Sundae, Sunday

Godzilla Sundae 

I saw this T-shirt of a Godzilla in our city (below) in a shop window yesterday. He's about to eat the cherry off the Spoonbridge and Cherry fountain (water sprays out the cherry stem), by the artists Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen--made for the Sculpture Garden here. 
I liked the T-shirt but didn't even go in to check the price because it was not a thrift store. I'm sure it was $$$.

People are always posing for photos in front of the fountain, and I hear it's a sport to canoodle in the spoon (it's that big), without getting caught by security.

The domed building in the background is the Basilica, where I used to go to church, and even worked for a year as a sacristan's assistant (schlepper of holy things, setting up for Mass), which I loved. 
I didn't love the Church hierarchy though, and ended up leaving--the job and eventually the church.
(Kind of like how I loved the students but hated working in high school.)

This Sunday

For a long time I've missed having a spiritual community--to be with a group of people who are not worshiping materialism, our American God.

I'm going to start looking around.
 There are a dozen churches of various denominations in walking (or nearby busing) distance, and this morning I'm going to check out one where I attended a free Apple Pie-making class a couple falls ago.

They're super liberal (which can be annoying in its own way), but the woman who taught the pie class was crisp:
use ice water, cold butter, chill your dough--no slouching!
I couldn't believe what a difference the correct technique made to a pie crust. 

Other nearby congregations are Lutheran, Episcopalian, LDS (Mormon), Seventh Day Adventists, Jewish, Muslim, Unitarian, Zen Buddhist, various evangelicals... (Advantages of a big city.)
 It'd be a fun adventure to check some out.
_______________

Though I don't go, I still call myself Catholic because I love so much of the story and the art--most specifically the TOYS! (called "sacramentals" in the faith). 
From sometimes frivolous and fantastical costumes and trinkets … like this Rosary and Altar Society medal (donated to the store):

…to what Linda Sue calls the "dead guy on a stick". 
He, the crucified Christ, represents the cruelty we inflict on one another–– or suffer ourselves––
from Matthew Shepard hanging on a fence 
to the prisoner with arms outspread in Abu Ghraib, 
to the way we torment Creation--land, water, air, animals...
And KEY: 
the call to liberation from that, from and for ourselves and others.

(I'm inching slowly (very) toward veganism--when I think of how we treat animals...)
 
So, off I go this morning. We shall see.
Toodle-oo!