I have had several Romanian lacemakers remark negatively on my heavy, colorful lace -- "Lace should be white or maybe beige," and "You use too heavy a cotton thread for your lace and it feels so bulky." "It's not traditional lace." I was beginning to question my taste level and my delight in making in the heavier, more structured lace. "Maybe I am lazy and want the lacemaking to go faster. Maybe I was using my eyesight as an excuse to justify working with the heavier thread. Maybe my lace doesn't look that good. Perhaps I should give it up," I thought.
So I moved to embroidery for the past month. I am teaching my cousin's daughter (age 8) to embroider, and we're making tea towels together. Along with that, I dug out some stamped pillowcases I'd bought a few years back to make for gifts but hadn't gotten around to finishing. I've finished all those -- again using bright colors, but following the traditional thread size. They are fine, I enjoyed making them, but embroidery isn't my joy. A few days ago I picked up my huge lace project and started working on it again, and I was SO HAPPY to be doing it. I love working up the lace. So I decided to continue with that even if it isn't the best.
But then yesterday, I watched a PBS program called "The Mind of a Chef" featuring local Louisville Edward Lee, a young chef of Korean heritage who mixes Korean and Southern cuisine styles in his cooking. He visited other chefs doing similar cooking, mixing Vietnamese and Cajun styles, for example. And he said that this mixing is a trend in American cooking. He said that the result is not traditional and is often criticized. But, he said (and this is the kicker), "Once you say something is traditional, you say it is dead."
WOW -- Once you confine yourself to traditional techniques and styles you say the craft is dead. I see that the same can be said for lacemaking. I'm NOT Romanian. I have never seen a traditional Romanian piece of lace except on the internet. So, why would I confine myself to the traditional looks of the lace? I am using traditional stitches.............for the most part, because I have an idea for creating some different looks in the creation of the braids that form the structure of the lace...........but that I've mastered the traditional stitches might be the better way to say it. I'm NOT Slovak. I have studied with a traditional Slovak bobbin lace maker who decried my use of heavier thread and the way I chose to incorporate color in my lace even while I was in Slovakia. But I've seen her work, so I have a closer affinity to that technique. But even when I was in Slovakia, I noted that modern Slovak bobbin lace makers have veered wide of the mark from the traditional patterns used in lacemaking a century or so ago. Now, they create realistic pictures of people, animals, churches, etc. They make framed pieces rather than useful lace objects like tablecloths or decorations for clothing.
So, I'm thinking, even in Slovakia the lacemakers are adapting the techniques away from the traditional. Now, my teacher evidently feels that her techniques have BECOME tradition. They have grown organically out of the old styles and are being created on the very soil and in the footsteps of the older lacemakers, so they are furthering the tradition.
I, on the other hand, have brought my lace pillow to America and am now merging my bobbin lace with Romanian point lace all based on old Russian patterns I've found in a library book. And I'm enlarging the patterns to accommodate my heavier thread. I'm using bright colors throughout my lace. It's my taste...........it might not be good taste, I'll acknowledge that, but I like it. I love making it. I enjoy looking at the finished product.
So, I will continue...............and I will argue that the craft is NOT DEAD, but living in ways that anyone can further by picking up a set of bobbins or a crochet hook and needle.
Wednesday, September 17, 2014
Thursday, August 21, 2014
keeping some poison in your color scheme
Yesterday I volunteered with the Louisville chapter of the Embroiderers' Guild of America at the Textiles exhibit of the Kentucky State Fair. Members brought their projects to the exhibit and "demonstrated" their techniques by working on them while people could come by and watch and ask questions. It was great fun.
One of the other women demonstrating while I was there is something of an expert in color design, an area that is my weakest link in my lacemaking. So I picked her brain and learned some really important principles of color design that, I think, have some metaphorical implications (although I'm not yet sure what those might be).
I'm making a huge Romanian Point Lace mat with six butterflies surrounding a bobbin-lace center. I wish I could upload a picture of it in progress, but at this moment I'm without a camera and I don't know how to upload from my phone -- so bear with me, please.
