BIRDS AND ANGELS

 

Last spring when I did the Blog on the Myrrhbearers (April 4, 2020) I used the image by  VIKTORYIA KULVANOUSKAYA, who interested me to delve further.  I could find little on her life, but she has a prolific  amount of art.

She was  born in Minsk in 1963 is a contemporary Belarusian artist who works in easel painting in the genres of landscape, still life, and religious painting. She has been influenced by the art of Paul Cezanne,  Paul Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh, and even Giotto.

 Viktoryia's first teacher and mentor was her father, the famous Belarusian theater artist V.P. Kulvanousky, who undoubtedly influenced the formation the artist's personality and creative views.  From 1979 to1983 she studied at Minsk State Art College.

 

Viktoryia was able to discover her own individual pictorial language by exploring the artistic discoveries of proto-Renaissance art: here she borrowed icon-painting conventions and the combination of linear and inverse perspectives to transform city buildings into crystalline structures.

Viktoryia works in a single plastic medium in which figures and architectural forms are transformed into generalized stage images that are filled with dynamism and that create a sense that the world is undergoing continuous change.

 The radiance of the stars, crosses, and domes in the artist’s complex compositions is achieved by the dense clustering of color and the use of impasto. Advanced pictorial technique and precise composition that takes account of even the smallest details allow Viktoryia to explore even the most complex topics in her work. 

The artist says she has devoted herself to studying the spiritual side of mankind. Each one of her works is filled with a sense of contact with the sublime.

Other than the first picture-  The Sisters, Martha and Mary, I have chosen to feature her angels.  She seems to have a great devotion to them, and having just celebrated their feasts in October, it is timely to show her work.  She also features birds throughout her works, which of course tickles my fancy. Not only does she have an amazing color palate, but she uses architecture in her work as background.

Right:  Angel with Birds

Left:    Angel Brings the Soul of a Child to Earth

Right   Guardian Angel

Left:  Two Angels

A JEWISH ARTIST'S EXPRESSION OF CHRIST

 A most unusual artist, who painted many Christian  themes and yet was Jewish, was ABRAHAM RATTNER, an American  born in Poughkeepsie, New York,  in 1895.

                                                                   Pieta- 1949

While he had no firsthand experience of the rich culture of Eastern European Judaism, which so deeply informed the works of his contemporaries, like Marc Chagall, he instinctively turned to the stories of the Bible and his Jewish heritage for images, which, he believed, would help him to make sense of a chaotic world, where he felt caught between what he termed “the oppression of reality and utopia.”

 The son of a rabbinical student-turned-baker who had fled Czarist Russia, Abraham encountered anti-Semitic bullying on the mean streets of Poughkeepsie and learned to defend himself, thanks to an Irish policeman who taught him how to box.

He initially intended to be an architect, studying at George Washington University. Deciding instead to concentrate on painting, he then went on to study art at the Corcoran School of Art and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.  His studies were cut short by America’s entry into World War I in 1918.

 Abraham saw front line action as an officer in a U.S. Army camouflage outfit, where he developed artful ways to conceal artillery. During the second battle of the Marne, he was blown into a foxhole by an exploding shell, suffering a back injury, which troubled him all his life. After the Armistice, he resumed art classes in Philadelphia, then, returned to Europe on a scholarship in 1920. He settled into a studio in Paris, where he would remain for the next twenty years.

During his time in France,  Abraham  experimented with Futurism, Cubism, and Expressionism, moving in the same artistic circles as Picasso, Braque, Miro, and Dali. He formed a lifelong friendship with fellow American abroad, Novelist Henry Miller.  As World War II approached, Abraham returned to the U.S. He taught at several schools, including The New School, New York (1947–55), and Yale University (1952-53).

He became known for his rich use of color and surrealist aspects of his work.  Although while living in Paris, he had met and studied the paintings of Claude Monet, his work is generally closer to that of Georges Rouault and Pablo Picasso. He used vivid colors to simulate (and occasionally to design) stained-glass windows and was especially effective depicting the vulnerability of people.

