Dying/broken/forgiven.... now I begin

Born: 17-06-56....gemini.... monkey
re-born: 3-09-80
born again\found: 14-04-08
other notable dates: 10-03-68; 03-09-87; 23-03-96;
1-05-98; 31-01-02; 5-04-04

Interests: movement, stressed/transgressive embodiment, lived experience (body\space\time\relation)
expression ( word, dance, text, image, story, music, poetics)
learning, yielding......

Hopes for the blog:
offer up the wild intersectedness of lived experience and engage others in creative, expressive, perhaps irreverant, hopefully playful, and respectful encounters....
enact kindness
create moments of pause for disclosure, discovery, stillness

Saturday, May 2, 2009

Price exacted

Edmonton; late '80's. A great place for honing my irritant skills ( a.k.a. graduate school). Being a sucker for service I am also doing some music and dance work with an Anglican church group on the cusp of expressiveness...
through a series of misadventures, I find myself invited to the elevation--or is that installation? of an Anglican priest to the rank of bishop. It's quite the elaborate affair, with chanting, incense, walking, bobbing, wailing, kneeling, standing, flapping...
kind of like watching a flock of crazed hungry birds devour a carcass

I am sitting next to the spouse of one of the bishops participating in the service. I watch a dozen men in flowing vestments huddle over and around their soon to be elevated brother, surrounding and covering him until he is absolutely hidden from view.
Unable to contain my blistering semiotic curiosity for a moment longer, I lean over to my seat mate and whisper : what are they doing?
She pauses for a long moment, then exhales, inclining ever so slightly towards me, her subtle postural softening remarkably well disguised by the impossible precision of her crossed ankles. I think I see the barest hint of rueful knowing glance..." they're removing his spine" she says, that glance of hers lingering ...holding mine just long enough for both of us to lean back against the stiff brown pew.
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5 comments:

  1. HarlequinMay 2, 2009 at 10:32 PM

    This memory was triggered courtesy of the work of two other bloggers taking up what felt like a similar thematic; thanks to Jon for posts Critics
    (29/04/09) and Don't Give In ( 2/05/09) and Human Being for post Critics vs Creatics ( 30/04/09).

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  2. the walking manMay 3, 2009 at 4:37 AM

    How in the world did you contain yourself? You are far better than I.

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  3. JonMay 3, 2009 at 4:59 PM

    terse words... "removing his spine"

    ha!

    think you've got that sardonic tone down pat... so pleased I could help spur such thoughts

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  4. aporiaMay 4, 2009 at 8:53 AM

    What a great story and blistering semiotic on so many levels -- grad school, service (x2), and a choreology of vested interest culminating in extraordinary rendition of the spine! It's a small thing to ask for so great an honor, don't you think?

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  5. HarlequinMay 4, 2009 at 10:18 AM

    WM-- sometimes I surprise myself with my mature self-control!
    Jon-- I always enjoy receiving compliments like terse and sardonic! you know how to give feedback that makes me smile...
    Anon andon...what's a spine when there are so many other gifts to be gotten? and dispensed? now, that's beyond sardonic...

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