Saturday, April 23, 2011

Unintentional Still Life


A bit creepy, no?
But not nearly as creepy as the picture on the front of the paper this morning of a Good Friday reenactment of the crucifixion, all that long hair and blood and agony.

Why do we have to go through this over and over again? Why do we have to celebrate such horror? Why do we have to believe that one man could suffer for our sins? Why do we think that is the greatest pain anyone ever endured? Why do we think that Big God could have only one son? Why do we stand by such a gory story?

I think that Mel Gibson is no different than many humans, secretly thrilling at each cutting lash of the whip, each nail being driven through flesh and bone and nerve, ligament, tendon, the very impossible beauty of the human hand being rearranged with such disregard for the miracle of it.
The blood, oh the blood.

But it's okay! We redeem it all, that secret thrill of killing god in such a brutal, primitive way. We put Christ back into the womb-cave and then we allow him to be born again.

And if we believe in that we, too, can be born again and we too, can rise to heaven.

Oh whatever.

Perhaps the whole story has gotten twisted. Perhaps.

Perhaps because men know that they cannot create life in their own bodies they think that power is in taking life away. Perhaps the story is an allegory for the goddess's story. Men can take the life we create away in horrible, bloody ways but it is truly in the bloody wombcave that life can be formed, shaped, given.

And re-given again and again.

What do I know? Only what my heart tells me, what my eyes show me, what my mind allows me to believe or not believe.

Forgive them. They know not what they do.

Yes they did. They were killing a human. That's enough. Leave the godstuff out and it's just another state-sanctioned murder.

Here we are. Still celebrating this horror.

The madness of men. Let us make god in our image.

Mmmmpph.

Where are the fluffy lambs, this morning, Ms. Moon? Sacrificed to a bloody god.

Easter just makes me mad. Take a perfectly beautiful celebration of the natural order of the resurrection of life here on this planet as winter passes unto spring and turn it into a bloodbath. Follow up with a hazy rising-from-the-dead and pass around the chocolate bunnies.

Well. I'll probably lose a follower or two on this one. I always do when I talk about religion. Or the Christian religion. And yet, I get flyers in the mail from local churches telling me that if I come to their church on Easter I'll know what salvation is. And oh yes- don't forget the egg hunt! Bring the kiddies!
I open the paper and there's some poor boy, acting out Christ's agony, another in the costume of a Roman soldier.
People come to my house and knock on my door, telling me that theirs is the way, the truth, and the life.

I am just writing what I think here. I am just saying what I believe. No one is forced to believe it. I am not bringing it to your door or your mailbox.
I am just saying that I KNOW what the resurrection is. I see the lilies push through the soil every spring. I know what the life is. I see it all around me every day and I pay attention and I praise it. I am not telling you that if you don't believe as I do, you are facing an eternity of hellfire.

Poor Jesus. Eternally on that cross.

One more thing- who do you think suffered most? Christ on the cross or his mother watching his torture?

Why do we even have to ask these questions? Why aren't we rolling around in the fields and forests, celebrating the fertility of it all, crushing flowers beneath our backs, making perfume as we release their scent into the air around us, howling at the rising moon, it's belly as full as a woman's carrying life?

Yeah. I don't know either.

But don't go piercing any hands and feet for me. My sins are my own and I will or will not atone for them myself. And the mockingbird singing outside in the magnolia doesn't care one way or another and to me, that says it all.

21 comments:

  1. LOVE LOVE LOVE the post, Mary! And I agree with you, so you haven't lost THIS follower! Denise

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  2. I am with you on this one Mrs Moon. I was thinking the same thing this morning reading about those people who have themselves crucified every year. Not once but year after year after year. I don't get it. How can people believe that christianity is the only soul saving religion?
    And why would it? I was abused by nuns for 14 years in the name of their friggin loving Jezus and christianity and its helpers left a very bitter taste in my mouth. What they do in the name of religion...
    No, you and I know better. Better have an own personal little God if you need one, that is sculptured on what we want it to be, accepting us as we are, for who we are, the fuck with all the rest. Religion should not be about punishment and stupid rules. You are so right: that whole crucifix thing is the stuff that horror movies are made of. Screw religion I say!

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  3. I saw the headline about the 2 men being nailed to crosses in the Philippines, an did think of you and what you'd have to say. And I also thought, what the fuck is wrong with people, why do we have the need to do this?? Such a deeply inappropriate response. I read recently that there is no evidence that crucifixion was even used at that place and time! (Ha, I just wrote cruifiction)

    I suppose it's just that we have to worship what we're scared of, suffering and pain - being torn to bits by a wild animal, I guess. We've internalised that fear deeply and we act it out?

    Bunnies. Chocolate. Flowers and buds in trees and fertility. Oestrus. So much better! (Ok, so the chocolate is cheating, really, but it fits in quite nicely.

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  4. I have felt such a malaise walking around this Easter season -- perhaps the remnants of a guilt that started when I consciously left the Catholic Church two years ago. I prefer to think of the Christ story as largely symbolic -- a radical man is born and preaches quite radical stuff, is persecuted for it and then killed. The story grows bigger and bigger and people, over time, warp and woof it into what suits them best. It's happened with nearly all stories in nearly all religions -- but I think with the possible exception of Islam, the worst of it is the glorification of the violent parts. And that's just human.

