Gilding Jesus

[akirlu]

I dreamt this morning that Victor Gonzalez and I were working on religious icons together. We were just replacing a larger-than-life Christ figure, cruciform but sans cross, after having refreshed its gold leafing. Victor was bearing Jesus up the nave like a cross. There was some discussion of whether we needed to hang Him up vertically, or if propping Him insouciantly akilter in a corner would do, since tomorrow morning would be Easter and it was important to get things looking just so. The "chapel" where we were putting Him was entirely outdoors, in the middle of grassy dunes above the ocean. The "altar" looked mostly like the back side of a weatherworn fishing shed, and both Jesus and the statue of Mary we had set off to the side earlier were crudely carved driftwood. But gilded, boy. Solid gold leaf over the rough, crumbly wood. The odd thing in all this was the seriousness I brought to "getting it right" for Easter. I've never had a Christian feeling about Easter in my life, not even the time I illicitly took Lutheran banana-bread-and-sherry-wine communion with my friend Alicia. (I believe one is traditionally supposed to be baptized and catechised before one takes communion.) So I'm damned if I know what it all means, but it was pretty unexpected, even for one of my dreams.