Like Chagall, he incorporated imagery of the public humiliation, torture, and crucifixion of Christ into his art to evoke the barbarism of the times and the persecution of the Jews of Europe. As a Jew, Abraham interpreted the Passion of Jesus in universal as well as in personal terms. “It is myself that is on the cross” he explained, “though I am attempting to express a universal theme—man’s inhumanity to man.”

 As his faith deepened, Abraham came to believe “a painting, if it is achieved at all, is made with the help of God.” As he confessed in a letter to Henry Miller: “I pray every night before I close my eyes; I pray every morning upon opening my eyes, and talk to God and ask for his guidance, direction, clarity, that I may be able to perceive and feel something of that which becomes beauty.” For him, his work became “a medium of prayer and praise.

As Henry  Miller, once wrote of his friend: “His restless, searching heart is united with the anguish of the world and expresses that agony in colors of fire, a purifying fire which nothing can quench.”

Images:

Left-     Descent from the Cross

Right-   Transcendence

MISSION SUNDAY- 2021

 

Pope Francis’ message for World Mission Sunday this year reflects on the theme: “We cannot but speak about what we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:20). He reminds us that, “as Christians, we cannot keep the Lord to ourselves,” as we “recall with gratitude all those men and women who by their testimony of life help us to renew our baptismal commitment to be generous and joyful apostles of the Gospel.”

 In a world where so much divides us, World Mission Sunday rejoices in our unity as missionaries by our Baptism, as it offers each one of us an opportunity to support the life-giving presence of the Church among the poor and marginalized in more than 1,111 mission dioceses.

On World Mission Sunday, we join our Holy Father in supporting his missions. As we pray and respond here at home, we share in those celebrations taking place in every parish and school throughout the world. Together, through our prayers and financial support, we bring the Lord’s mercy and concrete help to the most vulnerable communities in the Pope’s missions.

“In these days of pandemic, when there is a temptation to disguise and justify indifference and apathy in the name of healthy social distancing, there is urgent need for the mission of compassion, which can make that necessary distancing an opportunity for encounter, care and promotion. “What we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:20), the mercy we have experienced, can thus become a point of reference and a source of credibility, enabling us to recover a shared passion for building “a community of belonging and solidarity worthy of our time, our energy and our resources.

The Lord’s word daily rescues and saves us from the excuses that can plunge us into the worst kind of skepticism: “Nothing changes, everything stays the same”. To those who wonder why they should give up their security, comforts and pleasures if they can see no important result, our answer will always remain the same: “Jesus Christ has triumphed over sin and death and is now almighty. Jesus Christ is truly alive” (Evangelii Gaudium, 275) and wants us to be alive, fraternal, and capable of cherishing and sharing this message of hope. In our present circumstances, there is an urgent need for missionaries of hope who, anointed by the Lord, can provide a prophetic reminder that no one is saved by himself.

 Like the Apostles and the first Christians, we too can say with complete conviction: “We cannot but speak about what we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:20). Everything we have received from the Lord is meant to be put to good use and freely shared with others. Just as the Apostles saw, heard and touched the saving power of Jesus (cf. 1 Jn 1:1-4), we too can daily touch the sorrowful and glorious flesh of Christ. There we can find the courage to share with everyone we meet a destiny of hope, the sure knowledge that the Lord is ever at our side. As Christians, we cannot keep the Lord to ourselves: the Church’s evangelizing mission finds outward fulfillment in the transformation of our world and in the care of creation.

On World Mission Day, which we celebrate each year on the penultimate Sunday of October, we recall with gratitude all those men and women who by their testimony of life help us to renew our baptismal commitment to be generous and joyful apostles of the Gospel. Let us remember especially all those who resolutely set out, leaving home and family behind, to bring the Gospel to all those places and people athirst for its saving message.

 Contemplating their missionary witness, we are inspired to be courageous ourselves and to beg “the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest” (Lk 10:2). We know that the call to mission is not a thing of the past, or a romantic leftover from earlier times. Today too Jesus needs hearts capable of experiencing vocation as a true love story that urges them to go forth to the peripheries of our world as messengers and agents of compassion. He addresses this call to everyone, and in different ways. We can think of the peripheries all around us, in the heart of our cities or our own families.

