Human Flower Project
Santiago, MEXICO
Cairo, EGYPT
Austin, Texas USA
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
It Looks Ready
How firmly to cut back the roses? How lackadaisical to be this spring in the garden, or how obsessive? John Levett is back at it.
“After a brief interlude of faith-loss”—it’s time.
The gardener begins again
Photo: John Levett
By John Levett
When I was young I liked going to chapel. I didn’t turn up at one on a whim; my mum sent me to Sunday School. I think she was a believer of the Pragmatist School—if there’s something in it you’ll be getting in on the ground floor of salvation; if there isn’t you’ll have a nice few afternoons listening to stories & bashing out some songs.
Not for me. I took to it wholeheartedly. I took to the chapel, the prayer meetings, the Bible study classes, the youth club, the three-times-on-a-Sunday services, the witnessing on the streets & the knocking on doors. It was all the community that I’d never had & I was accepted in totality for what I was. It became my life. Until it wasn’t any more. After a brief interlude of faith-loss I joined the Young Communist League. Different book; same routine.
Just before last Christmas I was watching David Harvey’s online lecture course on Marx’s Capital. After the last session I recalled a similar exercise in interpretation when I was a chapel goer. I’d bought a three-volume study course called ‘Search the Scriptures’ which was designed to take one through the Bible in three years. I must have started the course four or five times; never starting from where I’d left off, always starting from Lesson 1. It was a great lesson that Lesson 1; at a push I could probably recall its substance but never made it to the last volume.