Now, I've made each butterfly's outline in a different color, in shades of blue, red, and purple. The background is ecru, or a light beige. Now, my tutor told me that the first principle of color design is to provide places for the viewer's eye to focus and then to move about the piece easily. I guess I'd realized something like this when I first got started with the piece, because just seeing those six different colors starkly outlined against the white of my pattern really was jarring. So I had decided to fill in each butterfly with the same pattern, using a variety of colors and lace stitches. My thinking was that this unified patterning of the filled-in areas would pull the piece together. My instructor yesterday told me that I was on the right track with that plan. I used a bright yellow in one spot on each butterfly, and she said that the pop of bright color gave the eye a focus place in each butterfly, and that was good. So, I was following the first principle of color design with that.
I also have a place in two of the butterflies where there's some distortion that has crept in making some areas of those butterflies larger than those same spots are in the other butterflies -- this distortion is caused by my need to have sort of stretched these areas a bit to make the lace pattern lie flat. So in that spot in all the butterflies I used a very light, airy lace stitch and chose colors a few shades lighter than the structural outline of each of the butterflies. My thinking was that this strategy would minimize the appearance of those areas so that the distorted areas would not jump out at the viewer. Again, my tutor said I was exactly on track in my thinking and that I have been successful in using color to sort of correct for an error.
So far, I was two for two, but the next point is where the problem really was, I thought, in my design. I have been using colored threads that I just have left over from other projects, and I've been fitting them in sort of willy-nilly. Some of the colors look pretty good in one or two of the butterflies and less good in the others. But there is one color that I LOVE -- it's sort of a seagreen -- when I see it out on its own, but I think it really looks terrible inside each butterfly. I've not given it a very big space to fill, but to me it sort of stands out because it's such a disappointment placed next to each of the blues, purples and reds of the structural colors. I was thinking I should just cut that seagreen out and substitute something else.
BUT NO, my instructor explained that this seagreen functions as "the poison" in my piece and that every color design needs a spot of poison. "It helps to pull everything else together and solidifies the rest of your design so that your viewer knows what you're doing with the whole." Who knew? She said that the poison cannot take up much area in the design or it really will poison the design, but just a spot of poison is a good thing.
So, she said to leave the seagreen in and that as I complete the rest of the piece it will look like it carries less of the color within the piece and will really help the piece. Now -- this idea of a bit of poison seems to me like it has the possibility for some kind of metaphorical meaning, perhaps a lesson to teach beyond the bonds of a lace mat................................but I don't know what that might be. I plan to keep thinking about it as I finish the mat (the thing is so big that to be honest, I'm hoping to get it done by next year's State Fair so I can submit it in some category for exhibit). I don't want to jump to the obvious possibilities...........we'll see.
Anyway, my teacher gave me additional advice about "mirroring" within each butterfly so that at some small level at least the upper wings and lower wings of each butterfly mirror each other -- again to provide a path for the eye, but another possibility for metaphor.........................And my teacher recommended that I could use some colors just in the top wing and others in the bottom wing, but that most of the colors can match.
Finally, she was so horrified at the pure whiteness of my pattern showing through around the edges and within the mat that, although the pattern will be gone when the piece is completed, she said that seeing the white was giving me trouble visualizing the finished piece because white pulls color out of a piece. Again, WHO KNEW? I LOVE the color white and am actually planning on making white lace curtains for my living room as my next project. I have white trim..............I figure, why not? Well, that's a story for another day, but I have to admit that I had originally planned to use white rather than ecru as the background color for the mat, but fortunately my sister talked me out of that idea.
When thinking about allegory or metaphor that could be found in this effort at color design, the one thing I can say WITH CONFIDENCE that for me, listening to the advice of my sister is ALWAYS A GOOD IDEA. Confirmed here!!!!
One of the other women demonstrating while I was there is something of an expert in color design, an area that is my weakest link in my lacemaking. So I picked her brain and learned some really important principles of color design that, I think, have some metaphorical implications (although I'm not yet sure what those might be).