 Universal openness to love has a dimension that is not geographical but existential. Always, but especially in these times of pandemic, it is important to grow in our daily ability to widen our circle, to reach out to others who, albeit physically close to us, are not immediately part of our “circle of interests” (cf. Fratelli Tutti, 97). 

To be on mission is to be willing to think as Christ does, to believe with him that those around us are also my brothers and sisters. May his compassionate love touch our hearts and make us all true missionary disciples

May Mary, the first missionary disciple, increase in all the baptized the desire to be salt and light in our lands (cf. Mt 5:13-14)”   Pope Francis

DUTCH ARTIST WHO LOVES BIRDS (?)

I recently came across another artist whose work is unusual and captivating. JANPETER MUILWIJK  (b. Fontainebleau,  France in 1960) lives and works in Middelburg, the Netherlands. He studied drawing and painting at the Christian School of the Arts in Kampen and Architectural Design at the Hogeschool voor de Kunsten in Utrecht. Most of his scenes are directly adapted from the Bible. His drawings are made with pencil, although in some works he adds a little color with gouache. Though delicate, they have well-defined outlines. His figures often appear to be carved from stone, even though they seem to float, giving us a sense of lightness. They  make me want to laugh or at least smile.

One of my favorites in his 2017 painting "New Gardener"  which  shows the risen Christ in a white T-shirt and overalls, heading with open arms toward Mary, who is dressed like a bride to receive him. (Mary is modeled after the artist’s daughter Mattia, who committed suicide). Butterflies alight on each of Jesus’s five wounds, marking them as sites of transformation, and the flowering branches of a tree crown Him with spring glory.

The artist says: “In this traumatic period of my life, painting turned out to be a source of comfort, raising the big questions in a different way after the suicide of Mattia. There were no unequivocal answers, no definitive conclusions, but images that drilled down to a deeper layer, beyond thoughts and words. This series of paintings offered me a look into my own soul. In spite of the big shock of this great loss, they incorporate a calm presence of loveliness and comfort. Death is only a passage. My deceased daughter brings me into an endless space beyond my perception of finite life: the immortality of our souls.”

 One of his most famous works is a tapestry for the Nieuwe Kerk in Middelburg, The Netherlands. It is 11 x 3 meters with seven scenes that wind upwards between two rivers, depicting a passage bordered by water.

The artist  designed the tapestry in a studio in Italy, where he looked for inspiration to the ecclesiastical art of the late Middle Ages and the early Renaissance. Afterwards the drawings were scanned and sent to a computer operated Dornier loom to be woven. Then in the following months 25 people from Middelburg filled in details by embroidering by hand.

In a detail is the Good Shepherd, full of care focusing beyond Himself. With His legs he forms a portal to the upper scene of the tapestry. He connects with the viewer, oriented outwards, oriented towards care, with the nightingale at His feet.  Almost all of his art has birds in them.

Finally we come to pure wine, accessibility and openness. A half kneeling and blessing Christ joins himself by way of a grapevine to the people around him. It is a harvest feast with bread and grapes, spontaneous, genuine and inspiring. With a breath of relief they are all one in their joyous celebration.

The artist sums up his work:  ‘In its totality it is a happy scene. That is something I do not see very often, especially not in religious art. All of this, of course, is a very serious matter. Yet that strange and naïve lack of inhibition of the figures, those rows of people, I believe in them.’ 

Some of other favorites include: Jesus as the Tree of Life, with His wounds freshly revealed, and several birds present to Him.  He is breathing Life (which is a recurring theme). I have not been able to find anywhere why birds mean so much to him, unless like me he is an ardent birder!

Here one sees a blackbird, a (European) goldfinch and a bird at Jesus' right foot I cannot identify ( not knowing many European birds). The goldfinch is known to be a symbol of sacrifice, the soul, death, and resurrection. The Goldfinch became known as a symbol of the Passion because of its markings and its diet. Because the goldfinch eats thorns, like those on Jesus’ crown as He was crucified, the goldfinch became linked to the Passion.

