{"id":2808,"date":"2009-08-13T13:10:00","date_gmt":"2009-08-13T19:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/the-atheists-pulpit\/loss-sacrifice-and-hope-for-renewal\/"},"modified":"2009-08-13T13:10:00","modified_gmt":"2009-08-13T19:10:00","slug":"loss-sacrifice-and-hope-for-renewal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/the-atheists-pulpit\/loss-sacrifice-and-hope-for-renewal\/","title":{"rendered":"Loss, Sacrifice, and Hope for Renewal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>For my 40th birthday, I asked my friends to shave my head in an unintentionally bloody fireside ceremony in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mjhinton.com\/chaco\/\">Chaco Canyon<\/a>. I half-jokingly referred to that as a ritual sacrifice. As an atheist, I have to create my own communal rituals and rites of passage to mark the milestones of my life.<\/p>\n<p>Twenty four hours after Lucky\u2019s death, I shaved my head again. In some cultures, the grieving ululate, whip themselves, and rend their clothing. Now I wear my sacrifice as a disfigurement I cannot hide. Still, in time, some of my hair may come back in a slow indication of renewal. Life does go on.<\/p>\n<p>Although Lucky took to Merri immediately, he wasn\u2019t so sure about me. He eyed me suspiciously and kept his distance. The first time I entered our bedroom as Merri slept, Lucky barked a warning. We considered it might be my maleness, about which I have never been able to do anything, one way or the other. In desperation, I shaved off my goatee (my pride), as a sacrifice for the pack. Eventually, Lucky came around and the goatee came back.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019ll bury my hair with Lucky\u2019s ashes, as well as with shards of his food bowl, which I shattered. A part of me will always be with a part of him, and vice versa.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/photos\/DSC02144.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px\" title=\"maark justice hinton shaved headDSC02144\" border=\"0\" alt=\"maark justice hinton with shaved head\" src=\"http:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/photos\/DSC02144_thumb.jpg\" width=\"324\" height=\"484\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For my 40th birthday, I asked my friends to shave my head in an unintentionally bloody fireside ceremony in Chaco Canyon. I half-jokingly referred to that as a ritual sacrifice. As an atheist, I have to create my own communal rituals and rites of passage to mark the milestones of my life. Twenty four hours &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/the-atheists-pulpit\/loss-sacrifice-and-hope-for-renewal\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Loss, Sacrifice, and Hope for Renewal<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-atheists-pulpit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2808"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2808\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}