Searching for the Lost Churches of China

Bees love onion blooms.

This bee is attracted to a glorious plant. From a distance it has a purple haze. In close inspection there are yellowflowers on the tips of purple blossoms arranged in a conical form. Fantastic plant.

It has rained in the deserts of western China along the border of Inner Mongolia. Shrubs and trees have burst into glorious blooms of white, yellow, and purple. Lilacs and Wisteria sing the songs of nature. Shrubs I cannot identify attract bees and butterflies. It is paradise for a naturalist photographer.

I met Salvador Dali back in the early 70’s at the San Francisco Art Festival. He was there representing a gallery specializing in his painting. To me he had the appearance of a circus barker due to his large and strange mustache. I spoke briefly with him about his views on California art that was emerging at the time. I wish I had known more about his art. Today I am a big fan of his ideational art.

The painting above is a perfect illustration of dementia. My mother is not doing well. She has been in and out of comas over the past few months. Presently she is in hospice care. I am told by those who have visited her that she is aware of losing her memory. She knows that she should know. When a person comes to visit her she has to be told who it is. This causes her a great deal of pain as she is (was) such a social person.

In the painting about we see warped watches representing time above and below the water as symbols of our memory in both the conscious and unconscious domains of the mind. Time is distorted in our mind. Portions of time and memory falls through the cracks in the floor of the mind as does one time-piece near the bottom of the painting. Memory slips through our fingers like a slimy fish.

Like dead tree stumps poking into consciousness our brain tries to hold onto memory.

What is the relation between the memory and sense of self? In western culture it is strongly linked to the point that we believe a person with serious dementia has died in a sense. We remember a different person who can share in our sense of recall. We see the desperation of a person drowning in a sea of forgetfulness. What does this all mean?

I find comfort in the fact that God does not forget. The universal consciousness preserves us when our physical bodies fail. The brain disintegrates and with it our memory of the events of time.

May Day is the beginning of butterfly season for me. The sulphers have been out for about a month but today the coppers and hair streaks are out and about. Above is a beautiful member of the Laecaenidae family. There was a big hatch today at Yellow River Park in Wuzhong. There were so many they did not mind me photographing them.

Sebastino Ricci painted the scene of Christ and the Cannanite(Syro-Phonecian woman) sometime in the early 18th century. It is an account of one of the most puzzling pericopes of scripture. Jesus at first calls this woman a dog. The Greek word in this passage means “puppy” or small dog. It hardly tempers the harshness of what Jesus says to this woman. Ricci seems to suggest in this painting that Jesus changes his mind about this Gentile and looks with favor upon her faith. She argues with God in a sense and advocates for her mentally ill daughter (impure spirit).

The dog in the painting is so interesting to me. At the time of the painting lapdogs were quite popular with Italian royalty. These small dogs came from China along the Silk Road. Shitzu dogs were often found in Buddhist temples and bred for loyalty and obedience. When they lie down it seems as if they are praying as they place both front paws in front and together. These adorable dogs were all the rage after the Polo brothers returned from China. Ricci places one of these dogs in this painting as a reference to the small dogs Jesus mentions in the Markan passage.

Ricci bridges the Baroque and Roccoco periods of painting in Italy. He was born in the 17th c. in Vienna, Austria, which was part of Italy at the time. As a youth he impregnated a young woman and was accused of attempting to poison her to cover up his shame. He fled to northern Italy. He spent the remainder of his life living in Venice, Milan, Rome and even London. Three times he returned to Vienna. The third time he was commissioned to paint the ceiling of the Blue Hall in the Schonbonn Place in Vienna.

Jesus Honors a Syrophoenician Woman’s Faith

²⁴ Jesus left that place and went to the vicinity of Tyre.^[a] He entered a house and did not want anyone to know it; yet he could not keep his presence secret. ²⁵ In fact, as soon as she heard about him, a woman whose little daughter was possessed by an impure spirit came and fell at his feet. ²⁶ The woman was a Greek, born in Syrian Phoenicia. She begged Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter.

²⁷ “First let the children eat all they want,” he told her, “for it is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.”

²⁸ “Lord,” she replied, “even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”

²⁹ Then he told her, “For such a reply, you may go; the demon has left your daughter.”

³⁰ She went home and found her child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.