Evening at Little Joe Lake

One of Life's great moments:

Sitting on a rocky promontory,

a 'Gin and Tonic' at hand

thinking.... dreaming!

Thorns and Giraffes

Despite these formidable thorns

the Giraffes have no problems to deftly 

extract the green leaves with their curled tongues. 

The Fun is Over!

Fasting Cloths.

It is this time. 

Carnival time is over, fun and games are put aside and now serious business starts again.

This is particularly so in the area of Christian religious observation.

Because you had fun, you must now be punished.

Not only must you deprive yourself of certain foods, like meat, not only must you not drink spirit water, but you also will be chastened by being deprived of the view of important religious icons, in particular the view of the central Eucharist ( the chalice and the host) and the crucifix.

As early as the first century, the altar and any surrounding pictures were covered by simple, unadorned cloths, so that within the hearts of the believers a desire to see these precious images again should be awakened. The hiding of the central point of this religious observation was to be a form of punishment, as the fasting itself. Hence the name: Fasting Cloth. ( or “hunger cloth” ).

It wasn't until about the year 1200 that these cloths were decorated, in some cases by well known artists, clearly at the behest of Catholic Clergy.

There is a most interesting observation to be made:

Please observe the images shown below and you might note the emphasis on suffering, punishment and brutality.

Throughout Religion, of whatever kind, punishment, suffering and pain is a steady diet. The pictures on those fasting cloths always and almost exclusively depict punishment and pain.

In Christianity pain stands foremost in the ideology, taking a most prominent place in their texts and pictography.

Why is it that the central symbol of this faith is the crucified Jesus, with blood pouring from his open wounds, a crown of thorn on his head, and not an image of his Resurrection? Would it not be more to the point that he arose from death and returned to life and then to eternal life? Isn't this the very point of this faith?

Being crucified was in those days nothing singular nor spectacular.

But coming back to life was certainly almost singular and certainly spectacular.

It is a pity, but it is true, that eternal life does not engender fear.

But torture, pain, suffering, and death, that, my friend, causes humans to shake in their boots and break out in cold sweat and to do anything to avoid it.

A person in abject fear is easy to control and that is what Religion is all about.

Power and Control.

Study the images below.

Fasting cloths are still popular in Carinthia, The Tirol, Bavaria and certain other places in Europe.

Diex is a lovely little town atop a hill rise, where, they claim,

  the sun shines 360 days each year.

The altar in their church is now hidden behind a decorated "fasting cloth".

The center piece being the bloodied, crucified Jesus.

Biblical scenes, whose brutality and blood thirst is shown in all four corners.

the images speak for themselves.

In the Cathedral of Gurk, the largest fasting cloth (90m by 90m)

is displayed from Ash Wednesday to Easter.

One of the most artfully decorated cloths is the one in Millstatt.

It is large, covering all of the altar, and most of the images are of 

Christ's suffering

Bertstravels 

will try to photograph more of the same.

Preach water, drink wine!

Pope Franciscus.

I am beginning to like this man.

He has a tendency to call a spade a spade.

Most recently he spoke of the hypocrisy within the Catholic Church.

Among several comments along this line he said this:

“These hypocrites among us preach water and themselves they drink wine.”

Did he speak of the Clergy of his Church?

Did he speak of those Bishops and Cardinals who preach modesty and moderation, while they live a life of show-off luxury and abundance?

Did he, by any chance, speak of those Priests who demand sexual purity from their flock, while they bed their “housekeepers” or any other female with whom they might successfully copulate? 

Or did he have in mind general members of his church who profess to follow the teachings of their Master, Jesus Christ, go to Church every Sunday, confess their sins frequently, partake of communion as often, and ostentatiously put paper money into the collection box, all the while, making sure their neighbors note this generous conduct, while in their life outside the religious confines they break the marriage vow every chance they get, cheat their business partners, force their employees to work for a meager pay and in a general way behave like the predators they are.

In any event, Pope Franciscus called them out.

He challenged them to act like they preach. To make their actions conform with their pretense.

I fear, however, that this is a vain challenge.

The human is what evolution has made him to be, but Religion pretends that it can make him into something else.

Bertstravels

2 against 1

Two Maribu storks cautiously close in on this Baboon. 

They want whatever it is the monkey is eating. 

Great care in the approach is important,

since Baboons are fierce fighters when they feel threatened.

*

Yes! I was there!

In the "Fig Tree Camp"

Massai Mara, Kenya

On the hunt!

At the foot of Mount Kenya.

In the Amboseli National Park.

A Termite Mount of considerable proportions.

A visit to the archives.

May 23rd is still 81 days in the future, but there is no harm in thinking about my 13th Safari in eager anticipation.
My first visit to Africa ( Kenya ) happened in the beginning of the 80s and I've been back there a total of 12 times.
Let me go back to some of these first images I brought back then.

Yes, "that's me", about 30 years ago.

I had a lot more hair then and less circumference.

A "Yellow Fever Thorn Tree" hung with nests of the Weaver Bird.

A true relationship in size:

A Masai Giraffe and Zebras.