Photo: ‘Tissue’ by Alicja Pyszka-Franceschini, 2024.
There is a famous painting by Andrea Mantegna called by many as The Dead Christ (see here). It is a striking picture. It shows Christ’s body laid down on a bed after the crucifixion. The painting uses foreshortened perspective as a compositional technique.
Christ’s body appears shorter than it really was. It is squashed almost to an unnatural size. Both of his palms are curved and fingers bent like claws. His pain is noticeable although He does not feel pain any more. The foreshortening of perspective is aching to foreshortened life, of course. I have no doubt about that. However, there is an aura to the painting of something forgotten too. Of someone lacking foresight or full sight. The painter did not have it. Neither do we as spectators. From Christ’s body posture, though, we infer that he was as much in psychological pain as he was physically suffering. Would his posture be different if he took less blame? Was Jesus tormented to mercy*? How did He experience this torment? And why on Earth did He do it?
On one level or another Jesus knew that making his soul of steel, would be ill-advised.
Making our souls of steel is ill-advised.
Jesus, it seems to me, was after nonconstructive criticism. He focused on stupidity, biased and prejudiced thinking. He sought out the injustices done to him and others through others.
As we seek those done to us and by ourselves less so
But why has Jesus gone through the hurt-optimization procedure? I can guess that it would be to build up his capacity for something. Could it have been forgiveness?
It sounds insane, doesn’t it?
*I read the phrase ‘a torment of mercy’ in one of the books by Adam Philips, I think it was On Getting Better. I apologize to the author for a lack of appropriate reference.
The post is a short version of a draft of an essay in progress by Alicja Pyszka-Franceschini, 2024-2025. All rights reserved. Copying without an written approval of the author prohibited.
On the 31st of October, we celebrated in Derby the festival of light, Diwali alongside other festivities and the hype of Halloween. It can seem a bit strange that I am writing about this on Thanksgiving Day but on the other hand I feel it is most appropriate because in fact we rarely give thanks to each other for permissions to see and participate in the lives of our diverse communities. When we start to socialise into the routines of communities other than our own, we spot differences but at the same the common needs and burdens as well as the efforts to make us feel welcomed and included. This is a lot to be thankful for.
When years ago I started a doctorate (and never completed) at MOSAIC at the University of Birmingham in Multilingulism with the use of autoethnography as a research method, I was learning how to write about oneself as placed in a multicultural British landscape and in an eclectic family. The task was confusing and insurmountable at times and for a long time I could not pin down where the difficulties were coming from. Until of course I understood… One was coming from a commonly held belief that talking about oneself is not the done thing, let alone to research oneself in the context of multiple cultures… this seems even more odd. Anyhow, my doctorate collapsed during the Covid-19 pandemic under the pressure of ill health, two small home-educated kids, my husband’s increased workload (no, he was not on furlough) and my need for creative rest that I am still very much a supporter of. That said, although my doctorate collapsed, the need to engage in local communities remains strong.
On the surface looking into the culture of a different community seems like having nothing in common with doing research into oneself, except when the holy scripture of that group teaches you a lot about self-intelligence and its importance for life well lived. The Gita actually uses the term ‘self-intelligence’ in its writing legitimizing self-knowledge, discipline and broader awareness of values that govern us and our choices. Indeed, who would we become without our ability to self-reflect and observe.
In the book Natural Law & Natural Rights, John Finnis lists 7 basic goods of human life necessary for our well-being. Among them, he lists: 1) life (itself with health, safety and self-preservation), 2) knowledge, 3) play, 4) aesthetic experience, 5) sociability (friendship), 6) practical reasonableness and 7) religion which of course concerns itself with love, the importance of truth, goodness, transcendence and the boundaries of human freedom. These common goods order and create what we call ‘quality of life’ and determine our overall satisfaction of life. Thus, part of learning about each other and our cultures is to see how we go about those values and common goods in our cultural groups and settings.
So here are a few postcards from Diwali as observed in Geeta Bhawan in Derby. For this post, I asked two mums to whom I chatted about the Gita, Radhe and Sarbjit, to explain to me who and what I saw at the Temple. They replied on WhatsApp.
