Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Slide Show Anyone?



This turtle got some attention last year for this Mary-looking shape. Pecking around as I do these days, I discovered this slide show on the CBS 2 Los Angeles website. The slide show comprises a number of screen grabs from CBS affiliates nationwide, all of which deal with religious faces, namely Jesus and Mary, showing up on various objects. Treading in these waters, there is no way not to see Diana Duyser's grilled cheese continually, but what is amazing is how many of these instances exist. In fact, they are down right common these days. Deep down inside, I'm convinced it has something to do with our relationship with screens, but that is another topic for another post.

Many of the pics in this slide show make you squint. But isn't squinting just one part of the process of closing your eyes to pray?

I'm happy to say, that with the exception of the Nun Bun, the chocolate Virgin Mary and, you guessed it, Duyser's grilled cheese, Madonna of the Toast contains many religious images that are not part of this slide show, plus for the book I tracked down lots of secular examples, too.

2 comments:

Julie said...

Hi, I blogged your blog. :-)
Cheers.

John said...

Squinting on the way to prayer.. That's an astute and hilarious observation. Physically, it's true though.

"Meta"physically, many people do squint, applying whatever filter they must to make sure things fit their religion. I can say this from experience.

To paraphrase Madeleine L'Engle (Walking on Water; on Faith and Art), who are we to tell people where they can and cannot see God, and who are we to tell God where God can and cannot be seen?

I cannot wait to see your book!