{"id":19200,"date":"2023-02-22T18:18:38","date_gmt":"2023-02-22T22:18:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/?p=19200"},"modified":"2023-02-22T18:18:38","modified_gmt":"2023-02-22T22:18:38","slug":"for-you-are-dust","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/2023\/02\/for-you-are-dust\/","title":{"rendered":"For You Are Dust"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"a
image via pixabay<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Remember you are dust, and unto dust you shall return.<\/p>\n

Dust is not a bad or a good thing. It\u2019s only a small thing. Anything broken up into tiny enough pieces becomes dust: ashes, sand worn very fine by the wind, sawdust from a mill.<\/p>\n

Remember you are dust, and unto dust you shall return.<\/h3>\n

When I watched the 9\/11 terrorist attacks<\/a> happen over twenty years ago, I was traumatized by the cloud. I couldn\u2019t imagine anything so sinister as that gigantic building collapsing into a pillar of ash. And the ash billowed out until it covered the whole island, precisely, almost neatly, in a gray-white blanket. People ran for their lives, but the cloud overtook them. The people coated with the filth looked like statues. They stumbled around, tears leaving streaks in the coating on their faces, wheezing, trying to breathe.<\/p>\n

Years later, the cloud they\u2019d inhaled made them sick, and then they died. It was carcinogenic.<\/p>\n

Once I watched a documentary on volcanos, and I saw Mount Saint Helens send out a burst of ash that obliterated all the wildlife for miles around. I saw another volcano in Asia, coating a city in a rain of dust. Buildings and cars were smeared with filth. People walked around with umbrellas caked in ash as thick as snow, barely able to see.<\/p>\n

Once I saw a display of dead bodies from Pompeii, frozen forever in time, mummies made of stone. They had been living people like me, going about their business in the shadow of a great mountain. And then the mountain exploded, and the cloud of ashes covered everyone before they could run away. Now, nearly two thousand years ago, all that\u2019s left is the shapes of terrified bodies cringing from the lethal rain.<\/p>\n

That is what you are. You are something that could make the world dirty if you liked. You could terrorize and traumatize, if you wanted. You could hurt and kill, if you chose to do so. You could destroy life. That is within your capacity. You are dust.<\/p>\n

Remember that you are dust, and unto dust you shall return.<\/h3>\n

Dust is the reason the sky is blue. I learned that in elementary school. Air isn\u2019t visible. It doesn\u2019t have a color. The atmosphere is made of air, but that air is not pure, and that\u2019s why it looks like it has color. The particular yellow of sunlight bouncing off dust in the atmosphere causes that cerulean shade, the shade we see when there\u2019s nothing but air overhead. The blue of the sky is reflected by the water, which is why oceans and lakes look blue\u2013 a different blue of different bodies of water. Sometimes the light hits the particles at a different angle, refracting differently, so in the early morning or late evening the sky looks pink or orange or viridian. All because of dust.<\/p>\n

That is also why we sometimes can\u2019t see the sky. When you see a great big cumulus cloud overhead, that is water, gathered around solid particles blown by the wind. Each little droplet condenses around a nucleus of dust.<\/p>\n

It would never rain or snow<\/a> if the air were pure. Condensation doesn\u2019t happen in perfectly clean air. Because it rains and snows, we have life on earth. Because we are alive, we can admire the blue and the orange and the viridian of the sky. We can look up in fascination when the light hits a droplet around a bit of grit just perfectly, and a rainbow becomes visible.<\/p>\n

That is what you are. You are something that brings beauty to the entire world. You are a being that makes invisible things visible. You are someone who makes light into different colors to comfort and fascinate everyone who sees you, to teach us what time of day it is and what we should do next. You are something without which the water won\u2019t nourish the earth. You can be lifegiving, the source of life all around you, if you choose. You are dust.<\/p>\n

Remember that you are dust, and unto dust you shall return.<\/p>\n

You are a thing that can be good or evil, life or death, fire or water.\u00a0 You can kill, maim, and destroy, but you can also bring beauty and life.<\/h3>\n

One day your whole life will be demanded of you and it will be all you have\u2013 no wealth, no worldly titles, only dust on the scales, dust for the Just Judge to see, dust that broke or dust that healed, dust that gave life or dust that took it away.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, you are more than just dust. You are dust with the gift of free will. You can choose whether to work to bring life or to work to take it. You can choose the ashes or the rainbow.<\/p>\n

You are dust, and unto dust you shall return.<\/p>\n

What you do until you return, is up to you.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mary Pezzulo is the author of\u00a0Meditations on the Way of the Cross,\u00a0<\/a><\/em>The Sorrows and Joys of Mary<\/a><\/em>, and\u00a0Stumbling into Grace: How We Meet God in Tiny Works of Mercy<\/em>.<\/a><\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n

