Good Easter
what "somebody's sins" means to me
EASTER is the name of the album that put Patti Smith on mainstream radio. The photograph above is from her performance at the California Theatre in San Diego, CA. Jim Carroll opened the show, and Patti joined him for poetry and music.
Two years earlier (1976), in the 2-week period before Easter Sunday, I spent Spring Break in the dorms at UCLA because there were a lot of social things I wanted to do in Los Angeles rather than be back home, even though home was 100 miles away (and frequently less than a 2-hour drive back then). There were a couple other student residents there - those who were from way out of town or out of state and didn’t go on a Spring Break vacation (and maybe they too, were going to rock and roll shows - only different ones than me), and it was pretty quiet. I took advantage of this to play my records LOUD. Patti Smith’s HORSES had been released the previous November, and it was a favorite.
So I played it on repeat. LOUD.
“Jesus died for somebody’s sins but not mine.”
The record opens with a real attention-getter. Misunderstood and misinterpreted probably still. No - DEFINITELY still.
But the lyric quickly told you what Patti meant, “my sins my own, they belong to to me. Me.” She emphasized the sins belonged to her alone.
To me, this meant you have to take responsibility for what you do. Nothing more; nothing less.
And like Edgar Allen Poe’s “Telltale Heart,” your nefarious secret crimes will tear you apart. No one else needs to punish you.
That’s my spiritual practice, if you want to know - this being the end of Holy Week and all. Take responsibility for your actions. Own them.
