To sprinkle or to trace a cross?

The poet Rabindranath Tagore said something that can be applied to many situations in this world of ours where people lord it over others just for the sake of doing it; I'm often tempted to pull it out, but then I think, maybe wait for a better moment.

But perhaps the smug assurance with which our betters inform us that we ought to appreciate them sprinkling ashes on our heads as more ancient, more traditional, than the current method of imposing a cross on the forehead, without addressing why they never thought of it before Covid or how not saying the words of the blessing factors in, is the moment. 

The little extra of seeming stricken that this is really the hill we want to die on (no, not really) and the extra extra of quickly reiterating how much more traditional this new way is when we say we are happy we got our cross after all, clinch the deal. So here it is:

Power takes as ingratitude the writhing of its victims.

This article expresses some of what's so galling. 

And you may see the quote again...