Stone throwing and Jesus
Saturday 14th May 2005
For the first time in a while Eamonn and I were out together on a Saturday. Today we were accompanied by Eamonn's dog Trafford( a not yet "Old" smoothe haired terrier type) An early impulse led Eamonn to chalk a circle around a dried up portion of dog shit (not fresh enough to have been Trafford's) on the pavement in Shipquay Street, not far from the RichmondCentre entrance. Whilst we were thinking of atitle for this relic a lady steered her grandchild , who was pushing a doll's buggy, away from it; saying "watch where you're going". Eamonn, only half conscious of this statement, drew a second circle and joined the two with a curled line , and adding legs ended up with a pair of spectacles. (One of the lenses sporting a dollop of dirt. Eamonn wrote LOOK WHERE YOU'RE GOING.
Walking from Foyle Street, up a hill towards Carlisle Road, we discovered a wonderful new site for our activities, at the service entrance to the back of the Foyleside Shopping Centre. Wide steps led down to a large, underground concrete room. Eamonn immediately made a connection of the entrance to the steps with the players entrance to Anfield Soccer pitch in Liverpool. Across the top of the entrance was a wide concrete beam. Here Eamonn chalked in large red letters: WELCOME TO ANFIELD.
The room was a windowless low-ceilinged entrance hall with broad doors at the far end - probably opening onto enormous service lifts. Alongside the steps and the back of the room, the wall was surfaced with very dark grey gloss paint, giving the appearance of a blackboard. Already some graffiti had been painted here. The wall was irresistible. Eamonn's first chalked words were, DICEY (Eamonn's nick-name) LOVES TRAFFORD. Next was I LOVE CHALKING ON THE WALL .
Rudolf Steiner's words, LET THINGS AND EVENTS SPEAK TO YOU, NOT (you speak) ABOUT THEM. I chalked I'M SMOOTH AND SHINY. I had started to write I'M DARK AND INVITING when the security men appeared. They politely and amicably said, "That's it lads", so we immediately headed back up the steps, Eamonn commending them upon the skill and tact with which they carried out their duties.
In Artillery Street, near to the entrance of the Playhouse, a crowd of excited young ones were gathered. A couple of young protestants, presumably from the Fountain area appeared every now and then and hurled stones in the direction of the crowd. The distance was too great for there to be any real danger because the stones had landed and were rolling and bouncing along the ground before they had reached their targets. And it was amazing that none of the cars parked alongside the road were damaged.
I sidled along the wall and climbed the steps up on top of it for a better view. Eamonn stayed amongst the young ones , lightened the mood, and defused the tension by acting the role of someone dodging missiles in a riot situation. In the midst of simmering tensions he played at being in a full - blown riot, simulating what would happen then. His performance came to an endwhen the police arrived (low key in white shirts, no riot gear, though with belted revolvers and hand-cuffs) to move the crowd away.)
We had found a scattering of discarded, small advertising leaflets, blank on one side, when at the Anfield steps. We cut each of these in two to destroy the original advertisement and give us a smaller, larger number of pieces of blank paper. We wrote positive phrases on the slips of paper and went outside the top entrance to the Foyleside Centre to distribute them. Our leaflets included such statements as : SMILE; ENJOY YOUR MISTAKES; ENJOY THIS MOMENT; SUN SHINES FOR YOU TODAY; LET THE SKY BE BLUE NOT YOU; THE CUT WORM FORGIVES THE PLOUGH; ACCEPT EVERYTHING WITH A SMILE.
We wanted to distribute the leaflets without forcing them on people; to be positive without infringing.
Across the road from the Foyleside a man was collecting for an overseas christian charity. We wanted to focus on older people and men, because young women were usually the most approachable and less challenging. The man refused my shyly proffered slip of paper.
We stood on either side of the Foylesdie entrance door until moved to a perimeter of pillars maring the edge of Foyleside's territory. Here stood two more christian collectors - one of them a bespectacled motherly figure. This lady took one of my slips: THE CUT WORM FORGIVES THE PLOUGH. Interestingly the christian man came over to see what she had been given. "Mother" came across and asked to look at the rest of my collection. She thought that ACCEPT EVERYTHING WITH A SMILE was interesting but a hard one to do. I agreed. She asked did I believe in Jesus.
I said that I was an atheist and (remembering last week's poem) added that if I did believe in God i would curse him for all the misery in the world, but because he doesn't exist I couldn't do that.
She good-naturedly persisted that surely I believed in Jesus, and that she loved her Jesus.
I asked , if she was a believer, did she then allow that God was responsible for people's pain and suffering. She replied that people brought illness on themselves.
At that I flipped the lid, became positive no more, did not accept what she had said with a smile, was totally blue, did not enjoy the moment and was far from smiling. I ranted: (saying much of the following; some I am adding now.)
"HOW CAN YOU SAY THAT, HAVE YOU EVER WATCHED ANYONE IN PAIN, AND YOU SAY THAT PEOPLE BRING THAT ON THEMSELVES - THE TSUNAMI VICTIMS TOO I SUPPOSE - THAT IS A TERRIBLE THING TO SAY, YOU'RE WICKED, REVOLTING, THAT IS A CRUEL HEARTLESS UNCARING SMUG INHUMAN ATTITUDE; IT MAKES ME SO ANGRY . YOU MUST BE TOTALLY HEARTLESS. AND YOUR GOD TOO. IF HE EXISTED- MUST BE EITHER TOTALLY HEARTLESS OR TOTALLY INEFFECTUAL."
With that we parted. Eamonn was stunned, and his sympathies were with the woman. Still, good friend that he is, he stayed with me and joined me in spreading the remainder of our slips of paper on the top of a circular concrete plinth nearby. We spread them out and covered each one with a stone. People could come and take their pick as they pleased.
