rise up singing

Today I finished this picture for Katy-Louise, who kindly gave permish for me to post it up here. Hi Katy-Louise!

As a bit of a pagan myself, I feel rather untouched by the Easter malarkey. Not that I felt particularly affected by it in my innocent youth; we'd sing "There Is A Green Hill Far Away" and we'd get a Cadbury's Cream Egg at Sunday School, and I at least would feel rather sick by the time I'd finished eating it.

The idea of a great outbreak of self-flagellation followed by rejoicing, as practiced by the more enthusiastic Christians, seems a bit excessively theatrical. Though I'm happy to join in the celebration of rebirth, which is a pretty pagan notion too. So I was glad to be invited to join some friends for lunch yesterday, Easter Sunday, which was a very happy occasion. They're Catholics...

There was another of those odious spokesmen for the Catholic Church on the radio this morning, mistaking criticism of the Church's leaders' history of failure to act upon child abuse by priests, and the continued presence within the Church of people who are at least guilty by their failure to act when they could have acted, for some great anti-Catholic campaign.

Funny lot.

I quite like my Catholic friends, and they are good and decent people. It's a shame that their Church is apparently being run by a bunch of men who seem more interested in power than in truth or justice, and who seem to think that they occupy ground of sufficient elevation to allow them to make pronouncements about People Like Me. Silly arses.

Never mind. It is springtime, and not everyone is nasty. Rejoice, therefore!

Off to a poetry reading this evening, where I shall read out my Egret triolet, which is possibly fairly spiritual. And possibly just a poem about birdwatching. Decide for yourself, gentle reader! It's in the next post down.