Day 197 - Seven Words

as exciting as it looks

I found myself in church today, at a christening, for the first time in a few years...

I honestly can't remember the last time I was in a service of any kind - I try to block it out!

I've realised that being in church, or more specifically, being in a church service, pushes a whole bunch of buttons for me...it's not a pleasant experience. Consequently, I've learned to try to simply disengage with the whole thing, to try not to listen, turn my mind to other things. 

I was mostly, but not completely successful...

For instance, at one point the priest said "Of course, there's evil in the world, we know that...", and then went on to talk about protecting the child from this evil.

I bit my tongue and resisted the urge to say, "Now hold on a minute, back up there...evil exists - we know this?!"...

I wanted to demand evidence of this strange substance, or at least a conversation about how reasonable it was to treat this as given...although I knew that all I would get would be examples of humans doing unsavoury things that aren't in accord with the Churches position, and no real debate at all...

Anyway, it was my first time in a Catholic church, and I will confess(!) to a mild curiosity as to whether it would be more passionate and intense than my experience of other Christian churches...but alas, I found the building and the space within to be as dry and flat as all the rest...

Given the doctrine of the Christian Church, I find their houses of worship to be oddly soulless places.

To distract myself, I spent a few moments counting the number of pictures of Christ on the cross, or carrying the cross, or on his knees being beaten by Roman soldiers...the irony of celebrating new life whilst surrounded by over a dozen images of torture and execution was not lost on me.

Which got me thinking...what if Jesus had been hung, drawn and quartered?  What if he'd been electrocuted?  What if he'd been guillotined?!   This would raise some interesting scenario's...

Most obviously, what symbolism would have been used in places of worship?

A hangman's noose, or an electric chair?  A statue of Christ's head on a stake?  Would scale models of Madame la Guillotine be placed reverently around the room, complete with neat little baskets to catch the detached head?

And I wonder how god would have got round the problem of how to resurrect Jesus, had he been dismembered, or burned, or had a broken neck?

I have these images of some kind of nightmarish, Frankensteinian zombie staggering out of the cave and scaring the bejesus (do you see what I did there?) out of the locals...

Somehow it doesn't fit the narrative, does it? 

Anyway, the day was not entirely lost...at the gathering afterwards, we spent 15 joyful minutes giggling like children, whilst writing "rude" words with the actual kids fridge magnets:

fun with words

There are seven words in this image...a bonus fun-point for anyone who spots them all.

I'd wanted to do George Carlin's famous Seven Words You Can't Say on TV, but unfortunately (or more likely fortunately, now I think about it) there weren't enough letters...

B-)

PS All the words in the photo can be safely used on TV...you're welcome!