Ted Rall for December 24, 2010

Is that a halo floating near Joseph’s loins - or is he just happy to see us?

There’s a halo protocol?

Mary must of had a 30 pound baby….geez, he’s big!

Are they foreclosing the crib?

well joseph is a saint, so he rates a halo. normally, it’s just not as shiny as mary’s and jesus’s normally has a cross running through it.

Joseph was definitely a saint (interestingly, he’s the patron for my younger daughter’s school). His wife-to-be said “I’m pregnant by the Holy Spirit,” and he not only believed her and married her anyway, but raised the child as his own.

And in the Renaissance, when artists started mastering more realistic vanishing-point perspective, the halo (which started out as a holy radiance) suddenly became a big shiny plate hanging over their heads!

Here is a modern version of the story.

http://www.flixxy.com/digital-christmas-story.htm

They were TRAVELERS at the time of the birth, and census. They went back home, where Joseph had a job! They only had a problem with no reservations for a room. Thank God THEY didn’t have to put up with TSA, or baggage charges, or paying extra for an aisle OR window seat. With all the hassles they’d probably have stayed home, and Nazareth would have gotten all the “proper” press!

And doc, there is no point in pointing out the many undocumented myths in “the book”.

Now as to all that “peace on Earth” stuff, which I wish Christians really DID SUPPORT!, It’s always interesting they ignore that “I come not to bring peace to the world, but a sword”.Right,everything about the myth is “literal” but that line is only metaphor.

Now as to folks who REALLY DO want ONLY “Peace on Earth” for EVERYONE– well, just DO IT! and call THAT a “gift”.

Honestly Rall, get over your whining self for a bit. If you got laid now and then it might help you. Merry Christmas for heavens sake!.

Metaphor, analogy, the story is symbolic, but no less important, in passing down the tale of how we came about.

Some things like Noah’s flood go way back, and happened more than once, it is all a part of our folklore heritage.

Metaphor, analogy and the story is symbolic.? Hmmmm, actually, those terms are used to rationalize the myths that abound in ‘man’s word’. And, it’s hard to swallow that ‘tale’ of how we came about when the tale was a myth. The ‘book’ is just an extension of Greek Mythology.

It’s interesting how Mary’s pregnancy occurred after her encounter with the three men at the well.

MOTIVEMAGUS……regarding the Renaissance you mentioned where the halo evolved thru paintings, if I remember it right, it was also the period where angels evolved their wings……the painters began to paint wings on them…..and it stuck.

Wasn’t Giotto one of the first to confine haloes to the head? Earlier iconography, if I recall, depicted saints with full-body “auras.” Then came the circular (still 2-D) haloes around the head, then came the floating golden dinner plates, and then the glowing rings.

Of course, it was 30 years ago that I learned this stuff. I may have the time periods wrong, but I’m pretty sure that was the sequence.

^^ ^ Yeah, that makes sense, both of you. Funny how things we take for granted in art had to evolve, isn’t it?

But some things never change, and I hope they never do…

http://www.theonion.com/articles/a-complete-history-of-art,16871/

fritz, art like that is undoubtedly banned in Iran and Oklahoma.

Whammo frisbee rings?

It’s a friggin cartoon people ! enjoy what it is , for itself !