GUESTS OF DAY 15 - May 7th


Tonight I had two groups of guests that were very different. First was Dr. W. Richter with his wife and two sons. Not only did this bring me the youngest guests so far (six and eight) but they also brought me some wine (a "diabolo" - how appropriate) and some self made cookies in the shape of crosses, angels and the letter "J".

The kids were fun. They were very curious ("Tommi, where is your bed?" - "Tommi, which is the oldest Jesus?" - "Mom, if Mary was older than Jesus, why did he die first?") and they played with food a lot. I was surprised that my questionnaire (download it here if you're interested) seems to be quite challenging to some. I had the feeling that is asks only very superficial questions but some questions seem to give some visitors a hard time.

I would limit the factors to these:

- People thought they had made their desicion or thought they had a clear standpoint and then find out that it is not so (e.g. when it comes to the question whether they believe in god).

- People find out that they have a blind spot for some things (like how many religious items they own, what the confession of their partner is and so on).

I also observe the tendency to understand "religious" as "Christian" after spending some time within my project. I sometimes tell people that "religious" could also mean "Buddhist".

Back to the guests, I noticed the kids picking their favourite Jesus quite quickly. The younger one however changed his favourite motive to the one his mother picked (after she had picked hers). When I told him he could pick as many motives he liked, he also included the one his father picked. (It might be necessary to explain that each guests gets a small copy of their favourite motive to take home).

The mother explained to me that once their older son reached the age of communion, they had to decide whether they wanted to actively support it or not and decided for activity. She told me that it was an amazing experience for her to work with the kids and to experience the world of christianity anew together with her son - who naturally has a different view than an adult.

The second set of guests was a whole different story. My former colleague Axel Schinke came by with his parents, who both have a prfound knowledge of the bible and christianity. His father is a priest (now retired), I believe. Their knowledge isn't the only difference to the other guests I had so far. They also wished to remain anonymous, which is why the image the imag doesn't show them and why I'm not going into details. Axel's father also didn't pick a favourite Jesus motive because he said that the "type" of Jesus he needs is different every day, sometimes from minute to minute. And his favourite Jesus of that moment simply wasn't among the ones I had collected. Which doesn't help with the project but which is a completely valid standpoint.

But I learned a lot about the history of the new testament, how it was written, who decided which four gospels out of the 80 were relevant and when that happened, where the gospels were written and that the Jesus of Day 7 is the scene where two of Jesus appears to two of his disciples - after he was crucified.

All in all the evening was enriching in terms of information and experience, and enforcing me in my views. It made me remember what it is about christianity that I don't like: a strong focus on pain and sin and the life thereafter. Call me an egoist but I live today. And if I get a chance of having a good time without killing anyone else, I'll have it.