I Could Have Danced All Night

Tonight at Solomon's Porch I got to taste the very best of what a community of artists does when it communicates the message of resurrection through their art.

The entire church building, which is already sort of an ever morphing art gallery, was transformed into a sort of labyrinth with "stations" (for lack of a better word) all over the place, each with a message of the resurrection of Christ, a message of hope. There must have been 2 dozen in all.

My favorite was the labyrinth in the basement. Let's see if I can recreate what I saw. I entered the basement, a large room with old "church tile" on the floor. The lights were off and the floor was covered in candles - 289 candles if my math is right. They were set in a perfect square, 17 by 17. The glow of 289 candles says something about light, about extravagance, about hope. I can't really take it all in but it moved me.

Between the candles, connecting one candle to the next were dots - stickers on the floor. Not all candles were connected by dots, only most of them. To follow the path of labyrinth, one walked without crossing any dots. There is only one path in a labyrinth and it leads to the center. The way this one was set up, you knew you were arriving at the center eventually, but it was impossible to know how you would arrive there.

It was a great symbol of the journey of faith, knowing the destination without knowing the way. Well, knowing the way, but only what little bit is before you at any given time.

You had to walk this labyrinth carefully because you might knock over a candle. Other people walked it as well, and everyone is on a different part of this faith walk. Some are at the center, some trying to get there, some walking back to the entrance/exit and some people waiting to take the faith walk, but are not quite ready to do so.

In the corner was a man playing harp behind a translucent veil with all sorts of colors of light shining from the inside out. A harp can by really mysterious sometimes. It was tonight.

Another of my favorite rooms was one that had duets of photos taken. Each duet of photos had one famous person from history who was considered a revolutionary (all killed for their beliefs I think) and the second of the duet was a child posed just like the famous person. Set under the photos were quotes from the famous person and a prayer by the child.

It was moving. Talk about creating an image of hope, of resurrection.

I could have stayed for hours on end looking at everything, thinking, feeling, changing...

but there are kids that need to get to bed. There is a paper with a deadline attached to it. There is duty that so inappropriately interferes with the kind of worship that is wonder.