Wouldn’t it be a hoot if someone sprinkled some holy water on it and the whole thing dissolved and washed away?
I couldn’t see Satan in it, so I tried squinting and then I saw an elephant. An elephant, that upon closer inspection, has six legs.
Or spinkle some ‘holy water’ consisting of an aqueous silver nitrate solution on at night (when it is darkest).
You could have fun with devil-horn shaped sprinkles.
I sometimes hunger to know what goes on in the minds of people who believe they actually see mystical stuff in bizarre places—why in the name of all thats holy would the VM decide to decorate the wall of a damn tunnel in Chicago with her own image?
“Lo! The poor Indian, whose untutored mind sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind.” At least the poor Indian didn’t see an apparition on a tunnel wall.
Now imagine this “mystic” semi-frantically checking every cowpat in a field for an image of the Virgin Mary.
Yeah I’ve often wondered the same, because that kind of thing has always seemed so crass, and I always wondered why (it seemed to me) that it was the images in the most godforsaken places (a potato chip, an underpass) that got the most attention. But when you think about it, there’s actually a rather lovely, and even philosophical, emotional reasoning behind it. It’s the purposeful juxtaposition of what is most lovely, and pure (hence it’s always Mary, who’s prettier than, say, St Paul) in the most mundane and dirty places. It immediately renders that mundane place beautiful and sacred.
I think for people who are forced to live in dull, dirty places, where potato chips and underpasses are the only things they come into contact with, concocting a Virgin Mary out of a salt stain, and imagining that she would choose to show a little sign of herself there rather than in the gold leaf of the Vatican, must give them a great deal of hope and faith.
And it also makes sense theologically – the Virgin Mary in a pancake is no less incongruous than the idea of God in a stable – ‘There is no rose of sych vertu As is the rose that bare Jesu, For in this rose contained was Heaven and earth in lytle space’ and all that.
Yeah, I find it all quite touching. So meh.
The boyfriend has been quite amused by this whole thing. He has started spotting apparitions everywhere. Just this morning as I was getting out of the shower he swore he saw an image of RuPaul without makeup on the fogged up bathroom mirror. Last night he followed me out to the storage building with a flashlight in his hand. He shined the flashlight on the fence and swore he saw Diana Ross and Minnie Pearl waltzing.
I think I’ve worn off on him a little too much. He’s off work today so he’s hanging out at my house. He says he’s spending the day looking for some suitable apparition to start a shrine to, right after he wakes back up cause he was going back to sleep when I left for work. I’m living in fear that he’ll find Jesus in the kitchen sink before the day’s over.
Chefguy maybe I should introduce you to him. Y’all could have a profitable business if you put your minds together. Scary as that sounds! :eek:
What makes me just shake my head in wonderment is the presumption by all of these people that they know exactly what Jesus, Mary, et al actually looked like. There are no descriptions of either of them that I’m aware of, certainly no paintings or drawings, only a vague outline on a disputed bedsheet. Mary may have been a troll and her son a chinless wonder for all we know. The artists’ renditions throughout the centuries have been idealistic renderings, for the most part, manifestations of what our western culture would prefer our deities to look like: a white guy with a trimmed beard and curly hair and a MILF.
I had never thought of that. :dubious:
So, do you mean that all those miraculous images people have been praying to over the centuries have been fake??? This is most disturbing. :mad:
I need a beer.
FWIW, I know a few people who are devout enough to buy this whole bit, and I don’t question their belief even a little. Sure, it seems illogical, but if a water stain on a wall can bring a measure of comfort to a person, who am I to ridicule? Now if I was to see the image of Cerrunnos or Astarte in my bran flakes, I don’t think I’d alert the media, but to each their own, not a lot of dopers out there, i’d guess.
FYI, it’s raining here today, so I’d be amazed if the Good Lady’s image made it through the afternoon, if it’s not gone already.
Now if it did stick around after a good soaking 20 hour rain like this one, THAT would be a minor miracle.
<Family Guy Ref>
How many dirty stinking apes does it take to screw in a light bulb?
</FGR>
It is like God isn’t even trying to impress us anymore. Maybe he/she is just phoning it in?
Yeah, pretty much.
Exodus 34:14 et. al. is apparently foreign to these folks.