Legends also developed that described the goldfinch pecking at Jesus’ crown of thorns during his walk to the cross. According to these legends, while the goldfinch flew around Jesus’ head, some of His blood dropped onto the goldfinch and thus the red markings on a goldfinch can be attributed to drops of Jesus’ blood on the cross.

Blackbirds are treasured for their melody of song during spring and summer months. With Blackbirds, we learn that life is filled full of mystery elements and we never know about the way it might unfold before us all. 

When counseling His followers against worrying, Jesus remarks how the crows (or ravens) do not stockpile food (Luke 12:24). Thus, alluding to the wisdom of these birds, He indicates that God will provide, too, for His disciples and others in need.

They  remind us that we should trust that each day and choice is fruitful and provides us with a lot of insight into the mysteries surrounding our existence along with the paths that we choose in life. Note the blackbird here is also expelling breath as if to give new life.  The blackbird appears in more of his art, than any other bird.

Another lovely work is the Annunciation which shows us a dove in the window, but also an unusual lamb, to representing the coming of the Lamb of God. 

ARTIST IN A SUFFERING WORLD

Recently recovering from an illness, I came across a fascinating British artist while watching some BBC programs with Philip Mould, in one of which he showed a rather startling painting, inspiring me to further research its artist.

He is known for placing Biblical themes within unusual, seemingly unrelated,  modern scenes.  He jars us out of our complacency- we all know the Crucifixion, but how to we relate it in our world today- with so much suffering?

Born in 1957 in London, ROGER WAGNER won an open scholarship to read English Literature at Lincoln College Oxford in 1975. While a student he attended classes at the Ruskin School of Drawing, where he now teaches, and in 1977 edited The Oxford Art Journal, the forerunner of the present academic journal that began the following year. From 1978 to 1981 he studied at The Royal Academy Schools under Peter Greenham, and subsequently returned to Oxford where he now lives and works.

In 1985 he had his first exhibition with Anthony Mould who has represented him ever since. Alongside the paintings were wood-engravings from his first book of illustrated poems Fire Sonnets. An exhibition in 1988, In a Strange Land, included a book of that title which included poems and a translation of psalm 137 illustrated with wood-engravings of the London docklands.

Several more recent exhibitions have included successive volumes of The Book of Praises: an illustrated translation of the psalms, the first volume of which appeared in 1994.

In 2012 he made his first stained glass window, opposite John Piper’s window in St Mary’s Iffley, followed by a font cover made in collaboration with Nicholas Mynheer. Both were nominated for the ACE prize for art in a sacred context. In 2014 he painted the first portrait of the new Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, which now hangs alongside Thomas Lawrence’s portraits in Auckland Castle.

(Above painting- Dartmoor Crucifixion- is perhaps my favorite.  The sheep in the night field and the starry sky remind one of the Birth of Christ- the field of shepherds- and yet there are the 3 crosses of the crucifixion, using telephone poles.

Roger Wagner’s work has been described as ‘totally unlike any other modern artist’. In 1988 the poet Peter Levi wrote of his second exhibition that ‘Nothing could be less expected than his paintings; they are completely careless of fashion. In some ways they are very old fashioned indeed, but in the most important way modern. He has the power to create a myth’.

An early influence was the painting of Giorgio de Chirico whom he met in Venice in 1973. Chirico described his own style as ‘metaphysical’ and though very different, the same term could be applied to Wagner’s work. This has been described as ‘imbued with Fra Angelico, Blake, Palmer and Traherne’, but  also often imbued with what Samuel Johnson described as a characteristic of the metaphysical poets in which ‘the most heterogeneous ideas are yoked by violence together’.

Thus Rowan Williams has described Roger’s ‘fusion of Jewish and Christian symbols with the cooling towers of Didcot power station – Jewish victims of the Shoah wandering in the neighborhood of a distantly seen, conventionally depicted crucifixion, the background dominated by the immense towers arranged in the pattern of the ceremonial candlestick, the menorah that gives this 1993 painting its title.’, as this is ‘very dense imagining indeed, but it manages a representation of the creatively and theologically uncanny that is haunting’.