Who are the gods/ deities here?
Radhe answered: ‘Shiva (with Trident) Parvati Devi (also known as Durga). In her arms Ganesha.
That peacock is standing besides Radha and Krishna’
“Abode of Krishna is called VrindaVan (Forest of Tulsi plants – one type of basil)
So eternally Krishna lives in a forest..residents of VrindaVan possess pure love for Krishna.
So in eternal vrindavan Krishna z devotees are in the eternally in the form of trees, parrots, peacocks, cows, cowherd boys, cowherd girls. Their forms are based on how they want to love Krishna…that will be a long discussion
Anyways, the story goes once Krishna was playing on his flute and has invited the animals of VrindaVan for a dance. Peacocks were dancing very gracefully. Soon Krishna joined their dance, looking at Krishna dancing peacocks started marveling his dancing.
Then the peacocks offered their best possession to Krishna, peacock feather. Krishna accepted their offering and honored it by always wearing peacock feather on his head.
In the middle, if I see correctly is Gopal – baby form of Krishna. Krishna reciprocates to the desires of his devotees. Many devotees want to love him as their own child so they worship him as Baby Gopal.
We worship deities by offering them clothes, food, jewellery.
So the deities are dressed in different colours the day you visited the dress happened to be of purple colour. Their is no particular significance of purple colour.
Next time if you ever choose to go you may see them in a different colour.
Traditionally on full moon day deities are offered a white dress.
On ekadashi (one day from the lunar calendar) offered a red dress.
By offering service to deity form of the Lord one can get purified of sinful desires. Sometimes people offer such service as an expression of gratitude.”
“Food has an significant impact on our consciousness. In Bhagvad Gita you may have studied about Sattvik, Rajasik, Tamasik.
We offer Sattvik food to the Krishna. When he accepts that offering it becomes Prasadam (which means Grace/mercy)
Prasadam will purify our consciousness.
That fruit was Prasadam. (…)
You visited the Temple on Diwali day, on Diwali people worship Lakshmi Devi and ask for prosperity.
[In the framed photo] is Lakshmi Devi, goddess of wealth.”
I also asked Sarbjit who visits the temple to tell me about a senior person who was distributing fruit towards the end of the prayer as I did not know who he was. Sarbjit replied, “If that man was wearing different clothes, then it was a Pandit. Otherwise, he could be a sevadar (volunteer).” During the worship people walk around the alter and worship each god separately after that they receive a piece of fruit, just before they leave the temple. The man very humbly told me that he is not a scholar in the study of religion and that there was someone else there who could have done it if I was there a lot earlier. But what he said, was that the most important thing is to remember that the gods/ the deities are indestructible and that what we as human beings cannot correct, they will do it for us. They will correct all the wrongs. This message I found to be most comforting. I hope you do too.
Happy Thanksgiving. May the light of Diwali keep on shining on us.
Thank you to Nikhila and Karthik for agreeing to be featured in the photographs for this blog post. Additional gratitude goes to Radhe and Sarbjit who supported me with their understanding of the customs here. Thank you very much.
Any comments and corrections more than welcome. :) Thank you all.
The text I referred to in the article is:
Finnis, J. (2011) Natural Law and Natural Rights. Oxford University Press: Oxford.
We are very lucky in Derby to be surrounded with cultures. I often feel that we timidly coexist while in fact inside we are almost bursting with curiosity and a wish to get to know each other and to join in with each other’s customs at least in some manner.
The Gita for Children by Roopa Pai has planted a strong seed in me. On that Halloween day, I felt a desire. I wanted to see Diwali celebrated for at least a few minutes. After all, it does not happen often enough when the two coincide.
This was a very short and spontaneous visit to a nearby shop. I got stuck in traffic on my way to our local Polish shop to buy a few things for our trip to the Lake District. While waiting in the car, I looked at the shop on the right. I felt instantaneously comforted. In the darkness that enveloped us, their lights were lit. People were joyfully chatting and pointing to the colourful sweets. They were about to take them home and share with their families. The atmosphere was festive and very inviting. I just finished trick-or-treating around our neighbourhood with my little ones. One was dressed as a black cat, the other as a ghost. I was pleased to see how many people celebrated both or all. There was an All Saints Day happening in our Catholic religion a day after.