I'm making a huge Romanian Point Lace mat with six butterflies surrounding a bobbin-lace center. I wish I could upload a picture of it in progress, but at this moment I'm without a camera and I don't know how to upload from my phone -- so bear with me, please.
Now, I've made each butterfly's outline in a different color, in shades of blue, red, and purple. The background is ecru, or a light beige. Now, my tutor told me that the first principle of color design is to provide places for the viewer's eye to focus and then to move about the piece easily. I guess I'd realized something like this when I first got started with the piece, because just seeing those six different colors starkly outlined against the white of my pattern really was jarring. So I had decided to fill in each butterfly with the same pattern, using a variety of colors and lace stitches. My thinking was that this unified patterning of the filled-in areas would pull the piece together. My instructor yesterday told me that I was on the right track with that plan. I used a bright yellow in one spot on each butterfly, and she said that the pop of bright color gave the eye a focus place in each butterfly, and that was good. So, I was following the first principle of color design with that.
I also have a place in two of the butterflies where there's some distortion that has crept in making some areas of those butterflies larger than those same spots are in the other butterflies -- this distortion is caused by my need to have sort of stretched these areas a bit to make the lace pattern lie flat. So in that spot in all the butterflies I used a very light, airy lace stitch and chose colors a few shades lighter than the structural outline of each of the butterflies. My thinking was that this strategy would minimize the appearance of those areas so that the distorted areas would not jump out at the viewer. Again, my tutor said I was exactly on track in my thinking and that I have been successful in using color to sort of correct for an error.
So far, I was two for two, but the next point is where the problem really was, I thought, in my design. I have been using colored threads that I just have left over from other projects, and I've been fitting them in sort of willy-nilly. Some of the colors look pretty good in one or two of the butterflies and less good in the others. But there is one color that I LOVE -- it's sort of a seagreen -- when I see it out on its own, but I think it really looks terrible inside each butterfly. I've not given it a very big space to fill, but to me it sort of stands out because it's such a disappointment placed next to each of the blues, purples and reds of the structural colors. I was thinking I should just cut that seagreen out and substitute something else.
BUT NO, my instructor explained that this seagreen functions as "the poison" in my piece and that every color design needs a spot of poison. "It helps to pull everything else together and solidifies the rest of your design so that your viewer knows what you're doing with the whole." Who knew? She said that the poison cannot take up much area in the design or it really will poison the design, but just a spot of poison is a good thing.
So, she said to leave the seagreen in and that as I complete the rest of the piece it will look like it carries less of the color within the piece and will really help the piece. Now -- this idea of a bit of poison seems to me like it has the possibility for some kind of metaphorical meaning, perhaps a lesson to teach beyond the bonds of a lace mat................................but I don't know what that might be. I plan to keep thinking about it as I finish the mat (the thing is so big that to be honest, I'm hoping to get it done by next year's State Fair so I can submit it in some category for exhibit). I don't want to jump to the obvious possibilities...........we'll see.
Anyway, my teacher gave me additional advice about "mirroring" within each butterfly so that at some small level at least the upper wings and lower wings of each butterfly mirror each other -- again to provide a path for the eye, but another possibility for metaphor.........................And my teacher recommended that I could use some colors just in the top wing and others in the bottom wing, but that most of the colors can match.
Finally, she was so horrified at the pure whiteness of my pattern showing through around the edges and within the mat that, although the pattern will be gone when the piece is completed, she said that seeing the white was giving me trouble visualizing the finished piece because white pulls color out of a piece. Again, WHO KNEW? I LOVE the color white and am actually planning on making white lace curtains for my living room as my next project. I have white trim..............I figure, why not? Well, that's a story for another day, but I have to admit that I had originally planned to use white rather than ecru as the background color for the mat, but fortunately my sister talked me out of that idea.
When thinking about allegory or metaphor that could be found in this effort at color design, the one thing I can say WITH CONFIDENCE that for me, listening to the advice of my sister is ALWAYS A GOOD IDEA. Confirmed here!!!!
