Hunting Around for Patterns

I wrote a piece on patterns six months ago, and a number of readers responded with notes and some terrific images. Howard Meister sent me this one of eggs, which I pass along to you as we enter Easter Weekend. There will be lots of Easter egg hunts; untold eggs painted; yellow sugar chickens and chocolate rabbits consumed. What these things have to do with Christianity escapes me, but I enjoy peeking through to the pagan world.

Scavenging for patterns and hunting for Easter Eggs have some things in common. Both keep us looking for things in unlikely places and feeling optimistic about what the future might hold. Adults can play like kids, and kids can interact with their environment like purposeful adults. Both activities are somewhat absurd and yet make all the sense in the world. They challenge and stimulate the eyes while drawing in our other senses. They are pure and playful endeavors that need not be run through our rational minds or put into words. Neither requires a religious overlay to be enjoyed.

Here is a group of images I have picked up over the last six months. I always welcome seeing what other hunters bring in.

Best,

Sign Up
We have changed our sign up procedure to ensure that our newsletters get delivered more efficiently. If you are new to Studio Forbes, or if you have not been getting our newsletters on a regular basis, please sign up here.

Pass It On
Know anyone in particular who would appreciate the content of this newsletter? If so, please forward this to them. Our readership has grown almost entirely by referrals, and we thank you for this.

Now Hiring
I have posted several positions and jobs on my homepage, and I’m using my newsletter to get the word out. I’d appreciate it if you would forward this to anyone who might be interested.

Comments

[Kathleen Bouvier]

I am late weighing in on this as I’ve just come in from the four day holiday we enjoy in those nations where The People are still enjoying the lingering effects of the once potent influences of The Church. We’ve observed Good Friday and Easter Monday. In essence they are observed by indulgence in assorted leisure activity having nothing to do with history or religion or Jesus. Of course it is inescapable that they do pay homage to the change of season. And here, we enter the delightful terrain of the Pagan.

The remark about Christianity and chocolate rabbits brought me flashbacks of Alfred Molina melting down in the window of a chocolaterie in France in the film ‘Chocolat’. I’ve just re-viewed it and am pleased to report that it is indeed a splendid study of the battle between the forces of Church and Nature. I had questioned my memory as I might have confused the film with the book that preceded it. The written version was a truly wicked treatment of the subject.

As to patterns and scavenging; here in the great, still white and subzero north we are desperately searching for signs of Spring. For a newly arrived like me, it feels very much like looking for things in unlikely places. The growing daylight is the one justification for feeling optimistic about what the future might hold

While it seems an absurd activity it does makes all the sense in the world because nothing reassures more than pattern and few patterns are more dependable than the seasons. They bow out and reappear with a rhythm that is tied to our own biology…at least, they are supposed to. But that is another subject.

Happy Springtime. Get warm and celebrate life.

K+

[Audrey Kallander]

Hi - Eggs are symbols of renewed life and rabbits are fertility symbols, both woven into and representative of the rights of spring (happy solstice by the way!). A common argument is that early Christianity often accepted or incorporated elements of earlier, pagan rituals into their holidays in order to have the religion more readily accepted by the local populace. There might also be an element of commonality in what people hold sacred that shows up coincidentally across various spiritual practices.