About the 2nd picture-Menorah- the artist said: when I first saw Didcot power station through the window of a train from Oxford to Paddington, the smoke belching from the central chimney reminded me more of a crematorium than a symbol of God'€s presence. And yet having said that, the astonishing sky behind the towers looked like the arch of some great cathedral, while something in the scale of the cooling towers themselves, with the light moving across them and the steam slowly, elegiacally, drifting away, created the impression that they were somehow the backdrop of a great religious drama. Both these ideas remained in my mind for many years, and developed in a series of paintings and sketches. On the one hand the crematorium-like chimney and the inhuman scale of the buildings brought associations with the industrial genocide of the twentieth century and the blank inhumanity of so much in human existence while on the other hand within the strange beauty of the scene was the insistent sense of some great redemptive moment. It wasn't until I realised at the towers, from the angle I had seen them, had lined up to form the shape of the Menorah, that I realised how these two impressions could be united, and realised that the drama to which they were the backdrop must be the drama of the crucifixion. In no other religious event is the absence of God so closely linked with his presence, or the tragedy of human life so intimately linked with its redemption. The extraordinary Jewish prophecies which see in the mysterious servant of the Lord, a figure apparently '€smitten by God and afflicted'€ but in reality 'pierced for our transgressions', say of him 'surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows'€. Likewise the disciples of Jesus who see the crucifixion as the fulfillment of these prophecies, describe him both as a man crying out '€my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?'€, and as one who, even before his birth was named by the angel as '€Immanuel, that is '€God with us'

CATHOLIC ART IN THE MODERN WORLD

 

                                                                              Arup Das- Indian

“At the back of our brains, so to speak, there is a forgotten blaze or burst of astonishment at our own existence. The object of the artistic and spiritual life is to dig for this sunrise of wonder.”       G. K. Chesterton 

CATHOLIC ART has played a leading role in the history and development of Western art since at least the 4th century. The principal subject matter of Catholic art has been the life and times of Jesus Christ, along with people associated with Him, including His disciples, the saints, and motifs from the Catholic Bible.

Sacred art is true and beautiful when its form corresponds to its particular vocation: evoking and glorifying, in faith and adoration, the transcendent mystery of God—the surpassing invisible beauty of truth and love visible in Christ, who "reflects the glory of God and bears the very stamp of his nature," in whom "the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily." This spiritual beauty of God is reflected in the most holy Virgin Mother of God, the angels, and saints. Genuine sacred art draws man to adoration, to prayer, and to the love of God, Creator and Savior, the Holy One and Sanctifier.    Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 2502

The earliest surviving artworks are the painted frescoes on the walls of the catacombs and meeting houses of the persecuted Christians of the Roman Empire. The Church in Rome was influenced by the Roman art and the religious artists of the time. The stone sarcophagi of Roman Christians exhibit the earliest surviving carved statuary of Jesus, Mary and other biblical figures.   Throughout the ages, monasteries have been centers for nurturing and preserving  creative arts.  Some of these artists were monks and nuns, others lay people. More often than not the art was commissioned by patrons of the monastery.  

In the 20^th Century, the art world produced much less religious painting than at any time since the Roman Empire. Commercial popular Catholic art flourished using cheaper techniques for mass-reproduction. Much of this art continued to use watered-down versions of Baroque styles, which led to "tacky"art.

 The early adoption of modernist styles at the dawn of the 21st century continued with the trends from the 20th century, yet artists began to experiment with materials and colors. In many cases this contributed to simplifications which led to resemblance to the early Christian art. Simplicity is seen as the best way to bring pure Christian messages to the viewer.

                                                          Nicola Saric

Even today, monasteries aim for the balance between the old and the new in art, as a way of incorporating art into their prayer life and supporting artists.

For the rest of October I want to present some modern Catholic artists who use their gifts to glorify God and bring us back to God by their religious art.

