The Sunday Spinster Sermons: Part Two

Hello and welcome to our Second Sunday Spinster Sermon.  

I hope you all enjoyed our opening hymn.  

As a committed friend of a friend of Dorothy, I was very excited to be seeing The Wizard of Oz LIVE at the Theatre Seven this week. I had tissues at the ready. I thought of Judy's original perfection and Eva Cassidy's raw hope and knew I would be sobbing before the first few minutes were done. This was not true.

The Wizard of Oz a la Shropshire was the campest thing I have yet to see and I've frequented a lot of gay bars. Each character was a Mae West impersonator. Every last one of them! Highlights including the tinman having a magic 'ass' due to his midwestern drawl and Toto, the pug, fleeing the stage wherever possible. 

As this is part of Sunday Service where I must offer up an act of contrition; this week I am mostly sorry for sniggering in the Gods while playing imaginary drinking games along to each act of high campery. 

Nora Ephron would now like to come forwards and recite the first reading of the day:

“Reading is everything. Reading makes me feel like I've accomplished something, learned something, become a better person. Reading makes me smarter. Reading gives me something to talk about later on. Reading is the unbelievably healthy way my attention deficit disorder medicates itself. Reading is escape, and the opposite of escape; it's a way to make contact with reality after a day of making things up, and it's a way of making contact with someone else's imagination after a day that's all too real. Reading is grist. Reading is bliss.”

Amen.

Our second reading comes from Durga. My favourite Virgin Goddess. A Virgin Warrior and Destroyer. We are very pleased to welcome her here today as meditating upon her has cheered me no end. She remains my favourite not just because her mode of transport resembles Aslan but that her wiki page describes her as being able to, 'manifest fearlessness and patience, and never lose her sense of humor, even during spiritual battles of epic proportion.'

Thank you Durga.

The word Shakti means divine energy/force/power. I am the warrior aspect of the Divine Mother / Brahman (Supreme Absolute Godhead). As a goddess, my feminine power contains the combined energies of all the gods. Each of my weapons were given to me by various gods: Rudra's trident, Vishnu's discus, Indra's thunderbolt, Brahma's kamandalu and Kuber's Ratnahar. 

According to a narrative in the Devi Mahatmya story of the Markandeya Purana text, I was created as a warrior goddess to fight an asura, or inhuman force/demon, named Mahishasura. He had unleashed a reign of terror on earth, heaven and the nether worlds, and he could not be defeated by any man or god, anywhere. 

Mahishasura underestimated me, thinking: "How can a woman kill me, Mahishasur—the one who has defeated the trinity of gods?". However, I roared with laughter, causing an earthquake soon making Mahishasur aware of my powers. Mahishasura rampaged against me, changing forms many times. First he was a buffalo demon, who I defeated with my sword. Then he changed forms and became an elephant that tied up my lion and began to pull it towards him. I cut off his trunk with my sword. The demon Mahishasur continued his terrorizing, taking the form of a lion, and then the form of a man, but both of them were gracefully slain.

Then Mahishasur began attacking once more, starting to take the form of a buffalo again. I became angry, and proclaimed to Mahishasur in a colorful tone—"Roar with delight while you still can, O illiterate demon, because when I will kill you, the gods themselves will roar with delight". When Mahishasur had half emerged into his buffalo form, he was paralyzed by the extreme light emitting from my body. I laughed before cutting Mahishasur's head down with my sword. Mahishasur slain, I rewarded other soldiers who helped in the battle by bestowing upon the army a knowledge of jewelry-making. Give a man a medal and he's proud for a day. Teach a man to make his own medals and he's proud for a lifetime.

Thank you Durga. 

We move on to this week's Sermon. Last week's was very lunar and quite emotional. This one moves away from the feminine and towards the masculine.

This weekend. I met my uncle for the first time. He said he'd seen me before when I was about 10 years old. At that time I was quite shy and bookish so I don't recall. As I am no longer so shy (still bookish), it made for a much more memorable meeting. He's similarly prodigal. I always thought Prodigal meant had gone away and now come back, due to Bible stories. Turns out that's not quite right.

prod·i·gal/ˈprädigəl/

Adjective:	Spending money or resources freely and recklessly; wastefully extravagant.
Noun:	A person who spends money in a recklessly extravagant way.
Synonyms:	adjective.  lavish - profuse - extravagant - wasteful - spendthrift noun.  spendthrift - waster - wastrel - spender - squanderer

Uncle likes a drink, smokes, wears stoner t-shirts, dived with sharks, travelled the world, speaks his mind and has blue eyes. We had quite a lot to talk about.

The most interesting stories were of his father, my grandfather. I never really got to know him as he was a non comedy version of Melchett, from Blackadder. The Sergeant Major. Fabulous beard and moustache. Very shouty. 'Hells, bells and buckets of blood' he would rumble when vexed. He made beautiful art too but didn't like children, so as he died when I was 13 we never got to chat. I learnt lots of wonderful history about him this weekend. Lots very sad but fascinating also. Having been brought up by a very down to earth mother who enjoys the English countryside more than the trade winds, it made a lot of sense to learn my grandfather had been with the Royal Artillery during the Second World War and had fought in Mumbai, Calcutta, Mandalay, Imphal and Ceylon. He'd fought with the Chindits.

Ernest James Siseman was the youngest captain at 23. Ernest James Siseman operated deep behind Japanese lines and was weakened by malaria. Ernest James Siseman met my grandma at Deolal, 100 miles outside Mumbai when she nursed him back to health. 

The British saying 'doolally tap', loosely meaning "camp fever" comes from Deolali and the apparent madness of men waiting for ships back to Britain after finishing their tour of duty. Doolally today means mad or insane. Mum was born in May of 1946. The Burmese campaign ended in July 1945. What a place to be made. Not surprising he didn't talk much. He did create beautiful paintings though.

After his death his paintings were sold off. Most of his work was of landscapes, he didn't ilke drawing people. The little girl being bookish on the left is me. Hope to track it down one day.

This one is at Liverpool University. Really modern. I look forward to visiting.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/artists/e-j-siseman

   

Lovely to meet you uncle Quentin. Looking forward to visiting you in Finland. The fact you live a short drive from Moomin World makes the offer all the more attractive :)

It's nice to have an uncle. Nice to have some male energy around. Even when it bleats like Melchett :)

I leave you with today's Sunday Worship. 

A spot of Steam Punk Victoriana

http://lebeaupaonvictorien.blogspot.co.uk/2010/04/vintage-voice-pseudo-victorian.html

 

Peace be with you.

And also with you.

You may now walk out, to the fine strains of Raphael  Attar and his homage to Gary Barlow.

Be excellent to each other

xxx