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| Light of the World - William Holman Hunt. |
No I haven't gone all religious but it was Yorkshire puddings of a depiction of a 'white' lookalike Scandinavian painting of Jesus Christ that caught my eye and I remembered when I was young and in love with the Pre-Raphaelites (love affair long gone;). Now I tend to think of this group and their paintings as rather pretty-pretty and just a poster to stick on the wall. In actual fact William Hunt made three of these paintings because it was so popular in the Victorian age.
It depicts Jesus knocking on an old door with no handle and it represents our obstinate minds refusing to accept god. By the way there is a handle on the other side of the door. The cloak is luxurious, the vegetation realistic but the lamp is out of time, they would have burnt their candles in a different vessel. The crown of thorns both doubles as a crown and as a gold crown of thorns.
But Jesus is definitely a 'white' person, the painting is a fantasy. Though Hunt visited the Holy Land several times he did not capture the people of Bethlehem in his rendition. In today's world, lets call it woke! it would be spied immediately and an uproar of racism would begin - well in my world anyway but how many white Gods have been sold to us down the ages I wonder. I spotted the anomaly when I was about 7 years old at Sunday school. I opened the little booklet given for prayers and noticed an illustration of hundreds of people worshipping Jesus but there was no other ethnic people amongst them. I did ask but no one had the right answer! So in a way we are groomed to believe in the fantasy world of religion, luckily today as we become more secular we leave behind such foolishness.
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The next happening was on the drive home from the birthday party. We called in a service station for food. This one was in Gloucester and boasted a Farm Shop. Now I consider a farm shop as selling local goods and things that are in season. This one was an enormous palace of nearly everything. Expensive crisps made out of broccoli, it even curbed my daughter from spending when she picked up tomato sauce at £8. But at the back was a counter which seemed to be dedicated to Scotch eggs, yes different scotch eggs. So we all ordered our own specialty, mine vegetarian and the other two something Italian I think but instead of an egg in the middle there was shredded mozzarella. Unfortunately the packages got mixed up and I had the foreign one and had eaten it all before the mistake was found.
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And lastly. April Fools. The Juliasauras is real, so apologies Jabblog for doubting, should be on show today at the Colchester Museum. Also another interesting A/F was the rubber war boats that we are going to use. It was a bit ridiculous but the moral of the article was, don't just read the headlines but read the article as well.
Is what you and I would call a service station better known to most English people as services? Here they are often called a 'truck stop'.
ReplyDeleteSadly anything here that mentions 'farmers' means expensive, albeit generally high quality.
I just read the April Fool's joke, and even initially, it seemed to be obviously a joke. But some folk are very gullible, and it is sad that the disclaimer at the end was added.
Truck stop reminded me of the transport cafes we still have along some main roads. Here you would get a 'full English breakfast' which is a killer. The first services I remember were 'Little Chef' ones but yes service is a good word, food, petrol and loos with the odd M&S thrown in.
DeleteFarmers Markets? With ne'er a farmer in sight. Why don't they call them Capitalist Opportunist Markets? Doesn't quite have the same ring to it does it? I could crucify a scotch egg right now.
ReplyDeleteWell they do say in their blurb that they sell local produce but your socialist take is quite agreeable. You can make vegetarian Scotch eggs with vegetarian Richmond sausages by the way.
DeleteThis is the second blog mentioning Scotch eggs today! I've never had one.
ReplyDeleteIt was reading everyone's blogs today that reminded me Ellen. Scotch eggs are easy to make, hardboiled egg with sausage wrapped round and then baked, though you could deep fry them but they are rather heavy on the stomach.
DeleteWe stopped at that service station once. Such tempting arrays of food but only for those with deep pockets.
ReplyDeleteThe whole place looks in need of a bit of TLC but the farm shop was much better. But as you say Ruta it is very expensive.
DeleteService stations are rip-offs.
ReplyDeleteYes Janice but such a relief after miles of motorway. It is like entering a funfair all bright glitter...
DeleteIt's interesting that you were aware enough of race at 7 years old to question Jesus's depictions. I never really thought about it when I was a child (but then, I grew up in an overwhelmingly white area).
ReplyDeleteI was a bookworm, read everything to hand when I was a child so my 'awareness' probably came through that. And as you should well know Steve we had encyclopedias in the olden days;)
DeleteWe were unchurched as children, except for a week in vacation Bible school. In considering it, I probably perceived Jesus as white because I had never met anyone any other color. That being said, I attended some do at my niece's church. Behind the altar was a larger than life depiction of Jesus at Gethsemane. Blonde wavy hair and soulful blue eyes. At 50, the sight was shocking. I tried to think of why and all I could come up with was that it was childish.
ReplyDeleteI think what you are saying is we should think deeper. Logic dictates that Jesus had to be dark hair and skin. The Western world claimed Jesus as white as they also claimed he came from a virgin birth. A story that got padded out along the way.
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