Steel Magnificat operates almost entirely on tips. To tip the author, visit our\u00a0donate page<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 Remember you are dust, and unto dust you shall return. Dust is not a bad or a good thing. It\u2019s only a small thing. Anything broken up into tiny enough pieces becomes dust: ashes, sand worn very fine by the wind, sawdust from a mill. Remember you are dust, and unto dust you shall […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2694,"featured_media":19203,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5953,2146],"tags":[8122,3837,6049,14532],"class_list":["post-19200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-environment","category-human-dignity","tag-ash-wednesday","tag-ashes","tag-dust","tag-you-are-dust"],"yoast_head":"\nFor You Are Dust<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Remember that you are dust, and unto dust you shall return.\u00a0You are a thing that can be good or evil, life or death, fire or water.\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/2023\/02\/for-you-are-dust\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"For You Are Dust\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Remember that you are dust, and unto dust you shall return.\u00a0You are a thing that can be good or evil, life or death, fire or water.\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/2023\/02\/for-you-are-dust\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Steel Magnificat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-02-22T22:18:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/664\/2023\/02\/great-post-gf927794d4_640.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"427\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mary Pezzulo\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Mary Pezzulo\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/2023\/02\/for-you-are-dust\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/2023\/02\/for-you-are-dust\/\",\"name\":\"For You Are Dust\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2023-02-22T22:18:38+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-02-22T22:18:38+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/#\/schema\/person\/eefd606fd6f98b01cd46b38fcead458b\"},\"description\":\"Remember that you are dust, and unto dust you shall return.\u00a0You are a thing that can be good or evil, life or death, fire or water.\u00a0\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/2023\/02\/for-you-are-dust\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/2023\/02\/for-you-are-dust\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/2023\/02\/for-you-are-dust\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"For You Are Dust\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/\",\"name\":\"Steel Magnificat\",\"description\":\"Everything is grace\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/#\/schema\/person\/eefd606fd6f98b01cd46b38fcead458b\",\"name\":\"Mary Pezzulo\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b65a50a237f24be80481c3e40cdc1c15?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b65a50a237f24be80481c3e40cdc1c15?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Mary Pezzulo\"},\"description\":\"Mary Pezzulo received her BA in English at Otterbein University in Westerville, Ohio. She came to Steubenville to earn a Master's degree in philosophy and Catholic bioethics from Franciscan University and had finished most of her course work before she suffered a chronic illness that derailed her university career. Since then, she's been learning from the school of hard knocks. Her essays on politics, faith, religious trauma, and life in Northern Appalachia, have been published in the Catholic Herald, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Convivium Journal, and the Feinschwarz theology blog. She has delivered lectures on the Uncanny in the field of aesthetics at the Power of Beauty Conference at Franciscan University, and the Terra Incognita Literary Gathering. Mary is the author of Stumbling into Grace: How We meet God in Tiny Works of Mercy, published by Ave Maria Press, which was awarded second place in Catholic Social Teaching from the Catholic Media Awards. She has also written Meditations on the Way of the Cross and The Sorrows and Joys of Mary for Apocryphile Press.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/author\/mpezzulo\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"For You Are Dust","description":"Remember that you are dust, and unto dust you shall return.\u00a0You are a thing that can be good or evil, life or death, fire or water.\u00a0","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/2023\/02\/for-you-are-dust\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"For You Are Dust","og_description":"Remember that you are dust, and unto dust you shall return.\u00a0You are a thing that can be good or evil, life or death, fire or water.\u00a0","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/2023\/02\/for-you-are-dust\/","og_site_name":"Steel Magnificat","article_published_time":"2023-02-22T22:18:38+00:00","og_image":[{"width":640,"height":427,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/664\/2023\/02\/great-post-gf927794d4_640.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Mary Pezzulo","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Mary Pezzulo","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/2023\/02\/for-you-are-dust\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/2023\/02\/for-you-are-dust\/","name":"For You Are Dust","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/#website"},"datePublished":"2023-02-22T22:18:38+00:00","dateModified":"2023-02-22T22:18:38+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/#\/schema\/person\/eefd606fd6f98b01cd46b38fcead458b"},"description":"Remember that you are dust, and unto dust you shall return.\u00a0You are a thing that can be good or evil, life or death, fire or water.\u00a0","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/2023\/02\/for-you-are-dust\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/2023\/02\/for-you-are-dust\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/2023\/02\/for-you-are-dust\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"For You Are Dust"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/","name":"Steel Magnificat","description":"Everything is grace","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/#\/schema\/person\/eefd606fd6f98b01cd46b38fcead458b","name":"Mary Pezzulo","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b65a50a237f24be80481c3e40cdc1c15?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b65a50a237f24be80481c3e40cdc1c15?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"Mary Pezzulo"},"description":"Mary Pezzulo received her BA in English at Otterbein University in Westerville, Ohio. She came to Steubenville to earn a Master's degree in philosophy and Catholic bioethics from Franciscan University and had finished most of her course work before she suffered a chronic illness that derailed her university career. Since then, she's been learning from the school of hard knocks. Her essays on politics, faith, religious trauma, and life in Northern Appalachia, have been published in the Catholic Herald, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Convivium Journal, and the Feinschwarz theology blog. She has delivered lectures on the Uncanny in the field of aesthetics at the Power of Beauty Conference at Franciscan University, and the Terra Incognita Literary Gathering. Mary is the author of Stumbling into Grace: How We meet God in Tiny Works of Mercy, published by Ave Maria Press, which was awarded second place in Catholic Social Teaching from the Catholic Media Awards. She has also written Meditations on the Way of the Cross and The Sorrows and Joys of Mary for Apocryphile Press.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/author\/mpezzulo\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2694"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19200"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19200\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}