    Keep up the good fight, Mary. I, personally, join you in rolling in the grassy sunshine.

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  5. One more thing- who do you think suffered most? Christ on the cross or his mother watching his torture?

    That's what I was thinking the entire time I read this. That the greatest agony is that of a mother losing a child.

    I'm with you on the resurrection of the garden. The earth is God. I am God. Thou art God. We need to get on with it. Thank you dear one.

    Rebecca

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  6. I love you. Thanks for writing this.

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  7. Yes. Raised Southern Baptist, and I was baptized twice. Once for the admiration of the church--and the second time? Well that's a story. I wish I could get myself to write it. But let me just say I'll never go to a Passion Play again in my life.

    I agree with you, Mrs. Moon. I thank you so much for writing so truthfully.

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  8. Denise- Love you, woman. I do.

    Photocat- I am completely with you. People say, "Oh, it's not the people, it's the belief." Well, if any other organization had such employees who did such horrible things, those organizations would be out of business. There is a responsibility. Amen. I'm so sorry.

    Jo- I think we want to kill our cruel daddies. But we love them. It's a conundrum.

    Elizabeth- I'd totally roll with you in the fields and forests.

    Rebecca- Thou ARE God. Amen.
    May you never thirst.

    Ellen- I had to.

    Ms. X-Ray- You are so welcome.

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  9. " Take a perfectly beautiful celebration of the natural order of the resurrection of life here on this planet as winter passes unto spring and turn it into a bloodbath. Follow up with a hazy rising-from-the-dead and pass around the chocolate bunnies".

    That is perfection. In my experience, no one has said it better.

    Much love,
    xo

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  10. Dear Mz Moon-

    Found you through Radish King. I'm a midwife and I delivered a baby yesterday. If there's a resurrection, that's it, a cell growing into a person and emerging from another person, blood yes and sweat and tears...and beauty and the holy child, every time. Jesus had no corner on holy. We're all holy.

    Thank you for your post about Easter. I pay as little attention as possible to the Christian calendar although I noticed lately a lot of jelly beans and Cadbury eggs in the store.

    I'll keep visiting.

    ~Beth

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  11. I'm with ~ellen~ Thank you and I love you for your mind and the way you express it.

    It's not all about the crucifixion. That is just allegory for the way the world turns, and has since man first found out how to use a club.

    It's about redemption, the resurrection through changing our mind and asking for the vision to see the world as one with all creation in love and beauty and peace.

    And not to be rude, but is that word verification really necessary? What horrors would there come a knocking if it was not there?

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  12. Ms. Fleur- Glad you liked, baby.

    Beth- Ah! Welcome, welcome! I had three of my four babies at home and helped a lot of women with their babies at home and in a birth center. Midwives are blessed women. I believe that. I believe and have said here many times that every baby born is Jesus, the Buddha. Yes. Welcome.

    Andrew- "It's about redemption, the resurrection through changing our mind and asking for the vision to see the world as one with all creation in love and beauty and peace."
    THAT is beautiful but I don't see that as what they preach in church. I wish it was.
    And every time I drop the WV, I get spammed like you wouldn't believe. I hate it too, that typing of stupid words. But I also hate deleting one viagra link after another.

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  13. What Rebecca said.

    Been away for a while. Catching up now. Missed you sorely.

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  14. I was thinking today that it is odd that we don't have anything written by Jesus. A lot of other people wrote stuff. Maybe he was a nice man manipulated for some political reason or maybe he was a David Koresh type fellow. Who knows? He might have been fictitious. The way the news is slanted today there is no reason to believe that the news was not anymore slanted back then.

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  15. Angella- Thank you for coming back even is I am a heathen. You are so precious.

    Syd- EXACTLY! Dang. I wish I'd said that.

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  16. This is my favorite Easter sermon EVER. I love your perspective, and as with almost anything else you have said/written, I agree with it. Why can't the Spring beauty surrounding us be ENOUGH, without a lot of mumbo-jumbo nonsense mythical bullshit being thrown in? Why isn't spring sacred and holy enough?

    This is YOUR blog and YOUR ideas and opinions. I am proud of you for stating what you feel so freely. If motherfuckers don't like it, they can FUCK OFF to another page, like that dumb shit, Pioneer Woman, or some other crap like that. They shall NOT be missed.

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  17. Oh dear bog Sarcastic Bastard! You made me laugh like a donkey in my extremely quiet place of employ. It was the pioneer woman. She didn't much like my avatar of little debby smoking a cigarette.

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  18. Radish King,
    Bitch is a PRUDE. Glad I made you laugh. I would have liked your avatar. It has the SB stamp of approval!

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  19. Dearest Mary, at last I have time to catch up with you!

    I totally agree with you. I feel a bit stupid admitting this but I am SO not religious and SO out of touch with it that until I read this post I'd actually forgotten what the hell we are supposed to be celebrating! What am I like?! Love you xx

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  20. Ms. Bastard-Beloved and Madame King- Y'all are cracking me up and I love you both.

    Christina- I should be more like you and just let it all roll off me. Ignore it. Living here in the Deep South of the USA, though, one has it shoved in one's face a lot. Sigh.

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