did you know your words are a song that they strike chords in the readers heart make a music, paint a picture – transcend the black and white on the screen
did you know your words are precious your stories worth telling – lighting beacons to call seekers to home and rest to find a place in words from your heart
One of my favorite tropes is post apocalyptic towns being named after dilapidated signs with missing letters, like Novac (no vacancy) and Eaden (dead end). There’s something inexplicable about it
I mean the whole damn point of the Nativity story is that the supposed son of God (interpret Jesus how you fucking want, of course) was born to a couple of poor, exhausted peasants in the stable for the inn, and his first bed was a feeding trough for animals. That would nowadays be like a poor couple where the mother gives birth in a parking garage behind the motel because they couldn’t find a better place and nobody else would take them in. It’s a pretty gritty setting, and the idea is that God was reborn in some of the rock-bottom lowest circumstances. The only thing majestic was all the angels and shit, and of course motherly love
I get that a lot of the art portraying Madonna and Child as fabulously wealthy europeans in splendid robes and golden light was meant to glorify God + whichever nobility was sponsoring the artist, and while of course it’s genuinely beautiful art, it just always struck me as horribly missing the point, which is that the supposed son of God started in incredibly humble circumstances, among the kind of people that everyone else looks down on
‘Massacre des Innocents’ by Leon Cogniét, 1824. Although the Feast of the Holy Innocents is in a couple of days time, this painting is still really relevant in that it portrays Mary as how She really was: a scared refugee mum, so fearful that Her son was going to be one of the Innocents killed by King Herod.
I had to look at this like FIVE TIMES to register all the layers of symbolism going into the piece by Patterson.
The hoodie as a veil.
Weisman cigarettes
Each of them is haloed by an advertisement sticker.
No Vacancy sign on the motel.
Dove sticker over Maria’s head.
Neon sign with a star symbol also over Maria’s head.
The crown over the ‘Dave’s City Motel’ sign. “New Manger.”
The sign behind Jose’s elbow likely says ‘Herod.’
The wee little plant growing through the cracks at their feet.
It’s like a New Testament ‘I Spy.’ I love it!
Ugh.
New favorite interpretation of the nativity.
The paper at José’s feet has an advert for Shepard Watches
Maria’s hoodie says Nazareth High School
The sign above José’s head proclaims ‘Good News!’
pretty sure the sticker on the phone says “ORIA!” so probably “GLORIA!”. Ads in the paper appear to be for “GLAD” and “TIDE”, which is suspiciously close to “glad tidings”. Ad above that is for “Shephard Watches”.
there are over five hundred million dogs in the world and this post has been reblogged scarcely twenty thousand times
fewer than 0.004% of all dogs currently have noclip mode enabled; this is grossly unacceptable and a stain on the deep and lasting friendship between primate and canine which stretches all the way back to the paleolithic
they have given us companionship and assistance for thirty thousand years, the least we can do is allow them to phase through any and all material obstacles which block their path. they must overcome spiritual obstacles on their own.
Time's Vengeance 