Marash Girl just learned about plinths this last month from Eulogio Guzman, Professor in the Visual and Critical Studies Department at the Museum School, Tufts University, during the preparation for the Yusuf Karsh Exhibit at the Armenian Library and Museum of America, and her newly acquired knowledge got her to wondering.
A plinth. A foundation for what comes next. As unsubstantial as it seems, it carries weight and bulk, weight and bulk which, without the plinth. could not stand. Our feet are, in a sense, our plinth. Or for many the BIBLE may be the plinth. Witness the children's Sunday School chorus:
The B I B L E
Yes, that's the Book for me
I stand alone on the Word of God
The B I B L E!
Or another popular Sunday School chorus (calling to mind Daniel in the Lion's Den of Old Testament fame):
Standing by a purpose true,
Heeding God’s command,
Honor them, the faithful few!
All hail to Daniel’s band.
Heeding God’s command,
Honor them, the faithful few!
All hail to Daniel’s band.
- Dare to be a Daniel,
Dare to stand alone!
Dare to have a purpose firm!
Dare to make it known.
For those without a Sunday School background, the concept of the plinth may call up memories of a song popularized by Bette Midler, and sorry for the mixed metaphor here, 'You are the Wind Beneath my Wings . . .' -- Or could wind also be considered a plinth?
So think about it. What steadies you? What grounds you? What holds you stable, without fear of falling?
Who or what is your plinth?
Hello, Marash Girl!
ReplyDeleteSince you know me, you won't be surprised to hear that my plinth is Jesus Christ, the Word Made Flesh, Who for us and for our salvation, came down from heaven.
Which is far from saying that I never experience fear or insecurity. Yet I know that my ultimate felicity (in both this life and the next) lies in my ability to enter God's holy presence and fellowship with Him. And, although I could never do this by any virtue of moral, intellectual, or artistic attainments on my part, "in the fullness of time, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, to redeem those under the curse of the Law." And His
Holy sacrifice alone, as taught in the Bible, preached by the Church, and communicated in the Sacraments, is my one basis of fellowship with my Heavenly Father.
I do also enjoy "the secular side of Christmas." But like all things, it must be kept in perspective. If it is, fine. If not, it usurps the significance of the season, exalts the temporal and sensual over the eternal and unseen, and becomes an idol. (As can anything: success, fame, marriage, etc. These are not things to be pursued as ends in themselves, but gifts of a gracious God.)
And at this season, I thank God for His unspeakable gift: His very self, having been born in a stable and having acquired our human nature. And as I tell my young friends at camp every summer: the nature of a thing is what it's like on the inside. So: if you are a believer in Jesus Christ, you have the privilege of entering the presence of the God Who created the universe, and yet Who knows, on the inside, what it feels like to be a 12-year-old child.
Because He was one once.
-John Harutunian
Newton, MA