BL. MECTILDE'S LETTERS

I was asked by the editors of Angelico Press to review a new book The Breviary of Fire, a compilation of letters by Blessed Mother Mectilde of the Blessed Sacrament  (See Blog April 7, 2017).  The many and often lengthy letters were written to Marie de la Guesle, the Countess of Chateauvieux,  in the 1600s.

Bl. Mectilde was a mystic of the Eucharist like the other Benedictine mystics,  Sts. Mechtilde and Gertrude the Great, as well as St. Margaret Mary Alacoque in the 17th Century,  and into our own day and age, Sts, Faustina and Padre Pio. 

In 1654 in Paris she founded the Order of the Benedictine Nuns of Perpetual Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. This was the first community formally organized for the Perpetual Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.

I personally had known of Bl. Mectilde and have often in the past few years prayed to her. I first encountered her in In SInu Jesu  (See Blog 3/25/2-17) , and wondered who this  Benedictine nun was whom I had not heard about, and since she plays an important role in this new Benedictine monastery (Silverstream in Meath, Ireland), dedicated to Adoration, I decided I had better check her out.  

She seemed to me a very wise, yet down to earth woman taking much wisdom from St. Benedict and his Rule. She knew many difficulties and sufferings in her own life, and had great compassion as well as an understanding of human nature. Our founding Abbess, Mother Benedict Duss, had many of her qualities and I would call them both "spiritual psychologists".

Bl. Mechtild's letters are for beginners, as well as those already advanced in the spiritual life. She understood the struggle all face at one point or another in their prayer life. She was a true spiritual counselor to the Countess- and to us- as her words are timeless. This is the book one can go to over and over in their own spiritual journey.

Like all great teachers, she is relevant  in our modern world in crises. She lived in a century of war, destruction of the sacred and darkness.  All that is happening in our world today, from Christians being martyred to Churches being destroyed, proves that society today has more in common with 17th-century France than one might think.

Marie de la Guesle, the Countess of Châteauvieux, met Mother Mectilde of the Blessed Sacrament on a charity visit in August 1651. She was so struck by the Prioress's wisdom,  that she returned several days later to resume the conversation. Soon Mother Mectilde became her spiritual directoress, guiding her in her faith, leading her closer and closer to Christ. 

The Countess and her husband became great benefactors of Mother Mectilde's newly established order,  and on the day after her husband's death in 1662, the Countess entered the convent she had helped to build.

These letters cover a period of about 12 years  and later the Countess  arranged the nun's letters into a volume which she called her "breviary of fire."  Mother Mectilde's nuns passed these letters down through the centuries.This is the first time they are available  in English.

The founding Prior, Dom Mark Kirby, of Silverstream, wrote:  "Mother Mectilde offers a vision of Benedictine life capable of rejuvenating monasticism, especially where it has become institutionalized and listless, with an infusion of Eucharistic vitality. Her commitment to perpetual adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament corresponds to a contemporary yearning, especially among young people, for a personal, transforming encounter with the Face of God."

According to Dom Mark Kirby,  she deserves to be universally known in the Church.  “She is a woman of the stature of a Gertrude the Great, of a Teresa of Avila, and of a Marie de l’Incarnation. Mother Mectilde’s  life and mission are a vivid and compelling demonstration of the role of women in the Church today and in every age. Her writings, steeped in Sacred Scripture and in the liturgical tradition that formed her as a Benedictine nun, reveal a woman of profound human insights and of supernatural wisdom.”

This is not a book one picks up and reads in a day or a week, or maybe even a month. It is rather a book to be savored and prayed with. Her letters remind me of another great Benedictine, Dom John Chapman, O.S.B.  (d. 1933), who was the 4th abbot of Downside Abbey in England. In his day Dom Chapman was a much sought-after spiritual director and authority on prayer, the spiritual life and mystical theology. 

His writings remain of perennial value, especially his Spiritual Letters. An often quoted advice of his was: "Pray as you can, not as you cannot!". These letters are a  classic in the Christian contemplative tradition. A book to read and reread, as his advice is timeless, even thought he wrote in the early part of the 20th century, a hundred years ago. 

