Symbols & sore legs

Another bullet point description of the day (so much easier than real thought/organized writing - and I'm enjoying the novelty of adding pictures to the blog):

- started the day at the 'Spanish Governors Mansion' - it's listed by National Geographic as one of the most beautiful buildings in San Antonio &, really, it's kind of dingy & small & dumpish - oh well, it only cost $1.50, so you can't go too wrong there.

- wandered around the market places with Preston looking for potential souvenirs. The day outside was overcast, but still pretty warm & our legs were starting to get tired already after only a couple of hours of walking - guess we/I am just not used to that much walking/standing.

- had Fajita's for two at Mi Tierra's - Preston's first experience with Fajitas - yummy

- Took the bus down to Mission San Jose, the biggest mission of the 5 missions in San Antonio. The thing is massive - huge compound area with all kinds of trees, etc. in the middle. There are 2-3 wells around the compound, they've set up an aqueduct with a water wheel/mill for grinding flour. And then there is a massive church building in the middle that is simple, yet beautiful/kind of majestic. Toured around here for quite a while & burned out a set of batteries snapping pictures

- After the tour at the Mission San Jose, we took the bus/walked to the Mission Concepcion which was a bit smaller than the Mission San Jose. Still interesting, but by this time our legs were getting super tired & we were feeling pretty done for the day.

- at the missions they had some things about the symbols that get painted into/included in the architecture. The architecture, apparently, was to be a living story to help explain things to the natives that were being converted. Though the symbols had some weird (or rather unfamiliar to me) meanings. Pomegranates were used to symbolize some kind of fertility thing (Pomegranates were symbols in the old testament that I never understood - they were worn on the high priest's robes, included in the temple architecture & used to describe a woman's temples (I think) in Song of Songs, but I never understood what they meant). They said that shells symbolized baptism - and there are a bunch of shells over doorways in the architecture - and I had no idea how shells symbolized baptism until I saw a picture of a priest pouring water over a native and the water was held in a shell - so yeah, interesting how some of the Christian traditions were adapted to the new culture they were in.

Being at the missions brought up all kinds of questions for me about faith, missions, etc. In some ways these missions represent all of the worst of Christian missions - the missions were both a spiritual & military/political presence in the area. The missions were a fortified area with gun ports in the walls & the bell tower of the mission is the highest point in the territory & a great vantage point to survey any approaching armies. As much as I whine about america & stuff, I really am starting to admire their conviction of sticking to a separation between church & state - usually when the church starts making political decisions, it's bad (very bad) because people start assume God is backing their decisions to take over a nation or kill/enslave people.

The whole conversion thing brings all kinds of questions. In theory introducing people to Jesus is a great thing. Especially when it's an introduction & then people are given the chance to either fall in love with Jesus or walk away from Him out of their own free will. I worry about (or hate) the places where conversions are forced or made with the wrong reasons (e.g. out of fear, out of wanting to get something). The missions did great things in bringing farming, new technology to the natives to improve their quality of life (though I guess it's always debatable about whether the natives were better off before or after the white men/spaniards came). But yeah, what happens if, in order to get the new technology, you had to convert to some new god? That seems sort of unfair/wrong.

And yeah, one of the notes at the missions indicated that, while the franciscans tried their best to explain Christianity to the natives, a lot of natives 'converted' without really understanding anything. The Franciscans tried to integrate Christianity into the existing culture, telling the christmas story of Christ's birth through the dances of the native's winter festival, but some of the natives basically took this as just an add on to their religion, not something new or different at all.

At the mission Concepcion, the door frame is supposed to be all carved with the story of the franciscans (including the rope that franciscans wear around their habits, five leaves to symbolize the stigmata (marks of christ's wounds in the hands, feet & side) that supposedly St. Francis had, etc.) & a covenant that this mission was dedicated to defend with force (?) the doctrine of the immaculate conception. And then in the middle of all this 'christian' symbolism, apparently one of the native builders/artisans slipped in an image of some old Aztec god into the middle of the door frame.

So yeah, just leaves me with questions. I figure 'the truth', in some great universal concept, if it is to be true, it should be true in all places, all cultures, for all time. And so it's hard for me to understand how to communicate 'the truth' (assuming I know any of that at all) to people from a different culture when perhaps my understanding of 'the truth' is coloured by the culture I've grown up in.

I've heard tell that the mexican natives - even with the Aztecs in the middle of their human sacrifice - expected white people to come to them on a boat with great sails to bring them this message of a Saviour, of a God of love who would remove the need for the sacrifices (or something to that effect). Culturally, they were ready for Christianity, ready for Jesus. But instead what they got was the spanish empire looking to expand their reach for territory, and for gold....

- The pictures today kind of took a bit of a theme today. Lots of doors, wells/fountains & trees. All of which, as far as I know, symbolize Jesus (been thinking that most of the symbols I know the meanings for in the bible tend to symbolize some aspect of Jesus's person or life - been thinking a bit about how much Jesus is the true center of real christianity - so much stuff gets messed up in christianity when we start to wander from Him as 'the truth').

- While waiting for the bus, got to talk with Raymond, some native/mexican who joined us at the bus stop & talked to us of his jail time & which areas of the city are safer/less safe than others. Interesting perspective on things though a bit unnerving.

- Spent some time wandering through the King William Historic area - lots of big fancy old houses. Was accosted by a really persistent stray cat who was starving & kept rubbing up against our legs looking for food. The cat would not leave us alone & walked with us for 2 blocks until finally some lady came out of a house to feed it (though she was wondering if we wanted to take it home with us).

- the italian restaurant we wanted to go to looked closed, so we went to a different one for the evening - by this time our legs were totally wiped out & yeah, after supper we just went home to rest our weary legs. Tried swimming a bit, but the water was really cold. Was trying to teach myself how to froggy kick, but that wasn't working so well, so gave up & came in to have a nice warm bath to try to relax the weary legs....

Off to the zoo tomorrow. My arms at least are looking a bit brown/red - so that's kind of nice.