Brought up in England it’s very had not to have biblical ‘ideas’ in your brain. No matter how hard you try to dismiss, replace, refute or deny them – things we were taught in our formative years will be etched into out neural pathways. Earworms will surface and stories will mist our thoughts. Culture will swamp ideals with glossy treats and ego-feeding promises and our views might be distorted to suit desires.
The season of Easter approaches; eggs, bunnies, martyrdom and sacrifice and spring, and fatty sweetstuff with a tang of cocoa.
“Peter … this night you will deny me three times” Matthew 26:34
“It’s not denial… I’m just very selective about my idea of reality.” said someone.
I have been looking at Caravaggio’s “Denial of Saint Peter” and have been mulling ways of seeing a contemporary view on it. Alas, grand ideas and dreams have come to nowt, but here’s an image that I have come up with … work-in-progress:
Denial:
- refusing to admit the truth or reality of something
- the act of not allowing someone to have something
- refusal to satisfy a request or desire
- assertion that an allegation is false
- refusal to acknowledge a person or a thing
- a psychological defense mechanism in which confrontation with a personal problem or with reality is avoided by denying the existence of the problem or reality
…
But little Mouse, you are not alone,
In proving foresight may be vain:
The best laid schemes of mice and men
Go often askew,
And leave us nothing but grief and pain,
For promised joy!
Still you are blessed, compared with me!
The present only touches you:
When—ouch! I backward cast my eye,
On prospects dreary!
And forward, though I cannot see,
I guess and fear!
After Robert Burns’ “to a mouse”
Jules P Richards 