God's house...

Snoozy train ride to Koln
thinking of Keith Jarrett and the way he made that music there
the soundtrack of my life for many years
and I emerged from the Bahnhof and I could feel the whoosh
the lift of the place, drawn from the ground to the eyes of God.. whoa..
and wasn't that the idea, after all?

Koln Cathedral so very very beautiful. Breathless before God.
I guess that was the idea as they packed the barefoot grubs who came to stare at the windows and
see if they were good enough for God back in the day.
Extraordinary to see the passion and detail of every curlicue and grid.
And then the fact that the entire city of Koln was destroyed in WW2
save the Cathedral.
There are photos of the "rubbl-ized", flattened strasse and
nothing but this cathedral standing.

As jaded a cathedral viewer as I might be, I was drawn and quartered inside.
Broken apart and leaky. Overcome with the beauty and the ghosts ..
Lit candles.  To clear the air and  better watch the flicker.

Chartres.... and the Brit who made his home in the village so he could tell tourists about every single picture in the famous windows,
Chichester and the music
Siena with Sofie as a babe practicing how to walk on cobble stone
 Florence with bored international students just dying to go back to Ohio
 Los Angeles every Christmas Eve after the Music Center
 Westminster Abbey reciting Shakespeare with my fat  pal
 Santiago de Campostella with the churro and cocoa shop across the way
.I lit the candle and it's all there. Including T.
Wow.
Too bad the institutions that built these spots are all so corrupt.
No matter, the architecture has its own lift and dignity..
the mission church near Paso, the Santa Fe adobes with Christ in technicolor,
the magic sand, botanica items,  reliquaries,
the little charms of legs and arms and broken parts,
the prayer cards,
everybody looking for something other to hold and call god..
to give IT a name, a house. a face,  a palpabilty outside of ourselves.

Hell, there are folk called Registered Exhorters ( and you know who you are)
to spread the word!
Put it there in front of us, outside us, draw a picture, call it God, that should take care of it....
If it's outside, who needs to BE it...


yeah. well.. am learning about that.