This is the world we live in. I often sing this to myself while I’m trying to give myself the right to experience and celebrate our city’s diversity and the inherent beauty in what we can produce: in food, language, customs, lifestyles and endeavours. Living in Derby can be in so many ways like travelling the world…
So above is a short photos essay from our local vegetarian Indian take-away and a sweet centre – Krishna Sweet Centre in Derby. The owner has kindly agreed for me to photograph his shop. It features clothing and traditional diyas – the candle and oil holders. They are adorned with traditional patterns. The shop also displays dresses and hair ornaments. He directed me to the Hindu temple Geeta Bhawan. There, I saw the fireworks while the stars were shining. I was reminded that Krishna is the god that plays the flute. I saw the offerings and rang a bell in the temple. I asked very politely to be guided around the praying custom. Everyone was so kind.
We live in a world that rightly so encourages us to read a lot to our children but research confirms that it’s best for our children when we read books with our own experiences in mind and we continuously make connections between the world on the page and the world around us. So slow down when you read, don’t rush with simple ‘What’s this?’, ‘What’s that?’ but have a conversation with your child, smile, make eye contact and ask open questions such as ‘What did you like most about going to the beach?’, ‘What would have happened if you hadn’t had your wellingtons on your feet?, ‘What was daddy doing over there? And what was grandpa doing?’. For language development ‘the doing’ is as crucial as naming objects. When you talk to your child make sure that you use many verbs (for some reason we like to focus on nouns only) as they help your child build sentences and aid storytelling. This book below is brilliant and I wish we had read it and talked around it (with verbs) when my son was smaller. It is a great introduction to various themes and topics and a great memory trigger. I strongly recommend it for those of you who speak Italian at home.
Disclaimer: This is not a sponsored post. I recommend the book out of my sheer appreciation for it.
This September the school bell rang for my son for the first time and since then our life has started to revolve around school and education. So far we are managing well and so far we’ve been happy about it. That said, school life can be a source of anxiety for parents and children I can be a very anxious parent but I have learnt that my son does not thrive with my anxiety (who does?). It’s the positive and optimistic sort of leadership that carries him through transitions. It’s not about dismissing his fear, but about giving him a reassuring smile and many, many words of comfort. What helps me as a parent is the reminder I give to myself that education does not start or end at school. It happens with every human connection that we make.
Have you watched Tea with Mussolini, a film by Franco Zeffirelli? The film is about a group of cultured ladies who meet for tea somewhere in Florence and who take it upon themselves to raise and educate a young boy called Luca. Luca is lucky. Not only because there is an artist, a singer and an archeologist among the women, but primarly because there is a great sense of duty, companionship, trust and care shown by the women, and the conviction that they can raise the boy up well if they do it together. Following the ladies and joining them in their pursuits and favourite pastimes, the boy receives an exemplary education. The ladies are not trying to create or recreate any educational system. They are just themselves and they show the boy what they love most themselves. In that way they become the most convincing teachers the boy could possibly have.
Seth Godin, an American author and entrepreneur (being interviewed by Marie Forleo in an incredibly interesting interview that you can find here), asks questions about the purpose of schooling and explains what satisfies his idea of good and useful education: “Coming home with straight A’s is fine, I’ll accept that, but what I’d rather have you do is come home and tell me something amazing that you learned in the spirit of doing something good for someone else, come home and tell me some really dramatic failure that occurred as you were trying to solve an interesting problem.” It’s not the knowledge that’s given on the plate but the one that’s gained through engagement and experiences that is emphasised here. Unique to each human being. Proportional to the involvement each of us has in every small little task we encounter through life.
Of course, this is just a short note on the vast topic of education and I am not making a breakthrough here, but I really love what Seth Godin had to say and I love when communities take responisbility for educating children too. Schools cannot do it on their own.
Postcards Without Stamps 