First, can I just say? that on my editing screen, the keyword "Wicca" is capitalized, but when I go to preview-and-publish, it's not. Should it turn up uncapitalized anywhere you can see it, that's not me, folks, that's the program. As the name of a religion, the word Wicca should always be capitalized -- and that's one of the points I make on the "Style Sheet" page on my website (www.AshleenOGaea.com). And now back to my regularly scheduled blog:

"Boston Legal" is one of my favorite television shows, and tonight -- obviously! -- it was wonderful enough to blog about. One of the new characters has been representing a man who was twice falsely accused, and once wrongly convicted.

She and her co-counsel (the amazing Jerry Espinson) got him acquitted of murder, and managed to get his years-ago rape conviction overturned when the woman he had sex with (when they were teens) admitted that she lied to avoid her father's wrath. Alas, the town where he'd finally found employment -- as an ex-con and a registered sex offender before the rape conviction was overturned -- was so hostile that its government passed a law forbidding sex offenders to drive, so his job was threatened.

In the end, the town was so hostile that someone shot him in the head. His lawyer was only partly comforted by the fact that due to her unwavering faith in him, and her legal efforts, he had at least died a demonstrably innocent man.

Knowing that most of the denizens of this small town would be at Friday night Mass, she went to the church and asked to say a few words in remembrance of her client. She gave them a sense of who he really was, and led them in a prayer for his soul. But she also gave viewers the information that there are over 2 million people in prison in the U.S., and that about 700,000 of them will be released by the end of this year. What will become of them? she asked the congregation: if we treat them with scorn, refuse to acknowledge that they've paid their debts, and won't allow them to earn a living or settle down to productive lives as contributing citizens.

Of course I was pleased to hear this gently impassioned speech, as I wonder the same thing myself pretty much every day. I mentor inmates by mail, and when they wonder where they will find support for their re-entry into society, I don't know what to tell them. The Pagan community cannot yet, not widely, anyway, offer the benefit of half-way houses or guarantee employment. (Indeed, being Pagan doesn't preclude the same prejudice against ex-cons that we see in the general population, even though being Pagan does make us more familiar with the hurt of ignorant bigotry.)

Anyway, I was happy to hear and see such a strong plea for the decent treatment of ex-cons ... and then, well, good ol' Denny Crane, is all I can say. The whiskey-shared Dennyism of the week was that "hope springs a kernel." Alan Shore was, with the rest of us, bemused by this; but Denny explained it as an old corn-farming saying, referring to the hope that the corn crop would come back in the spring.

Hope springs a kernel, yes: isn't that just what we celebrate in our Wiccan autumn holy days? Not only that the literal kernels of wheat and corn from this year's harvest will sprout next year's crop, but that the kernel of divine self within each of us will spring forth to renew and reinspire our lives as well? I think it is.

So despite the shocks and sorrows visited upon me by this week's episode of "Boston Legal," I found it pithy and personally meaningful. I hope your favorite shows give you that joy once or twice a year, too.

Meantime, happy Halloween, y'all: good Samhain and happy new Year.

Blessings,
Ashleen





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