obscure(d) faith

back here i promised change. i am of my word. but before we get there here's a quick interlude. format and style intact: another trifecta of memory and theme.

suggested listening: julianna barwick/ the magic place / the magic place

perched within a sheer cliff face at the top of the mountains where spain was reclaimed from the southies, santuario de covadonga can make a believer out of anyone. pilgrims traipse up the mountain road for a touch of grace obscured from the light. tourists like us do the same.

covadonga/ asturias (es mi patria)/ 2009

this graveyard on the way to las peñas was the first time i'd seen the high-rise grave. architecture of the immortal soul.

guayaquil/ ecuador/ 2005

we made pilgrimage to lourdes last year. it was simultaneously inspiring and defeating. the miracle of the enterprise of the miracle was alive and well; both heartbreaking and heartening to see people at the site of their accumulated belief. overwhelmingly heartbreaking (and heartening?) to see busloads of the infirm and elderly descend on hope.

there are millions of candles, as vestiges of hope, confined in identical cubicles as you leave the shrine. the inscriptions on the back get me.

lourdes/ france/ 2010