Hues of Red

 It was the season opening for the local folk museum and use of the old stone church from the Middle Ages. The little church house was packed. Walls as thick as a yard did not let much heat in, but strong light beams shone through the rounded windows. I looked t many things this morning, since I had a place at an extra bench way in the back. I looked at small boys – a handful of them – moving about in the nave, all dressed up for the celebration of baptism of a younger sibling, all too young to be kept quiet.

            There is a new priest, an interim, and I am not used to him. He does the task well, but still, to me he is a stranger in my sacred space. I suppose I will get used to him.

I looked at the altarpiece and the altar ring; but this time it was not the symbolism, the semantic meaning of words; it was not the art of interpretation which caught me. It was the hues of red.

Warm, earthy red paint created a sense of being close to the earth, being real, and yet being in the sacred space: where heaven and earth meet, as God is there, in our midst. 

            We are so quick to think rational meaning, concepts of mind – but as I sat in the old room, feeling the warmth of many bodies, it was not the symbolic meaning of the colour red I cherished; it was the simple being there in front of it, as something which enhanced my perception of life. Aesthetics is vital to the enjoyment of life. 

There is a certain reddish brown, a gentle earthy red colour I see in the old décor of the country, together with a grayish green-blue we call ‘bondeblå’,farmers’ blue.

It was a comforting sight this morning. In the frame of the image I beheld was a small baptismal font, a wooden piece decorated in many colours, but blending in perfectly. 

As the priest was preparing for the baptism of a little girl, the family joined – must be cousins, I thought, for I counted six boys in early preschool age, and one older sister – a beautiful child who did the major Scripture readings for the event. I couldn’t help being amused at the little guys  - who were bouncy and curious, and precious.

In hues of red, we belong. As earthlings, we live and cherish this time on earth, be it difficult or accomplished. I am heaven bound; and although an earthling, I belong to the Kingdom of God. Perhaps it was this dual belonging I sensed this morning, not through my intellect, but more direct: in the colours of the church interior.

 Beauty is found everywhere. A streak of light enhances any ordinary thing. Look at it next time; it is a touch of the Master’s hand. 

Kviteseid gamle Kyrkje, altar piece

wooden baptismal font

detail from the altar

detail, light source

boxed in pews, in red hues

sources of light

Social Media: The New Mob

The statement ” The masses are always right” has been tried and tested and found to be not necessarily true. What constitutes a norm or a rule is not the amount of people who say so, but what the rule says. People can be led, and there are elements in being led by the masses that both excuse the individual for his or her acts, and have a blind eye to what is right.

Social media judges; well, so it seems, but it is more correct to say that people use social media to be aroused into rash judgment, and this is shared as a massive attack. In this way the individual becomes part of the masses, and in the same way the individual becomes part of the mob. The mob can lynch, and this force in the tapestry of social controls may cause real action. This is a force that may strip someone of his or her job, ostracize from society, mete out a punishment, which is not based on any written law, but simply on the sentiment of the mob.

It surprises me that we hold to this standard in a democracy.

Are we truly to be ruled by the mob? Do we set aside law and order when the forces in the mob are too powerful? Do we simply give in and agree?

What is a democracy, then? It is a majority rule, but not arbitrary rule. One of the foundations of this democracy is the agreement upon common laws and regulations. The formal social control cannot be set aside in favour of the angry mob.