Happy Holidaze!

For this Holidaze post, I bring you a Jesus banana and His mother as a cascading waterfall. Who needs a manger?

According to this Daily Telegraph report, Lisa Swinton went to her fruit bowl for a healthy snack and chose this slightly bruised banana, found at the bottom of the bowl. Everyone knows that the brown spots equal sweetness, but Swinton was shocked when she noticed the face: ‘‘I was like ‘Oh my God! It’s Jesus on a banana!’’ I guess Swinton was really hungry because she snapped some pics and then peeled this sucker, later posting images on her Facebook page. For Swinton and her crowd, such visual manifestations, apparently, are no big thing; she tells the Daily Telegraph that her friends have seen Mary in mold and on a door. But have they seen Mary in a waterfall?



The Greek philosopher Heraclitus said, “You cannot step twice in the same river.” And that goes for waterfalls, too, meaning photographer Carl Silverstein was in the right place at the right time when he shot this photograph. Titled “Falls of Foyer – Woman Holding Child,” Silverstein emailed me the image as he thought I would appreciate it, which I do. The patterns and rhythms of nature inform everything about life, no matter how far-removed we are from those patterns and rhythms; their echoes influence how people recognize these forms in the most unexpected places, even if the people don’t realize it.

See you in 2010, people. If you miss me, Madonna of the Toast can keep you company.

999 Is The New 666

NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter snapped some photographs recently and, surprise surprise, some folks see a robed Jesus basking on the planet’s surface. This Telegraph UK report says it all: “If looked at from the right angle – and with disbelief suspended – this photo released by NASA can appear to show the face and robed body of Christ.” On display once again the human proclivity for seeing what we want to see where we want to see it.

I couldn’t help but think of this while reading news of the half-hearted hijacking attempt by Jose Marc Flores Pereira a k a Josmar Flores. About an hour after an Aeromexico flight departed from Cancun on its way to Mexico City, Flores got the attention of the crew when he threatened to blow up the plane, brandishing a fake bomb, according to this Bloomberg report (apparently passengers had no clue what was going on until the plane landed in Mexico City and was surrounded by emergency vehicles). His demands? A visit with Mexican president Felipe Calderon to discuss a pending earthquake.

Originally from Bolivia, Flores has lived in Mexico for 17 years, has spent time in jail, was a drug addict and is a born-again Christian. According to Public Safety Minister Garcia Luna, Flores also “is a reverend . . . He said it was a divine revelation that drove him to this action.” The revelation? The date – an inverted 666, the Mark of the Beast a la the Book of Revelation.

No two people see the world the same. Some look at images from space, from places where humans have never set foot, and impose human mythology in the name of meaning; others see a calendar, isolate a single day in a certain month in a single year and see divinity.

As always, I ask: What do you see?

The Wonders of Yeast

According to this Daily Telegraph report, Claire Allen of Ystrad, Rhondda, Wales, opened a jar of Marmite so she could spread some on her son’s toast. The face of Jesus was staring at her from the back of the lid. She showed her husband Gareth: "When I first looked at it I wasn't sure, but when I moved it away from me it started coming out. I thought Christ, yeah, she's right - that's the image of Jesus.”

This is the first Madonna of the Toast story where “Christ” is used as an exclamation to emphasize the presence of Jesus’s face in an unexpected place. This is not, however, the first time that Marmite has been an aspect of these stories. If you haven’t read the book you wouldn’t know. But way back in 2006 as I was wrapping up the book, British artist Dermot Flynn made quite a splash in the UK media with his Marmite art – “Marmart” – images of which appear in Madonna of the Toast. (Interestingly enough, Flynn is represented by Dutch Uncle Agency, which also represents my buddy Noma Bar.)

Surprised that yeast extract could be so dynamic?

Belief Turns to Blindness

According to this article from the BBC, Catholics in India have gone blind from looking – no staring, for extended periods of time – into the sun with the hope of espying the Virgin Mary. This article from the UK’s Telegraph claims that 48 people have lost their sight. The incidents have all taken place in Kerala, in the district of Kottayam, spurred by a rumor “that a miraculous image of the Virgin Mary could be seen in the sky.”

Since last month, hundreds of the devoted have gazed at the sun, prompting health officials to launch an advertising campaign about the dangers of staring directly at the sun. Local churches have denounced the miracle.” Ophthalmologist Dr. Annamma James Isaac says, “All our patients have similar history and symptoms…They have developed photochemical, not thermal, burns after continuously gazing at the sun.”



This bizarre story comes on the heels of another purported miracle in the region linked to a hotel and its Mary statues “crying honey and bleeding oils and perfumes.” It seems that the crying statues have spurred the rumor about being able to find Mary in the sun.

The assimilation of Christianity into indigenous belief systems is fascinating and well-documented. In Madonna of the Toast, I touch briefly on the subject when discussing Our Lady, or Virgin, of Guadalupe, and this story from India hinges on the same historical tendency. When European missionaries showed up in South Asia, Asia, Africa and the New World, they learned quickly that the best way to drive home the teachings of the Bible was to connect the lessons to already established spiritual and cultural traditions, as pagan as some of them might have been.

I have spent a very small amount of time in India, but even the shortest stay makes clear the very strong connections between religion/spirituality and everyday life, as festivals, temples, shrines and personal devotions cannot be missed, no matter where you are. These traditions have been going on far longer than Christianity, and so it makes perfect sense that they would infiltrate Christianity.

A story like this one originating out of the US is unlikely because religion – no matter your religion – is personalized to the point of being private, or internal, as you go through your day at work or school or running around doing errands; and then it is contained within various houses of worship. In a place like India, everything blends together and such lines of distinction are impossible to discern.

It would be utterly fascinating to read an interview, or conduct one, with one of these blinded people. Was it worth it? Did they see something? Anything?

Cloudy With a Chance of Iconic Imagery

Welcome to 2008 and the start of this blog’s second year. There’s not a doubt in my mind that there will be ample grist for the Madonna of the Toast mill, like the following meteorological visual manifestation of the oft spotted Jesus Christ.



In New Orleans, Louisiana, Sean McCree was taking pics of clouds with his cell phone, finding one that looked like Jesus. This Christian condensation was viewed on Christmas Day, according to this WDSU 6 report. The article contains hardly any detail, but as you may know, I’m a sucker for cell-phone photographs and the stories behind them. More and more, people possess the whole of existence, even its spiritual and enigmatic aspects, in the palms of their hands. For McCree, it seems that either on a religious or commercial level, he had Jesus on his mind this past Christmas.



Seems like Alan Blacklock of Wellington, New Zealand, was thinking more about Santa Claus than the Bible when he spotted this Rudolph the Reindeer cloud prancing through the sky above his home. Sydney, Australia’s The Daily Telegraph reported the story in early December, describing the above image thusly: “With his head thrown back, and his antlers held high, Rudolph is captured in full flight, charging across a vivid expanse of blue.” Although the article does not name Blacklock’s job title, he does work for New Zealand’s National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research; presumably the guy spends lots of time studying clouds, in a secular-scientific way.

May 2008 be as dynamic as the clouds in the sky!