All The Rituals

There was a mild panic between the teacher I had then, and parents in the classroom who were visiting for the presentation day (fortunately I suppose, mine weren’t). While I knew at that young age that Grace Kelly was beautiful, I hadn’t put together it was actually illegal to be a ‘cat burglar’. I was just excited by the idea of climbing around ledges of buildings and scaling the walls. All kids used to be. What happened to them? Nowadays there are pure extremes. Kids who don’t want to walk out of the house and then kids who are pushing the envelope of the extreme and jumping over houses. For me It wasn’t the idea of breaking in to steal, that had appealed to my young mind, it was the ‘how’ in the way they did it. This situation with Mr Walsh, a few years later, was different of course. I had intended the act of stealing, and been found out by Mr Walsh. So far I had not been revealed to the class. So far. Was it a possibility that Mr Walsh would reveal what I had done wrong? How would I feel then? I was uncomfortable now knowing that the class ‘might’ know what I had done. How would I feel if they ‘did’ know? This was obviously Mr Walsh’s plan. This was part of the consequences he had referred to when he told me to see him after class. He wanted to know what I had thought about during the afternoons class. Which dragged on and on. I was sure my class never took this long normally.

I know as children (and at times even now) We all wished there was a way to control time. When we wanted something to happen more quickly, or be over sooner. I know we spent many hours sitting in church, wishing it was over. The interminable, archaic rituals of the service. The sitting, standing, kneeling, standing again, then sitting and then, listening to the droning of the priest as he delivered the sermon. His ‘opinion’ of what the congregation should be paying attention to (or probably, the orders from on high as to what the congregation should be thinking about. What they think in Rome, should stay in Rome). There are too many variations in cultures, climates and countries for one religion to be all encompassing. A bit like suggesting the idea, that we should all eat one food, because it can be grown in one place. That does not ensure it can be grown everywhere. So why would religion be the same? I once argued with a nun about the use of creating an identification of a ‘God’ if you had never been introduced to one. Surely every religion only requires faith (Yes, I know, according to her I was being blasphemous, and, she probably wished her religion still practiced stoning. I would be first against the wall when the judgement came. Possibly she was handling her rosary, wishing the beads were larger stones and she could strike down the unbeliever and not have to do any penance for such a forthright act in defence of her beliefs).

(Continued tomorrow)