Tuesday, August 19, 2014
Writing process
I seem to be using this blog to gather my thoughts and writing that I'd originally sent on email to my family and friends. I am noticing something about my writing process as a result -- first, I notice how amazingly LONG my posts are. I've posted twice and have a really long stream of words here -- and I know that it isn't the best writing to be so wordy. It would be better if i were more concise, but I seem to be using these posts to pull in my impressions and thoughts relatively in the moment and I want to capture the details. As such these posts are sort of first drafts that I am keeping if I ever want to revisit them later. I'm assuming I would severely edit them at that point.
Second, I notice the difference in tone of the writing I do FOR THE BLOG and the writing I do for friends and families. I don't like the generalized tone of the writing FOR THE BLOG -- it seems cold and flat whereas the writing I do in emails to specific people seems more dynamic. I've taught writing at several colleges/universities and I always insist in my classes that the best writing is done to a specific audience. Clearly that truth is evident in this blog already. So I'm going to try to keep the generalized posts to a minimum or even to avoid them completely.
We'll see how it goes.
Second, I notice the difference in tone of the writing I do FOR THE BLOG and the writing I do for friends and families. I don't like the generalized tone of the writing FOR THE BLOG -- it seems cold and flat whereas the writing I do in emails to specific people seems more dynamic. I've taught writing at several colleges/universities and I always insist in my classes that the best writing is done to a specific audience. Clearly that truth is evident in this blog already. So I'm going to try to keep the generalized posts to a minimum or even to avoid them completely.
We'll see how it goes.
Getting a tire fixed and other adventures
I took the car in to Goodyear Tire Co. yesterday at 9:30 to get the tire
fixed, and they said that it "would be hours" before they could get to
it. So I decided to take the bus to the main library downtown to pick
up two books and to sign up as a volunteer.
WRONG.
Our Louisville public library system is incredibly under endowed with books. I was SHOCKED that they didn't have Mary Austin's LAND OF LITTLE RAIN, a minor classic of American Literature -- she collaborated on it with Ansel Adams, and the book has famous essays by her and amazing photographs of the American West by him. They had none of her novels, none of her short stories, none of her poetry -- I mean it was pathetic and I was really surprised.
In addition, I asked about volunteering and was told that they don't use volunteers at the main library. They let me sign up, but by the time I got home, someone had called and confirmed that they don't use volunteers at the main library although they do at some of the branches. So, I'll check in with the library at Mid-City Mall sometime soon and see what they have. I don't actually feel the urgency of volunteering, but I know that eventually I will want to be doing something.
Anyway -- back to the experience at the library. What to do? I had my heart set on reading something by Mary Austin since hers will be the next biography that we read here at the condo, so I decided to hop another bus and go down to UofL to get books from their library. Which of course THEY HAD. They had that book and about 10 of her works. I studied the photos and checked into her essays in the book I'd originally wanted and then chose another more fictional book.
It was like heaven -- it was what I've been used to for 19 years working at UofL and never thinking a thing about it -- having at my fingers anything and everything I could possibly want to read -- and if I didn't have it the very minute I was there, I could get it in a few days through inter-library loan. Absolute heaven. I also checked out a murder mystery that I could have gotten at the public library, but why check it out at another library for 3 weeks when I could get it at the same library as the other book for TEN weeks? And I ordered from inter-library loan a novel by an author who sets all his works in Bratislava. As I said -- heaven.
On my way home I had the most fun-on-a-bus ever. I do love a nice bus ride, and this one was GREAT. it was AIR CONDITIONED, PACKED, SO DIVERSE with people coming from and going to the Kentucky Refugee Ministries, young mothers with babies and toddlers, old women KNITTING, young people working with their phones, a person in a wheelchair, women in saris and women in Muslim veils, older men in dirty, heavy workpants, a young woman in heels and a dress...............you get the picture. It was unbelievable. The atmosphere was just great -- friendly chatter, cooing over babies, laughter, helpfulness (during the overcrowded time of the journey, one middle-aged black woman repeatedly offered me her seat, for example, and a woman in the back kept announcing, "there are seats in the back!!!"), and a blur of languages bubbling through it all. There was respect -- when about a dozen people from KRM came on together and made their way to the seats in the back where I was perched, I noticed a young man jump up from sitting next to where what appeared to be an older Asian man had sat down and move to sit next to me. The young man evidently noticed the flash of startle on the older man's face, and he reached over to assure the older man that he had moved because his seat had become too crowded. The older man smiled and nodded his head.