Just as  Dom Chapman  stood beside  his mentor, Bl. Dom Columba Marmion  O.S.B,  ( Abbot of Maredsous -died 1923) whose writings all Benedictines know, now we have a great woman who can stand beside them  and needs to be known  by all in the monastic spiritual life. Dom Marmion's motto was, "To me, to live is Christ". Bl. Mectilde lived this to the fullest.

" You must take delight in the path in which God has placed you. It is not you who chose it, but eternal Wisdom chose it for you and requires you to give yourself to it without being anxious that you are doing nothing great or excellent for the glory of Our Lord... I confess to you that I have so much respect for His good pleasure that I would prefer to pick up straws from the ground, by His order, than to convert the whole universe by the ardor of my own will". (On Constancy in One's Path)

MESS IN "PARADISE"

 

As my readers know, I usually only write of positive happenings, mainly involving holy people, but several issues- as a result of the anti-vaxxers- have gotten my ire!

Staffing shortages at Washington State Ferries resulted in 51 canceled sailings on the Anacortes/San Juan Islands route between Sept. 9 and Sept. 13.  and I have no numbers for the past two weeks, which I am sure was worse!

The Coast Guard dictates that if even one crew member is absent, the ferry cannot sail.  At present some crew members are holding us all “hostage”  as they are rebelling against Gov. Jay Inslee’s order that all state employees, including ferry workers, to be fully vaccinated by Oct. 18.  According to the latest reports  about 600 of the ferry system's roughly 1,800 employees have submitted vaccine verification.

They can talk all they want “down south”,  as I call Olympia, but the bottom line is  the islanders here are suffering.  We have been told not to travel in the next few weeks except for necessity, so  doctor appointments, made months ago, have to be changed, or you get to the ferry, as happened to us yesterday and again today,  and are told, sorry ferry cancelled.  One of our Oblates came from the mainland and was told  no tickets being sold for day trippers as they might not get back-  she fortunately is staying 3 days. And the worse part is we can't have Mass if Father can't come on the ferry from Friday harbor.

Islanders, as well as ferry staff are angry, as we have no other route of travel, unlike the islands south of us, which have bridges connecting to the mainland.

Last week, and granted it was an old ferry that broke down, we got home on the 5:30 PM ferry from Friday Harbor at  12:20 A.M.  – this with 2 puppies in the car, limiting our peregrinations about the town.  Monday one of our nuns got home after 10 PM  from the mainland, on the cancelled  5:30 PM.

We are told to “speak out”,write, etc.  But after living here over 30 years, I can tell you no one hears us!  I fear mutiny could be around the corner in our part of the world!  

There must be accountability, leadership and creative solutions.  We happen to live in one of the richest states in the country, but at times one would never know it.  All we get are promises, with not much being done to change, so people have lost the faith in our government- across the board!  Time to "storm" Heaven!!

EXERCISING SAFETY!

 

This week in our local paper “THE SAN JUAN JOURNAL”  was a letter to the editor  that expresses how we all feel-  so I offer it, as well as the best cartoon I could find!  We are tired of the people who just don’t’ get with the “train” or in our case ferry!  I have had several nurses write recently, one I have never met, saying they are tired of taking care of people who just don’t give a damn!  If this helps one person aboard- then….

Submitted by Jon Howe, San Juan Island.

An unmasked crowd of people, some wearing T-shirts that said “unvaxed,” defiantly walked around in our local grocery store the other day, to protest our current mask mandate.

It is law enforcement’s duty to enforce compliance with current masking requirements.

Similarly, it is law enforcement’s duty to stop and arrest a drunk driver.

What is the parallel?

If someone does not wear a mask at home or within their circle of friends and family, fine. They are entitled to their personal and private choice. Asking them to wear a mask in public does not infringe on that freedom at all. They have a right to not wear a mask and to drink alcohol in the privacy of their own home. BUT when someone gets drunk and then goes for a drive, can we all agree that their choice is no longer personal and private but public? As a drunk driver endangers the public, so also a potentially infected person who refuses to wear a mask in public endangers the public.

