*The following was published in the February 27-March 5, 2022 issue

I was in Chapters with my daughter the other day and as we waited to check out I noticed something curious on a rack near the cash. 

The items that drew my eye were two magazines – National Geographic and Life. Not that odd considering I’m employed in the print industry and would notice what others in the business are up to, but what caused me pause were the covers; Jesus and Lucille Ball. National Geographic’s Jesus cover drew me in for a bunch of reasons, first being the fact that The Herald has had Christ on our cover twice a year since I can recall, but what led to me to pick up and flick through the edition at the cash was the juxtaposition of the magazine and its cover subject. 

Steeped in Science

You’d expect National Geographic might depict king penguins on its cover, but the man referred to as the King of the Jews? It didn’t quite make sense. Skeptical, I had to keep reading. 

“Before Jesus became one of the most famous figures in the world, he was a shepherd and teacher in Galilee living an unremarkable life,” the description read. 

The magazine then explained that its cover story titled, The Story of Jesus, delved into Jesus’s youth, life and work, plus it examined the world he lived in at the time by “following in Jesus’s footsteps from Bethlehem to Nazareth” in a “lavishly illustrated portrait of the life of a profit.” 

How compelling that a publication steeped in science and fact would be filled with a faith-based subject, particularly in these pandemic times. Then my eye was drawn to Life’s I Love Lucy cover. “She was capricious, outspoken, madcap, and never embarrassed. And we loved her for it,” the edition’s description read, adding they were honouring the famous red head’s legacy 30 years after her death. 

Life magazine has had some interesting covers, from presidents to Peanut cartoon characters. Still, seeing Lucy – the woman many attribute to launching the modern day sitcom – in a kitchen setting, wearing an apron and clutching a mixing bowl – kind of threw me and left me with eyebrows raised. 

Were they drawing on simpler times? Or was it something else entirely? Just, for me, seeing the woman who drew more viewers than the inauguration of a president mixing batter made me feel a little bitter considering Life’s motto is “to enable the American public to see life, to see the world … to be amazed … and be instructed.” 

How curious a cover, I thought, but then it wasn’t all that long ago that this country’s Prime Minister was on the cover of Rolling Stone as those across the border asked, “why can’t he be our president?” 

Summing it Up

What ever floats your boat. I went home a little confused. Turning on the news reminded me yet again that these are indeed confusing and curious times. 

Our ‘rock star’ Prime Minister made history that very evening invoking the Emergencies Act in order to address the trucker protest, a movement I’m still trying to wrap my head around. And, as a mother of a lad who will soon be on his way overseas, news that a $500 mil loan and  $7.8 mil in lethal weapons were sent to Ukraine by the Canadian government in order to deter further Russian aggression all left me a tad rattled. 

I turned it all off and did that day’s Wordle puzzle; the world of the day? Cynic. Just about sums it up, I suppose.

Pam Pardy, The Herald’s Managing Editor, can be reached by emailing [email protected]