So, I wondered -- what is it about a short journey that can meld a community so fluidly and quickly? And how long could such a community last? -- I suspect not very long, what would happen if something went wrong....like an accident or something? What builds trust on a bus -- or a plane or train for that matter? How many people do you need to build that sense of togetherness, because I've noticed on other trips in which the buses are emptier that people tend to sit silently unless they know each other. Is it the quality of TRAVEL -- the assurance of brevity -- that allows us to lower our barriers with strangers quickly? Cruises are longer, but my sister and her husband, who love cruising, report quick flash-ups of relatively close friendships for whom they have intentions of keeping in touch but then don't. I'm thinking there have to be social norms at work -- but the real diversity of this busload of people gives me pause to think that there could be something universal about the way we interact on a bus. Well -- I need an anthropologist.....
WRONG.
Our Louisville public library system is incredibly under endowed with books. I was SHOCKED that they didn't have Mary Austin's LAND OF LITTLE RAIN, a minor classic of American Literature -- she collaborated on it with Ansel Adams, and the book has famous essays by her and amazing photographs of the American West by him. They had none of her novels, none of her short stories, none of her poetry -- I mean it was pathetic and I was really surprised.
In addition, I asked about volunteering and was told that they don't use volunteers at the main library. They let me sign up, but by the time I got home, someone had called and confirmed that they don't use volunteers at the main library although they do at some of the branches. So, I'll check in with the library at Mid-City Mall sometime soon and see what they have. I don't actually feel the urgency of volunteering, but I know that eventually I will want to be doing something.
Anyway -- back to the experience at the library. What to do? I had my heart set on reading something by Mary Austin since hers will be the next biography that we read here at the condo, so I decided to hop another bus and go down to UofL to get books from their library. Which of course THEY HAD. They had that book and about 10 of her works. I studied the photos and checked into her essays in the book I'd originally wanted and then chose another more fictional book.
It was like heaven -- it was what I've been used to for 19 years working at UofL and never thinking a thing about it -- having at my fingers anything and everything I could possibly want to read -- and if I didn't have it the very minute I was there, I could get it in a few days through inter-library loan. Absolute heaven. I also checked out a murder mystery that I could have gotten at the public library, but why check it out at another library for 3 weeks when I could get it at the same library as the other book for TEN weeks? And I ordered from inter-library loan a novel by an author who sets all his works in Bratislava. As I said -- heaven.
On my way home I had the most fun-on-a-bus ever. I do love a nice bus ride, and this one was GREAT. it was AIR CONDITIONED, PACKED, SO DIVERSE with people coming from and going to the Kentucky Refugee Ministries, young mothers with babies and toddlers, old women KNITTING, young people working with their phones, a person in a wheelchair, women in saris and women in Muslim veils, older men in dirty, heavy workpants, a young woman in heels and a dress...............you get the picture. It was unbelievable. The atmosphere was just great -- friendly chatter, cooing over babies, laughter, helpfulness (during the overcrowded time of the journey, one middle-aged black woman repeatedly offered me her seat, for example, and a woman in the back kept announcing, "there are seats in the back!!!"), and a blur of languages bubbling through it all. There was respect -- when about a dozen people from KRM came on together and made their way to the seats in the back where I was perched, I noticed a young man jump up from sitting next to where what appeared to be an older Asian man had sat down and move to sit next to me. The young man evidently noticed the flash of startle on the older man's face, and he reached over to assure the older man that he had moved because his seat had become too crowded. The older man smiled and nodded his head.
