It's Christmas eve; we've attended Sunday Mass, been to Confession, I've taken out "The Interior Castle" by St. Theresa of Avila as my spiritual Christmas reading and all Christmas presents have been bought (after spending some 5 hours shopping around for 'the best deal'; '3 for 2' discounts, 'but one get one half price' etc, we have managed to get all family members on both sides of the family a nice present!) some presents still need to be wrapped, others still need to be assembled...but at least we have them!
I had a bit of a humbling moment just now which reminded about the importance of not jumping to conclusions about others.
I was cycling along when I saw someone selling brightly coloured modern art paintings on the side of the road. At a quick glance as I cycled past I could see the common theme in almost all of the paintings was a pig on a cross and some weird human-like figure with a hat standing near-by.
I carried on cycling but couldn't stop thinking about what they might mean...is the artist trying to insult Jesus? Calling him a pig on the cross? How horrible & terrible!
I was quite upset and so in the end I couldn't just do and say nothing.....so in my typical Antonia-way, I went back!
Ready to defend Christ and stick up for Him against anyone who thinks a painting of a pig on a cross is funny, I went to the artist and asked (as sweetly as possible): "I don't really understand your paintings...I was wondering if you could explain them to me...."
Well, basically it turns out that the artist has bipolar affective disorder (also know as manic depression) and has streaks of schizophrenia-like symptoms too. The paintings are meant to the about him and his mental illness.
He is the pig, the cross signifies his illness, the weird man in the hat is his psychiatrist, and the paintings were all about the effect that bipolar depresion has had on his life.
At the end he said something like "I'm living on the poverty-line because of this illness. *sigh* Oh well, at least it keeps me humble."
Which really touched my heart. He then wished me a Merry Christmas and said "God Bless You!" which people rarely say anymore.
anyway, while I still don't think drawing a pig on a cross is totally appropriate....this episode has reminded me about the importance of not leaping to conclusions based on superficial assessment of people.
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