by Daily
Witnessed my first ‘Stations of the Cross’ performance today as performed by year 6 students, with delightful handmade props and cheap satin robes. Certainly no ‘Passion of the Christ‘ but and interesting experience all the same. Having not grown up in a religious family I have only attended church a handful of times in my entire life. Working in a Catholic school has been full of such experiences. Not just the frequency with which they invoke the holy trinity with the sign of the cross and lay blessings upon each other. It has been a bit like visiting an altogether different country, I can’t help but take mental anthropological notes. I wonder if my experience is common to others, including students from families outside the faith or if the Cath Ed system only rarely employs the nonreligious?
Anyway, I am done for the week, back on for four days with a year one class next week and another week possibly with 5/6 after that. Hopeful of some days in NSW public in term 2 particularly after the long wait for registration. Local NSW’s school have an odd holiday timetable this year made stranger by Easter falling early.
Media
Started watching Sense 8 again last night. In truth despite hooking multiple other people on it I missed the first couple of episodes and haven’t gone back until now. In the few that I have seen that series delivered more emotional impact and showed more bravery than any American TV series since ‘The Wire’. I’ll do a fresh review once complete. Started listening to the second season of ‘The Museum of Curiosity’ which although still very entertaining unfortunately no longer has Bill Bailey in it. Season one is simply hilarious and had me in stifling laughter on public transport multiple times when I listened to it pre-blog last year.
Creative
Back onto the castle last night and I’ve always more to do this evening. Current progress is going to have to do for the next print draft of the deck. I was hoping to have a the castle card finished and more of the sketch drafts of the evolution cards complete, but work got in the way. An example of one of the fifteen draft evolution cards I’ve done is included below and I’ll share a castle draft either later tonight or tomorrow.
It is very interesting to hear about your experience with religious education as an adult, having missed most of it growing up. What you may not know about my childhood (or indeed be interested in knowing but I will tell you anyway) is that I had quite a religious upbringing, attending church and Sunday school assiduously . Bizarre, given that my mother who instigated it, was at that time a self professed atheist. I asked afterwards why she sent me and got a variety of reasons, one of the best being, it was the grounding for much of western culture and needed to be absorbed. I have to say a knowledge of the bible has been very useful as a precursor to studying history . Of the actual experience, what I chiefly remember is lovely sense of feeling good or least aspirationaly good, after the service. There was also uncomfortable understanding that by Wednesday I would have blown this by thinking uncharitable thoughts, being lazy, naughty or any one of the petty offences of childhood but there was no guilt attached to this. A number of middleaged baggy body/suited male deacons would stand up in church and speak portentously about community ills, but they and even the minister were somehow irrelevant to the core experience of feeling mildly sanctified. Then I hit fifteen and went straight from church youth group to the bad, with a speed that often caused me Culture shock, and a stong feeling of social dislocation. I like the tarot cards too and will look at them carefully.
I still stand by the tarot card remark, complete the set and I will give you a reading.
This gave N and I a lovely chuckle.