So, I wondered -- what is it about a short journey that can meld a community so fluidly and quickly? And how long could such a community last? -- I suspect not very long, what would happen if something went wrong....like an accident or something? What builds trust on a bus -- or a plane or train for that matter? How many people do you need to build that sense of togetherness, because I've noticed on other trips in which the buses are emptier that people tend to sit silently unless they know each other. Is it the quality of TRAVEL -- the assurance of brevity -- that allows us to lower our barriers with strangers quickly? Cruises are longer, but my sister and her husband, who love cruising, report quick flash-ups of relatively close friendships for whom they have intentions of keeping in touch but then don't. I'm thinking there have to be social norms at work -- but the real diversity of this busload of people gives me pause to think that there could be something universal about the way we interact on a bus. Well -- I need an anthropologist.....
Saturday, July 19, 2014
A retirement blog?
I retired with trepidation from teaching at the end of spring 2104 semester. People would congratulate me and ask me what I would be doing, and I would make up some stories about volunteering at the public library and doing some traveling, But in reality I had no idea what I'd do without the structure of the academic year and the ever-present planning and worrying about my classes and my students. My only real expectation was that I'd be bored being retired.
But now I've been retired for exactly 3 months and I can honestly say I've not been bored once. I have not volunteered even one minute at the public library or really anywhere else, and I've already cancelled two trips I had planned.
Here's what's happened so far in my retirement, though -- my husband's pituitary brain tumor that we thought was in remission started acting up again and I've been caring for him (He's improving greatly and is basically back to normal after a terrible scare). As a result of his illness, we couldn't leave town. In the midst of facing some life-and-death issues and worrying continuously about him, I have found my way back to some old interests and questions from my past and have started attending the local Quaker meeting and have returned to some old research interests in early Christian History. It seems that so far my retirement has been more of a spiritual journey than I'd been aware that I'd been on for years.
Now, I'm a lacemaker and have been for years, and I find the repetitive process of crocheting, bobbin lacing, and needle-made lacing to be something of a meditative practice. I have thought that making lace has been my spirituality. I've continued my lacemaking throughout these three months of my retirement, and it is because of the continuity of that practice for me, and the fact that I love a title with layered meanings, that I've titled this blog "Lacings."
I want to start with a reflection I wrote two days ago in response to a question a family member had asked me, "Where do you think Christianity went wrong?" since I don't consider myself a Christian anymore. My answer to the question is that I'm thinking that Christianity took a wrong turn very early when it based its understanding of Jesus and of the faith on a narrow list of authoritative texts when it selected from all the writings available to it what it wanted to include in the canon of the New Testament.
But first a picture of some Romanian Point Lace I've recently completed.
And here's my reflections:
My recent research into the Early Christian Church history, beliefs, and decisions about how to move forward with the faith has led me to some really fascinating finds, the most recent of which is the GOSPEL OF JUDAS, a copy of a Gnostic gospel recently authenticated to about 250 AD.
Here's a URL to it:
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/lostgospel/_pdf/GospelofJudas.pdf
The Gospel of Judas was found in a cave decades ago by a bedouin who tried to sell it, but no one would pay his price. So, over the years, it wandered from place to place in an attempt to find a buyer, was eventually stolen, again unable to be sold, until finally the gospel was locked away in a safe deposit box where it began to deteriorate to dust for years. Finally, the NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY collaborated with a museum to purchase it -- they authenticated, dated, restored, and translated it , and, in fact, made a film about the process and their findings, which film is now available for streaming on Netflix.
But several things are really interesting to me about it -- first, of course, is what a hot potato it was until a secular organization finally got interested and took on the project. So far, evidently we've found 31 so-called "lost" gospels and other early Christian writings, all the rest of which have found ready buyers and investigators, but the Gospel of JUDAS was just too hot. In fact, I rented a DVD on it and some of the other so-call "lost" gospels from Netflix -- this DVD was of a Catholic Priest just livid in his railing about how FALSE they all are. Just livid, I say.
