What it's all for.
It just hit me yesterday that I spend my days in service to an organization that has its own army -- with soldiers and guns, and stuff. I have nothing to do with the army part, though. But still, it's a little bit creepy.
It also hit me that, as with any human society where some members of the community volunteer to die for the common cause, the organization glorifies them above everyone else. Maybe for good reason; I don't know. I haven't thought about it sufficiently to say. But anyway, they're glorified and celebrated, and there's an area near the main entrance that's dedicated to them, with lots of plaques, busts and other mementos.
Not known to many people is a small room in the corner that's supposed to be a meditation room, where we're supposed to go to think about life and death, and what the army is doing it all for. It's dimly lit and very post-apocalyptic, with a huge slab of iron ore in the center that's illuminated on top by a shaft of light. I guess it's supposed to be like an altar, although the Notice at the door explains that the room is for people of all faiths to use, so there are no overtly religious symbols in there.
The walls get narrower and narrower until they reach the Marc Chagall painting on the far wall, which is supposed to symbolize "What It's All About." I ducked into that room yesterday for a few minutes, and rested on the seats along the back wall. Then I went to look at the painting up close, and to see what's behind it -- I thought it might be a window; but it's actually back-lit with artificial lights -- and I saw someone called Nina had grafittied their name on it.
Anyway, the whole thing provides an interesting peek into the human psyche. From a historical point of view, the design of the room says a lot about what people in the 1950s thought about peace and war, and so on (because that's when it was built). And it says something about what they thought of God.
But more on that later.
It also hit me that, as with any human society where some members of the community volunteer to die for the common cause, the organization glorifies them above everyone else. Maybe for good reason; I don't know. I haven't thought about it sufficiently to say. But anyway, they're glorified and celebrated, and there's an area near the main entrance that's dedicated to them, with lots of plaques, busts and other mementos.
Not known to many people is a small room in the corner that's supposed to be a meditation room, where we're supposed to go to think about life and death, and what the army is doing it all for. It's dimly lit and very post-apocalyptic, with a huge slab of iron ore in the center that's illuminated on top by a shaft of light. I guess it's supposed to be like an altar, although the Notice at the door explains that the room is for people of all faiths to use, so there are no overtly religious symbols in there.
The walls get narrower and narrower until they reach the Marc Chagall painting on the far wall, which is supposed to symbolize "What It's All About." I ducked into that room yesterday for a few minutes, and rested on the seats along the back wall. Then I went to look at the painting up close, and to see what's behind it -- I thought it might be a window; but it's actually back-lit with artificial lights -- and I saw someone called Nina had grafittied their name on it.
Anyway, the whole thing provides an interesting peek into the human psyche. From a historical point of view, the design of the room says a lot about what people in the 1950s thought about peace and war, and so on (because that's when it was built). And it says something about what they thought of God.
But more on that later.
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