GOOD FRIDAY THANKS TO DEAR DEPARTED

Yesterday seemed a good day to remember and honour loved ones who are no longer here. I am forever grateful to them for being in my life, for long or short times, and I want to say to their absent souls that I am sincerely sorry for not thanking them more often and I am sorry too for not giving them more of myself and not asking them more questions about themselves while they were still around.

Thank you Sacha and Blanche, my parents; Gerardo, my brother-in-law; Alex, my cousin; Vlad, my uncle; Jacques, my uncle (apologies for the badly remembered profile sketch); Nenette, my aunt; Alice, my aunt; Juliette, my grandmother; Constant, my grandfather; Baboushka and Diedouchka; Reg, Pat, Roy, Ted, Peg, Alexis, Michel and Suzanne, Mircea, Bernard, Mary, Decherd, and to all those whose names I may have neglected or forgotten to include but who are nevertheless recorded and preserved in the tangible and intangible matter which is who I am. May they rest in peace and when they get up from their rest, fly about with all the joie de vivre they had in this life and none of its sadness.

Pictures of the dear departed are on my BLAUGUSTINE post for this date. I couldn't find a way to upload them all over here in the box-table that I made in Dreamweaver. There's a limit to what you can do design-wise in Blogger.

WHOLLY HOLY REFLECTIONS

Where do I stand in the religion debate? It's easier to say where I don't stand.

Not in the Church of Atheism led by fundamentalist preacher Dawkins and fellow missionaries. Nor in the Church of Self-Idolatry frequented by insecure over and under achievers. Nor in the patchouli-scented New Age Temple of Anything Goes. Nor with the EveryWordWrittenHereIsTrue scripture-shouting Bible-thumpers. Nor with the spiritual-but-not-religious consumers and purveyors of magical recipes for getting everything you want. Nor with the guitar-strumming popsterising church huggy-muggers. Nor with the unbending Orthodoxydon't-ists. Nor with the mockers and takers of the Name in vain. Nor with the counters of angels on pinheads or eggheads. I could go on. But where do I stand?

If you've seen my God Interviews you've guessed that I'm a believer. But what does this mean, believer? Do I worship a balding cartoon character wearing a white t-shirt stamped "God"? Do I use humour to avoid the whole tricky issue? Maybe. I know that I believe in God and I know that this belief is not wishful thinking. I don't know why I know this. For me, 'Bible' and 'God' are not synonymous. Maybe 'religion' and 'God' are not synonymous either. I don't know whether the God I believe in features in the Bible or the Koran or the Torah or any other sacred book but none of them can either strengthen or weaken my belief. The faith I have seems not to depend on any of those traditions, including the fringe ones, which claim to have the last word on Divinity.

To celebrate this weekend, here is something I see as wholly holy inspiration. I had never heard of Donald Pass and luckily found him via a Google search for 'resurrection'.

I am very impressed by his work and have no doubt he did experience what he relates here and in this video. You can see Blake and El Greco as influences but I think it may be that they shared similar mystical experiences rather than artistic styles. More paintings by Pass are here.

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