Anyway, what's primarily interesting about this gospel is what it says -- AS PROBLEMATIC as the text is, what with the breaks in the text where sections have been lost and what with its prejudices, it paints Judas in a positive light as having a highly advanced understanding of Jesus' mission and as working WITH Jesus as a catalyst to Jesus' crucifixion. All the Gnostic writings I've read so far have an alternative take on the Jesus tradition -- and discuss so-called "secret" sayings and teachings of Jesus, most of which are pretty esoteric and actually seem very influenced by Buddhist thinking. In fact, tradition has it that THOMAS actually went to India to preach and there would have become familiar with Buddhist teaching. His Gospel is just a list of 70 "Secret Teachings" of Jesus and actually reads like a list of Buddhist Koans. The Gospel of Mary relates how Mary Magdalene taught and preached and forcefully declared her authority to do so based on the secret teachings she had received from Jesus during his life and the visions she had received since his death.
Anyway, the other interesting thing about the Gospel of JUDAS is that it brings to light how even in the 4 Gospels that have been incorporated into the New Testament, Judas wasn't always seen as evil -- he is a very neutral figure in the Gospel of Mark, for example, and it is not until the much later, especially in the Gospel of John that he is presented as a pariah. John is late enough that by the time he wrote, the Christians had begun to seriously separate themselves from Judaism, and JUdas was apparently a convenient target to explain the growing animus. Much of the very anti-Jewish sentiment of the New Testament is found in the Gospel of John in the crucifixion narrative and elsewhere.
Well, we all know the continuing history of anti-semitic feelings and actions among Christians, culminating in the Holocaust. The Gospel of Judas at minimum gives us pause to rethink that history in terms of what might have been had these so-called Gnostic writings been more freely included either within the New Testament canon or at least among accepted reading and teaching within the church. But by the second century that option was being snapped shut by the consolidating catholic (or universal) Church. In fact, the influential bishop Iranaeus -- (died in 202 AD) of Lyon in what is now France -- wrote vehemently for their exclusion and mentions the Gospel of Judas by name.
But now we have these writings -- and it seems to me that we can benefit greatly from reading them all, at minimum to flesh out a picture of Christ and of the Church that for a few centuries was part of what was generally considered CHRISTIAN. The Gnostics did not call themselves "gnostics" (which in fact, just means "intuitive knowledge" in Greek but over time has gotten such a bad rap in Christian circles) -- they called themselves "Christians."
WOW -- I'm willing to call them that as well! And finally, what's interesting to me about the Judas story developments is that the Catholic church in GERMANY, in light of their rethinking of the anti-semitism in their own history, has petitioned for the larger church to declare Judas a saint. I think it would be a good step -- but other good steps would be for us all to open our thinking to consider the alternative possibilities for faith.
But now I've been retired for exactly 3 months and I can honestly say I've not been bored once. I have not volunteered even one minute at the public library or really anywhere else, and I've already cancelled two trips I had planned.
Here's what's happened so far in my retirement, though -- my husband's pituitary brain tumor that we thought was in remission started acting up again and I've been caring for him (He's improving greatly and is basically back to normal after a terrible scare). As a result of his illness, we couldn't leave town. In the midst of facing some life-and-death issues and worrying continuously about him, I have found my way back to some old interests and questions from my past and have started attending the local Quaker meeting and have returned to some old research interests in early Christian History. It seems that so far my retirement has been more of a spiritual journey than I'd been aware that I'd been on for years.
Now, I'm a lacemaker and have been for years, and I find the repetitive process of crocheting, bobbin lacing, and needle-made lacing to be something of a meditative practice. I have thought that making lace has been my spirituality. I've continued my lacemaking throughout these three months of my retirement, and it is because of the continuity of that practice for me, and the fact that I love a title with layered meanings, that I've titled this blog "Lacings."
I want to start with a reflection I wrote two days ago in response to a question a family member had asked me, "Where do you think Christianity went wrong?" since I don't consider myself a Christian anymore. My answer to the question is that I'm thinking that Christianity took a wrong turn very early when it based its understanding of Jesus and of the faith on a narrow list of authoritative texts when it selected from all the writings available to it what it wanted to include in the canon of the New Testament.
But first a picture of some Romanian Point Lace I've recently completed.
