Art and Accidents

Where to start? With a resume of our outing yesterday, with my critique of a documentary watched last night, or with a brief description of this morning's accident? Well, probably best to recall in chronological order ...

We had a lovely Saturday out. Having spent last Easter weekend in bed, I hadn't been able to follow up my plan of exploring the National Gallery's works, so we decided to do that this weekend. After popping in to Angel and having a filling Wagamama lunch, we then tried to make our way from Angel to Charing Cross. Easier said than done. Went back down the tube at Angel, got a tube to Euston, tried to find a platform from where we could get a tube south to Charing Cross, couldn't find one, got on a tube that took us back in the direction from whence we had come, got off at King's Cross, took the Piccadilly Line south to Leicester Square, changed for the Northern Line, waited a while for a tube, squeezed onto one ("I am going to say this very slowly for the benefit of anyone who does not understand. Stand away from the doors. The doors will not close if you are standing between them. For the IQ challenged, stand away from the doors."), heard the announcement for the next station - Tottenham Court Road - realised we had gone in the wrong direction, had to get off, wander around the station to find the trains going in the right direction, and eventually managed to find a train that took us to Charing Cross.

The National Gallery is great! We only went to see the really old paintings (1250-1500 or so), but they really are something. So much bling! All that gold leaf ... and such detail, for example on the halos of the saints or on the dresses. And the colours are so vibrant, which is amazing after hundreds of years. Especially the blues of Mary's dresses, the golds, the reds. I am considering taking a group of students. Not sure how they'd be though! But it would certainly be a different experience for them, I'm sure!

We spent a couple of hours there, until we were thrown out (it's okay, so was everyone else, the Gallery closes at 6pm on a Saturday). Then we headed home, where I made a delicious and healthy dinner, of lamb and bean stew with cabbage, peas, potato, sweet potato and coleslaw.

While we ate we watched Oona King present a documentary on Martin Luther King. Which was quite interesting, until she started the most bizarre line of study ... are we in danger of forgetting King's religious side? Now, maybe it's because I'm an RE teacher, and as far as I'm aware probably just about every RE teacher in the country will cover MLK at some point, looking at how he was influenced to fight for racial justice, having been inspired by the teachings of Jesus (and the example of Gandhi). Which presumably means practically every young person in the country will be aware of the fact that MLK was a Baptist minister, inspired by his Christianity. He is covered in History as well, so I'm sure they will almost all have seen some examples of his preaching, which is full of Biblical allusions and references to God. Now, I understand that many students might not pay that much attention in classes, but at least with my students the moment MLK is mentioned, at least one person in the class will say, as a reflex action, without even thinking, "I have a dream!" Fair enough, that doesn't necessarily mean that they are thinking about King's religious convictions, but is it really true that people are not aware of his religious convictions?! At one point she even expressed surprise that his Christianity was nearer to socialism than to right wing conservative attitudes - sorry, no quote - but that really shocked me. Like Jesus, King was perhaps quite radical in his non-violent, turn the other cheek, love thy neighbour (and pray for your enemies) type attitude ... do people really consider him as a "secular icon of human rights"?! The documentary seemed to show Oona in a very naive, or even perhaps ignorant (in the most positive sense!) light, which I am sure was not the intention. Perhaps I do just make huge assumptions about the knowledge and understanding of the general British public about MLK, so forgive me if I sound too judgmental ... what do you think? Do you think King's Christian beliefs are important? Were you aware of them?

Right. So that brings us to the accident ... I was driving to church this morning (the first time I have ever done that, I was running a bit late, thought it might rain, wasn't feeling too great, and decided to go straight from church to the shops), when, having just come off the slip road, a blue van decided to come into my lane. While I was still there. I realised he was moving over, thought he mustn't have seen me, and began to accelerate away, but he still bumped my back bumper. I was pushed over a bit and swerved and got back on track, pulled over and we swapped details. Not too much damage fortunately, just a bit scratched, but still annoying! I was a bit shaken, but okay. Our priest was on the doorstep when I arrived - possibly looking out for me anyway, since I was due to do the reading and the intervention meant it was just a few minutes before the service started - and was really helpful when I told him what had happened. He got me some paper and got me to write down what happened before I forgot, and asked me a few questions to help make sure it was all accurate and detailed. So he waited to start Mass for a few minutes until I had written it! Anyway, I managed to get all my lines this week, and was quite quickly calm.

I've now got a spatchcock poussin in the oven, so that should be nice. More later!