Flashback

Today I took the lovely tram to the airport to fly home. The Edinburgh-Belfast flight is only about a half hour. You can’t even read much.

I went home, made a fire, and started catching up this blog.

Way back in Barcelona, when I was writing about the black madonna and religion’s fetish for the extraordinarily ornate, I think I missed this photo. My photo management skills aren’t the best. This is the ceiling above the madonna.

One of the things I love about Scotland is the Scottish Enlightenment. So much of Edinburgh’s landmarks and architecture flowed from that time of open mindedness, progress, and tolerance. I weep for Northern Ireland that it didn’t come under the spell of Scottish philosophers, theologians, economists, and scientists -- despite being largely populated by Scottish immigrants. We did have our moment of Enlightenment-inspired rebellion against the church and the English in the late 1700s. However all the leaders were executed or exiled. So that was that, apparently. The Presbyterian church seemed to shift permanently to the right, explaining why there isn’t an option here other than very traditional Catholic or Protestant services.
2-5