Hush! You'll Awaken It

[Ted Byrne]

[aprilS]

"A very good work of art inevitably calls the viewer's own belief system into question. Is this threatening? Is the Pope Catholic?" -- Art & Fear, by Bayles & Orland.

[Ted Byrne]

Thanks April.

I avoided marrying my thoughts with this posting... I'd like to now. It occurred to me in this tiny, sparce...and almost primitive rural chapel that congregants pray for better futures. And yet... yet... it is what sleeps behind them... their pasts... which did and do more to affect their prospects than will any volume of prayers.

I've wondered whether they should not pray to either re-habilitate their pasts, or at least to avoid awakening that beast? How often do people find that it is what they did, or failed to do which determines what they will do or become?

And as the congregants sit in their pews, peering nervously ahead, how few will dare to glance backward, to see if the volume of their praying is lulling or awakening that beast in back? 

I had a vision in that chapel of a moment of sanctuary which exists here in a peaceful crack between what's happened and will happen. And I wondered whether the two can be held separate regardless of the intensity and sincerity of what happens in this peaceful place. But I did seem to understand better why people seek sanctuary in sparse chapels like this.

[aprilS]

Huh.

Everything in this image (to my eye) drove me so far back into the visage and doorway, that I never realized it must be the door through which they entered -- and are now facing "forward".

Fascinating.

[eob]

Your thoughts turned out to be most helpful to me in understanding this particular image. At first view, frankly, I was confused and couldn't identify any leading idea behind it. The obvious thing to me was that it must be something about religion. That is almost completely foreign area for me. But now, thanks to your explanation, I can see beyond religious meaning of this image. I found the philosophic one. That came to me as a surprise. I wouldn't expect that religion and philosophy could be going together instead of in opposing directions... Thanks, Ted!

[habakuk]

Those closed eyes are so talkative... and I feel so much motivated to keep looking. Thematically a very clever montage, I am impressed. I didn't spend a moment thinking about which direction I look. Therefore dind't really notice I am looking backwards, towards the exit (or the former entrance). All I noticed was the setting: church. And the face. Or should it be faith? Now I am left wondering how to interpret the closed eyes, the rest of the facial expression... and given this is in a church context, it resonates with deep inner beliefs, hopes and fears.

cheers
®

[Ted Byrne]

Actually Roland some people keep their past like some feral animal - their partially domesticated pet, leashed perhaps by ignoring its demon seed. But, every now and then either they, or someone else peers nervously backward... senses that at least part of that beast back there has an ugly temper.

Good manners are a brittle barrier to goading it to do its worst.  Maybe prayer will lull the thing? Keep what's back there from roaring awake to consume its master? You don't think that is one primal explanation for church attendance do you? Nahhhhhh!

[habakuk]

I personally never really understood the church visit thing. I've been there many times and I always felt less close to the creation than when I went out. Not that I draw conclusions that are true for others, though. 

cheers
®

[eob]

I totally realize that this is not a religious forum, but I have to add something.

...some people keep their past like some feral animal - their partially domesticated pet, leashed perhaps by ignoring its demon seed. But, every now and then either they, or someone else peers nervously backward... senses that at least part of that beast back there has an ugly temper.

That's perhaps one of the most important factors in my early (very early - at the age of 12) decision not to go along the religious path. Being sensitive and decent human being - I'm all for it. But religion is just not for me.

And even now - in my 'senior citizen' years - when I'm free, I am still peering back over my shoulder to check for the beast of the religious past...