And here's my reflections:
My recent research into the Early Christian Church history, beliefs, and decisions about how to move forward with the faith has led me to some really fascinating finds, the most recent of which is the GOSPEL OF JUDAS, a copy of a Gnostic gospel recently authenticated to about 250 AD.
Here's a URL to it:
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/lostgospel/_pdf/GospelofJudas.pdf
The Gospel of Judas was found in a cave decades ago by a bedouin who tried to sell it, but no one would pay his price. So, over the years, it wandered from place to place in an attempt to find a buyer, was eventually stolen, again unable to be sold, until finally the gospel was locked away in a safe deposit box where it began to deteriorate to dust for years. Finally, the NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY collaborated with a museum to purchase it -- they authenticated, dated, restored, and translated it , and, in fact, made a film about the process and their findings, which film is now available for streaming on Netflix.
But several things are really interesting to me about it -- first, of course, is what a hot potato it was until a secular organization finally got interested and took on the project. So far, evidently we've found 31 so-called "lost" gospels and other early Christian writings, all the rest of which have found ready buyers and investigators, but the Gospel of JUDAS was just too hot. In fact, I rented a DVD on it and some of the other so-call "lost" gospels from Netflix -- this DVD was of a Catholic Priest just livid in his railing about how FALSE they all are. Just livid, I say.
Anyway, what's primarily interesting about this gospel is what it says -- AS PROBLEMATIC as the text is, what with the breaks in the text where sections have been lost and what with its prejudices, it paints Judas in a positive light as having a highly advanced understanding of Jesus' mission and as working WITH Jesus as a catalyst to Jesus' crucifixion. All the Gnostic writings I've read so far have an alternative take on the Jesus tradition -- and discuss so-called "secret" sayings and teachings of Jesus, most of which are pretty esoteric and actually seem very influenced by Buddhist thinking. In fact, tradition has it that THOMAS actually went to India to preach and there would have become familiar with Buddhist teaching. His Gospel is just a list of 70 "Secret Teachings" of Jesus and actually reads like a list of Buddhist Koans. The Gospel of Mary relates how Mary Magdalene taught and preached and forcefully declared her authority to do so based on the secret teachings she had received from Jesus during his life and the visions she had received since his death.
Anyway, the other interesting thing about the Gospel of JUDAS is that it brings to light how even in the 4 Gospels that have been incorporated into the New Testament, Judas wasn't always seen as evil -- he is a very neutral figure in the Gospel of Mark, for example, and it is not until the much later, especially in the Gospel of John that he is presented as a pariah. John is late enough that by the time he wrote, the Christians had begun to seriously separate themselves from Judaism, and JUdas was apparently a convenient target to explain the growing animus. Much of the very anti-Jewish sentiment of the New Testament is found in the Gospel of John in the crucifixion narrative and elsewhere.
Well, we all know the continuing history of anti-semitic feelings and actions among Christians, culminating in the Holocaust. The Gospel of Judas at minimum gives us pause to rethink that history in terms of what might have been had these so-called Gnostic writings been more freely included either within the New Testament canon or at least among accepted reading and teaching within the church. But by the second century that option was being snapped shut by the consolidating catholic (or universal) Church. In fact, the influential bishop Iranaeus -- (died in 202 AD) of Lyon in what is now France -- wrote vehemently for their exclusion and mentions the Gospel of Judas by name.
But now we have these writings -- and it seems to me that we can benefit greatly from reading them all, at minimum to flesh out a picture of Christ and of the Church that for a few centuries was part of what was generally considered CHRISTIAN. The Gnostics did not call themselves "gnostics" (which in fact, just means "intuitive knowledge" in Greek but over time has gotten such a bad rap in Christian circles) -- they called themselves "Christians."
WOW -- I'm willing to call them that as well! And finally, what's interesting to me about the Judas story developments is that the Catholic church in GERMANY, in light of their rethinking of the anti-semitism in their own history, has petitioned for the larger church to declare Judas a saint. I think it would be a good step -- but other good steps would be for us all to open our thinking to consider the alternative possibilities for faith.
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