the cross-quarters with the midpoint of each marked by the equinoxes and solstices. Hence we get “Midsummer Night”, on June 20, and “Midwinter Night”, On December 21. They used to be in the middle of the season. Fall begins at the beginning of August with the middle of fall coming September 21st.

This celebration is the wake of the Corn King, Lugh, who must die each year in order for harvest to occur. We talk about the grain standing ripe in the fields, not yet harvested. It begins the season in which the grain, already dead or dying, is drying on the stalk. In Pagan traditions, Lughnasad is a time to make or remember the sacrifice of the corn king, and other sacrifices. In that spirit, I’ve chosen, in no particular order, a number of stories about sacrifice.

Tuba City, AZ

On March 23, 2003, Private First Class Lori Ann Piestewa became the first American woman soldier killed in the Iraq war, and the first Native American woman, a Hopi, to die in combat in the service of the United States.

Lori Piestewa didn't have to be in Iraq.

Because of a shoulder injury, Piestewa had medical clearance to stay home, but chose to deploy because of her friendship with Jessica Lynch.

The two women had roomed together at Fort Bliss, Texas. Four days after the war began, their division was part of a convoy driving north through the Iraqi desert near Al Nasiriya when it was ambushed by Iraqi insurgents.

Knowing that she'd be ordered to return to the back of the unit, which was facing the brunt of the ambush, the captain's driver offered to switch places with her.

Piestewa responded that she was sticking with her mission and drove back toward the column's rear and into the chaotic battle. According to Lynch, Piestewa navigated through gunfire and debris, circling around twice to help crippled vehicles before a rocket-propelled grenade hit Piestewa's Humvee.

The impact of the grenade, sustained on the driver's side, forced the vehicle to swerve into a 5-ton tractor trailer, instantly killing three soldiers. Piestewa and Lynch, both injured badly but still alive, were taken to an Iraqi hospital. Piestewa died shortly after arriving.

She went to war, but as a Hopi warrior she believed above all in peace, in doing no harm to others. "I’m not trying to be a hero," she told a friend just before the invasion. "I just want to get through this crap and go home."

Her fellow soldiers remember her differently. When Jessica Lynch thanked a long list of people at her triumphant homecoming in West Virginia, she devoted her final words to Piestewa. "Most of all," Lynch said that day, "I miss Lori."

I ask, “Who must die that we may live?”

Neah Bay, Washington

In 1855, The Makah entered into a treaty with the United States wherein they ceded title to thousands of acres of land in exchange for the federal Government's protection of their ancient whaling traditions. The Treaty of Neah Bay is the only treaty with such a clause written into it.

On the Morning of May 17, 1999, Makah whalers accomplished what they had prepared and trained months for. That morning, as the news of the successful hunt spread, the village of Neah Bay assembled on the beach to welcome the whale to the community as their ancestors did more than 70 years ago.

The whale was then prayed over as were the whalers. Prayers were offered to thank the whale for giving its life to sustain that of the Makah and to free its spirit for passage to the other side.

Since then, the Makah have been involved in several court battles to retain their whaling rights which continue to be a link to the past and a source of pride for Makah both young and old.

I ask, “Who must die that we may live?”

Jerusalem, Israel, from the Christian Scriptures, John 18: 12-14.
Then the band and the captain and officers of the Jews took Jesus, and bound Him, and led Him away to Annas first; for he was father in law to Caiaphas, which was the high priest that same year. Now Caiaphas was he, which gave counsel to the Jews, that it was expedient that one man should die for the people.

I ask, “Who must die, that we may live?”

London, England

Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes, 27, was shot seven times in the head and once in the shoulder, at Stockwell Tube station, south London, on Friday. July 22, 2005.
"We are all desperately sorry for the death of an innocent person and I understand entirely the feelings of the young man's family, but we also have to understand the police are doing their job in very, very difficult circumstances," Prime Minister Tony Blair said.

Menezes was followed by plainclothes officers after he left an apartment bloc in Tulse Hill that was under surveillance. Wearing a padded jacket, he boarded a bus and traveled to the nearby Stockwell subway station. According to officials, his clothing and behavior aroused the suspicions of police, who ordered him to stop.
Witnesses said Menezes ran into a subway car, where officers shot him. It was unclear why Menezes, who spoke English, did not stop.

"Had the circumstances been different and had this turned out to be a terrorist, and they had failed to take that action, they would have been criticized the other way," said Blair.

And I ask myself, “Who must die that we may live?”

A different twist on the story from Richmond, Virginia

Susan Torres, a pregnant 26-year-old researcher at the National Institutes of Health, lost consciousness from a stroke May 7 after aggressive melanoma spread to her brain. Her husband, Jason Torres, said doctors told him his wife's brain functions had stopped.

Jason Torres quit his job to be by his wife's side, and last month her fetus passed the 24th week of development — the earliest point at which doctors felt the baby would have a reasonable chance to survive.

Kept on life support to give her fetus more time to develop, Susan Torres gave birth to a baby girl Tuesday, August 2, 2005. The brain dead woman who was kept alive for three months so she could deliver the child she was carrying was removed from life support Wednesday and died.

And I ask myself, “Who must live, that we may live?”

Beryozovaya Bay, about 10 miles off Kamchatka Peninsula’s east coast.

On Saturday, August 12, 2000 the giant Russian nuclear submarine Kursk -- carrying a crew of 118 -- sank in the icy waters of the Barents Sea after what Russian officials described as a "catastrophe that developed at lightning speed." More than a week later divers opened the rear hatch of the sub but found no survivors.

Yesterday, with oxygen supplies dwindling after nearly three days underwater off the Kamchatka Peninsula, rescuers were racing to try and bring a 44-foot-long AS-28 submarine to the surface in Beryozovaya Bay, about 10 miles off Kamchatka’s east coast. Last night, or early this morning local time, the Russian mini-submarine that was tangled in cables 600 feet down in the Pacific resurfaced with all seven crew members.

The difference? In sharp contrast to the August 2000 Kursk disaster, when authorities held off asking for help until hope was nearly exhausted, Russian military officials quickly sought help from U.S. and British authorities. A British remote-controlled vehicle on cut away the cables that had snarled the mini-submarine. US crews were also on the way.

And I ask myself, “Who must die that we may live?”

I have retold only a few stories that were the headline makers, and I’ve avoided stories of firefighters and professional rescue workers all together. But who of us do not know of a mother who has sacrificed her career, her dignity, or even her health to provide for her children? Who doesn’t know a parent who has sacrificed his or her own relationship with their children to work a job that demands too much in order to give the best education and opportunities to those same children. Who doesn’t know a gardener who has painstakingly ripped “weeds” out of the ground by the roots so that beloved flowers or vegetables could grow unimpeded?

I remember soon after moving to Washington State that Michele and I visited the Quinault Rain Forest on the Peninsula. It was the first time I’d walked through a rainforest and this one had guideposts that described what we were seeing. I was impressed when I saw my first “Nursery Tree”—a fallen tree that in the midst of decomposing had become the fertile soil for over a dozen saplings that had taken root right into the log.

You see, no death is in vain. We make sacrifices every day for the lives we love. It may be as simple as the sacrifice of a stalk of grain, a fish, or a cow, or as complex as transplanting a still living heart from a dead body. But today, we celebrate the sacrifices and join in the Wake of the Corn King. And today I invite you to join in that celebratory wake by partaking of the Cornbread and honey spread out here. As you do, think of those who have sacrificed so that you can live and contemplate the sacrifices you must make to make a fertile soil for further growth.