The Arts that are so Fine

Today was a day most artistic, one that Elissa could be excited about. I went to church. And on the way, using three buses over an hour and a half, I stopped for a moment in downtown Seattle. A homeless guy was walking down the street, pushing a cart, dressed up rather smartly, repatedly yelling out, "Shut Up! Shut Up!", with a pause in between every exclamation. Then, shortly thereafter, another homeless, dressed more shabbily, walking from a completely different direction, began yelling, "Kill, kill, kill! Kill, kill, kill!", again pausing between statements.

The beauty of it was the syncronicity. For in a very short amount of time, in quick succession, those sitting for the bus at 830 in the morning began to hear, "Shut up!" "Kill, kill, kill!" "Shut up!" "Kill, kill, kill". Then a street sweeper, just for fun, began mocking the 2nd homeless, doubling on his kill, so that we got "Shut up!" "Kill (kill) Kill (kill) Kill (kill)." It was positively operetic.

Ah, good to be back home.

On another front of the arts, my church has a ministry, a quilting ministry. They pray over quilts, handmade, that those in the church and other places make, and then hand them out to the sick, mostly cancer victims, at local hospitals. Pretty cool actually- you get to pray for healing, and keep people warm at the same time. And we've got some pretty awesome quilters in the venerable Quaker quilting tradition, like Patty Federighi & Carolann Palmer.

Now, I love the way our particular meeting is set up, for it represents the best of Quaker beliefs, in the consensus of believers. The pastor doesn't lead the meeting; we all do. So this is shown in the way our seats are arranged, facing each other.

But today was something extra special. All of these quilts were spread out over the seats, so that we could lay...hands on them and pray for them, and vicariously for the recipients.

The result was a cornicopia of colour and touch, a feast for the senses. Suddenly the seats were so comfortable, I joked to Aimee that I was so falling asleep during open worship today. Actually, I'm not so sure it didn't turn out not to be a joke. A couple of the sharings did go on a while, and those seats were so soft. Nice job Quaker Quilters!

Since I'm sharing about the arts, something recently came to my attention from the past. I have just learned some added information, that frankly astonishes me. You'll remember I posted about the Etic Eatery, a cafeteria in a school in Morocco that works to Americanize as much as possible. You may remember my mentioning a rather risque picture long posted there, in the center of the cafeteria for all to see, of a cowgirl with her midriff bare, countrary to Moroccan standards and what is generally considered non-sexist treatment of women in most American schools. (There was no guy next to her showing his mid-riff.)

Well, it turns out, if what I've heard is true, that shortly before the final day of school, in fact the very night before, it is now rumored that two teachers snuck in, in the dead of night, dressed all in black, with the lights off, and one solitary lantern to see by. Evidently the aforementioned Elissa was in the adjoining Teacher's "Lounge", busily working on the final adjustments to her latest musical, blissfully unaware of criminal activity right next door. These two teachers then pulled out some acryllic paints, and painted in clothes on the midriff of the cowgirl. She is now fully covered up, and no longer inappropriate.

Frankly, I am horrified to think that the reports of this act of blatant vandalism might have some ring of truth. I would like to think better of the teachers at GWA. I am astonished that such an act could be perpetrated on school grounds, and would strongly urge a complete investigation of this so-called addition to the arts.