I'm wondering how it reads outside the lens of my personal experience, if it sounds too trite, too cliche; so, as usual, comments and feedback are more than welcome, including on the title.
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On Laughing Jesus
I’ve run my memory over “Jesus wept” since junior high when I used it to justify crying after Jenny flipped me in the eye with a rubber band. She apologized years later when our paths randomly crossed and we had a good laugh about her feeling so bad for being young and brash, for drawing my tears. I wonder if that's why Jesus laughs in this votive panel, his head cocked back in a cathartic guffaw because, years later, during a chance meeting, an old friend confessed he’d never meant to hit the young Messiah in the eye, to make him weep, to make him bleed and thanks for listening and for laughing with him about the mistake—could they forget the whole thing and still be friends?
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ReplyDeleteI thought Laughing Jesus was Del Parson. Do you have a link to the painting?
There's one embedded in the title in the post. But here's another, since you asked so kindly: http://art.jkirkrichards.com/068laughing.php
ReplyDelete.
ReplyDeleteYeah, not one of my favorites either. And I really don't think he looks like he's laughing.....
I don't think it sounds trite unless you approach it that way. I like the way it points out the eternal implications of even little sins and the possibility - necessity - of forgiveness for those things because of they qualify under the "least degree of allowance" clause. At the same time, your poem doesn't make them seem like soul-blackening monstrosities.
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of Christ laughing heartily at the memory of our childish mistakes, and I think he's enabled to do that by our humble recognition that even for these did he bleed. I think your closing question is one of the most loving conceptualizations of the end goal of repentance that I've read in a while.
Th.:
ReplyDeleteI don't think he really looks like he's laughing either, but I think I responded the way I did to this one of JKR's paintings because I connected it with "Jesus wept" and the junior high experience I relate here.
Adam:
ReplyDeleteThanks for your kind appraisal of the poem. It's always nice to have a take from someone other than me, which is one reason I post my poetry here (and at AMV): to get some feedback from others on how my poems read to an audience outside of Tyler. For some reason, though, my few readers (save Th. and now you) seem reluctant to respond, even with "Huh? I don't get it?"
Perhaps I'm just not as approachable to others as I think I am...
Tyler,
ReplyDelete"Perhaps I'm just not as approachable to others as I think I am..."
I don't know that that's the case. I do think you exude an air of intelligence and even refinement, but not in an elitist or exclusionary way. I've often felt somewhat inferior (in a sense) to you, but never threatened by you. You're too kind for that.
I have the same trouble in all the various places I post. I want feedback on my ideas on LDS Cinema, but it's hard to draw. I can usually count, like you, on Th. for a word or two, though. It does become frustrating because my only real goals are to generate discussion and I often read comments not addressed to me recommending the site and even my posts in particular, yet these people just don't comment.
I've tried periodically to draw Mahonri out for months - he's a man I'd like to know better - but I just barely got my first comment from him.
I only mention this because it leads to what I have to say next.
Don't be offended by it. If it sometimes feels (as it does to me) like the lack of comments reflects a lack of respect or credibility in the eyes of those you respect, know at least that that's not how I feel about you. I would have commented earlier, but life is crazy for me at present. Yours is the only blog I've commented on in weeks, mostly because I've been so busy. And to be honest, if we hadn't chatted the other night, I might not have posted here either. That more personal, though still electronic, interaction increased my desire to support you elsewhere. Thanks again for that, by the way.
Hope this helps.
Adam:
ReplyDelete"I've often felt somewhat inferior (in a sense) to you, but never threatened by you. You're too kind for that."
Thanks again for the kind appraisal. I'm glad I don't threaten you and that you think I'm kind. Now that you've said that, I'll just need to go deflate my head.
I do appreciate you taking the time to comment here on occasion. I know what you mean when you say that your life is taken up in other areas. Sometimes I feel like I have my hand in so many buckets that I'm not really finding any real treasure in any of them. And still I plug along, posting here and at AMV and commenting when I can at Theric's place and at your place. Just that little interaction (and the few people that I know who stop by here but don't say anything) gives me a little boost that I'm not wasting my time amidst all these ones and zeroes. And I hope my comments elsewhere help others feel somewhat the same.
Anyhow. Onward and upward.
And Th.: I don't think he looks like he's laughing either...