Movable Feast...an interpretation

Oscar Wilde, the great poet. http://hubpages.com/hub/Oscar-Wilde--Brilliant-AND-Funniest-Playwright

I can't thank God enough for going to church this morning. The topic was 'Movable Feast'! as some of you might know, I've discussed this topic in my blog when I first arrived in Paris and was reading Ernest Hemingway's classic Paris memoir, titled of course...Movable Feast.

"If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a movable feast" ERNEST HEMINGWAY to a friend, 1950 (as quoted on the 1st page of his book)

However little did I know, that the words Movable Feast is actually biblical, it is the day when believers celebrate the feast of Easter prior or after celebrating the holy communion. The feast is this context covers the joyful spirit of the day, whether gathering with each other to reflect each individual's spirituality, listening to God's words or simply attending service. Reverend Scott Herr mentioned that for believers, we can have our own movable feast according to our spiritual closeness to God. For Hemingway, his Movable Feast is Paris, he brings that (this is where I think the French pronom en as a replacement to a subject is more useful than English!) to wherever he goes after Paris. More often than not, a feast is associated to a gathering of food, or enjoying a meal together. Mark 6 :30 is one of the chapter that Rev. Herr discussed when Jesus fed a crowd of 5000 starting with a few pieces of bread and fish and after blessing them, there were more than enough for everyone that they had leftovers. Whatever your interpretation of a movable feast, each of us can have our own spiritual feast.

I feel sad that Hemingway never got to listen to Rev. Scott Herr message of the true meaning of a movable feast for he might not have killed himself when he was consumed by alcoholism in his old age. Maybe he did listen but forgot, or he had forgotten about Paris by then...

Rev. Scott Herr also incerpted a meant-for-a-joke quote on this topic earlier in the sermon that goes something like this...

"If you have lived good enough, you might go to Heaven, but if you've been very good, then perhaps you would go to Paris" Oscar Wilde


On another tangent,

George Seurat's Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, 1886.

Le Dimanche...

Sunday is one of the only day in Paris where there are very little happenings...

Middle-aged French men play boules* in parks, pigeons swath themselves in Paris amazingly clean drainage water washing their feathers (on other days they swarm around everywhere in the streets, hitting people off their tracks) but no, on Sunday everything is calm. It is also the day when I feel that Paris is truly mine.

Every Sunday morning, I would pass a crowd of middle-aged men playing boules in a park just opposite l'Hôtel des Invalides, 7eme arrodissement. Boules is a classic French game between French men and their counterparts otherwise known as pétanque. They throw small metal-looking balls into the air and I think they have to reach a certain point...Hardly interesting for a lady like moi.

Watching pigeons clean themselves seemed more amusing this morning. Every day, twice a day, most of Paris streets would be awash with clean pure water from the sewer/drainage. They spur up at first making spurly sounds and then the edges of the streets are flushed. It's true, Paris pride themselves of their flush system.


Mr. Blue at Rue Jean Nicot, just on the corner near quai d'Orsay, where Church is.

Bon Dimanche everyone and Happy Sunday for the peeps in Jakarta and Melbourne!