There are countless parallels. If you want to be naked at home, fine. But are you free to go naked at the grocery store? Does the expectation that you will wear clothes (like wearing a mask) in public infringe on your rights? (Not that nudity endangers anyone.)

Asking people to wear a mask does not infringe on rights. It’s not a big deal, nor a political issue, nor should it be. It’s a simple precaution, a health issue…based on the available science. Is science perfect? No. But it’s the best tool we have. Better than fear and suspicion. To the best of our knowledge, there is a virus and it is spreading. Through the air, we are told, from an infected person’s breath and some infected people show no symptoms.

Sadly and understandably, we have perfected a culture and climate of distrust. Too many times, governments, corporations and industries have proven themselves to be dishonest, unethical, greedy and even criminal. It’s a favorite movie theme: the fierce individualist exposes and subdues the big bad business. So of course conspiracies thrive. Who can we trust?

What if there is no virus? What is the worst vaccinated thing that can happen: that the vaccine kills off most of the human species? Could there be a globally coordinated plan to profit from the pandemic and depopulate the planet? And what is the worst unvaccinated thing that can happen if there is a virus: that the virus is here longer than it has to be and many more of us die than have to. Which is the more believable scenario? Which is the better risk?

Perhaps the worst thing that can happen, either way, is that we are pitted against each other.

If you don’t wear a mask, nor get a vaccine, fine. Please simply stay away from the rest of us. And when you can’t do that (i.e. at a grocery store or in a school), please wear a mask during that brief contact. No big deal.

If you don’t think covid is real, if you don’t wear a mask or get a vaccine…yet you get covid, you have every right to deal with it in the privacy of your own home rather than endangering the doctors and nurses and other patients at the hospital.

Protesting is our freedom of speech. Go for it. Exercise your right to it.

But protesting by potentially endangering other peoples’ lives is not anyone’s right.

Be well.

 Cartoon: Columbian Missourian  4/21

MIGRATION

While we always watch the return of our many species of water fowl, we have never participated in an off island migration bird count.  And why this one now?

 Avian migration is a natural miracle. Migratory birds fly hundreds and thousands of miles to find the best ecological conditions and habitats for feeding, breeding and raising their young. When conditions at breeding sites become unfavorable, it is time to fly to regions where conditions are better.

 There are many different migration patterns. The majority of birds migrate from northern breeding areas to southern wintering grounds. However, some birds breed in southern parts of Africa and migrate to northern wintering grounds, or horizontally, to enjoy the milder coastal climates in winter. Other birds reside on lowlands during the winter months and move up a mountain for the summer.

Migratory birds have the perfect morphology and physiology to fly fast and across long distances. Often, their journey is an exhausting one, during which they go to their limits. It is  amazing how migratory birds can navigate with pin-point accuracy. Exactly how migrating birds find their flyways is not fully understood. It has been shown that they are able to orientate by the sun during the day, by the stars at night, and by the geomagnetic field at any time. Some species can even detect polarized light, which many migrating birds may use for navigation at night.

Migration is a perilous journey and involves a wide range of threats, often caused by human activities. And as diverse as people and their habits in different countries are, so are threats the birds face. As migratory birds depend on a range of sites along their distribution area, the loss of wintering and stopover sites could have a dramatic impact on the birds’ chances of survival.

Of the 650+ species of North American breeding birds, more than half are migratory, and some 350 species travel long distances each year.  Migration should be a cause for celebration, but those astounding journeys make this one of the most dangerous times of year for birds in America and around the world.  Among those embarking on their fall migration will be many young birds. These fledglings are only a few months old and must quickly learn how to survive across a perilous journey of thousands of miles.

Flying long distances involves crossing many borders between countries with differing environmental politics, legislation and conservation measures. It is evident that international cooperation among governments, NGOs and other stakeholders is required along the entire flyway of a species in order to share knowledge and to coordinate conservation efforts.

World Migratory Bird Day has a global outreach and is an effective tool to help raise global awareness of the threats faced by migratory birds, their ecological importance, and the need for international cooperation to conserve them.

So once again I get my very small crew of birders out on October 9 for a fun day of bird watching on our small island.