El Puerto De Santa Maria Day Three

I have been travelling mainly today getting the train down from Seville to El Puerto De Santa Maria. This seems like a nice town that gets a lot of sun. I managed to negotiate down the price of the room a little bit which is good since my poor old friend remains in England waiting for his passport to leave someone´s in-tray at the home office.

I was a bit whacked out when I arrived so I haven´t seen much of the town yet. I have noted though a couple of excellent superarkets and the prices are much cheaper here. The atmosphere is the hostal is friendly and people seem pretty excited about the upcoming Semana Santa.

Walking back between the hostel where I´d left my camera to the place where I was staying (oops) I happened upon some kind of premliminary hat wearing on the part of the festival participants. I had seen the Semana Santa costumes on the web but I must say it is certainly quite startling to see it in real life. They are apparently not too different from ones worn by the Inquisition.

Not being a Catholic I find some the imagery and poise a bit strange. Contemporary Anglo-Evangelicalism (or something like that) is sort of like ´God loves me even if I am wearing my worst T shirt´so the idea of wearing particular clothing to express particular leanings of the soul is a bit alien to me. It may be going too far, though, as I am tempted to do to imagine that all it does is get in the way of a simple and connection with God. I guess I don´t know everything, as much as I would like to think I do.

It certainly is good to see the Grand Narrative of Easter out there and writ large. It remains even when others fade away. For my own part, I am struggling to see my own life in terms of a grand narrative - one which is and will be characterised by a persistent ability to overcome obstacles in all areas. For example, I have gone through some quite unpleasant periods of treatment for fatigue which have not resulted as I would have wished. I am still not able to move forward the narrative of more hours, more money, better standard of living etc., as mental fatigue persists even where physical benefits have arcued. I cannot present the face to the world that I would like to present. It appears to demand materially from me more than I am able to offer.

Come to think of it, though, the narrative of Easter is not on the face of it a huge success story. Well, it is in the end but not before a crisis that may have appeared quite final. I guess the words of Paul remain true today that for me to live is Christ and to die is gain. There is a pitfall here too, though, and that is the temptation to hide in religion and negate the many aspects of life there remain to be experienced and participated in. So my formula for the day, if I can put it like this is: don´t panic, something good/bad is happening.