David Walsh: However hard the hardship and however burdensome the burden, life remains worthy, wonderful

David Walsh explains why Mona has turned on the lights of Spectra and will do so every Saturday/Sunday until Mona reopens

Spectra by Ryoji Ikeda has been turned back on at Mona and will be on each night until the museum reopens after closing due to the coronavirus pandemic. Picture: NIKKI DAVIS-JONES

The people walking in darkness  have seen a great light;

on those living in the land of deep darkness 

a light has dawned.

You have enlarged the nation and increased their joy …

Isaiah 9:2–3

 

Are you open to new light, from whatever source it may come?

Quaker Faith and Practice

 

There’s a light over at the Frankenstein place.

Rocky Horror Picture Show

GOD isn’t much of a thing for me. She’s neither necessary nor sufficient to explain anything worth explaining – unnecessary, because science relentlessly clarifies that which was deemed God’s magisterium, with the remaining uncertainty a distinguishing virtue; and insufficient, because God doesn’t explain God. And the resurrection – that calendrically challenged story of death undone – only belief in that tale demands explanation. The explanation is: silly stories enhanced group survival (and thus improved outcomes for individuals within that group).

 

 

Potential foes wouldn’t give credence to another creed’s follies, so they were readily identified. All faiths have their characteristic absurdities. They are pathologies of other times, anachronistic skerricks of tribal trepidation.

For me, God is out. But don’t throw the Bible out with the baptismal water. God is out, but religion is in. Faith is a binding force (with those consequent silly beliefs). And for the huge group of Christians, Easter is a symbol of hope. In the symbolism of the Paschal candle, life triumphs over death.

Mona owner David Walsh. Picture: MATTHEW NEWTON/THE AUSTRALIAN

That’s what we need to believe right now: that however hard the hardship and however burdensome the burden, life remains worthy, wonderful – consequential. Every volitional breath is sacred.

We ‘abide in hope’ because hope makes us strive. And hope needs a beacon. So, we turned the light on.

We ran spectra over the Easter Vigil (Saturday sundown to Sunday sun-up, and will do so every Saturday/Sunday until Mona reopens. Then we’ll run it again with a crowd. And booze. And a band. And togetherness.

DAVID WALSH