Winging it in... Boston

We both have truths. Are mine the same as yours?

This weekend can well and truly be broken up into sections, although the pervading theme seems very much to have been pajamas and cheesecake. I have spent a great deal of time wearing one due to spending a great deal of time eating a huge slice of the other.

However, the main focus of Saturday was a trip to the Mary Baker Eddy library and the Church of Christian Science in order to see the Mapparium. As you enter the building you walk into the “Hall of Ideas” based on the concept that Plato was correct and “Ideas rule the world” the hall incorporates a light show in which more than 800 quotes appear. The letters bubble up as illuminated projections through the fountain in the middle of the room, spilling over the sides and running together on the floor to form words, phrases and quotes from philosophers across the ages.

The hall, along with the Mapparium was designed for the new publishing house of the Christian Science magazine, as started by Mary Baker Eddy, and was set in place for the opening of the building in 1935. The magazine is still published from the same building, and while the Hall of Ideas has been updated to reflect changes in technology the glass globe is frozen to represent the world as stood at the time.

The Mapparium is in a fact a giant glass globe that you walk into the center of, it has a diameter of 30’ and a bridge spanning the middle of the room, so you can in fact stand right in the center of a mirror world. The spherical shape allows the correct proportions and relationships of the earth’s landmasses to be shown accurately: in fact, at a scale of 1 inch to 22 miles. This shape also creates some great sound effects! Stand in the center of the bridge and you can hear everything you say reflected directly back at you- hear yourself talk in surround sound, awesome until some child starts screaming and then earsplittingly annoying, it is this same spherical structure that allows you to stand at one end of the bridge and whisper directly into the ear of the person at the other end- the whispering gallery effect.

I know this is slightly geeky- but … the structure consists of 608 stained glass panels set in a bronze frame. This frame is set at 10” intervals and represents the lines the of latitude and longitude around the globe. Originally this was so the panels could be easily removed and updated as the countries changed and boundaries were redrawn. The first time this was necessary was two months before the Mapparium opened and Persia changed its name to Iran. The artists had to rush to make the required changes, costing considerable effort and money, and since then it has been decided that the Mapparium is a work of art and thus should remain as frozen in 1935. The cynic in me is thinking this is very much a money over art issue.

The library contains huge amounts of information about Mary Baker Eddy, her beliefs, her life, her writing, her founding of the Christian Science Monitor and personal articles and artefacts all linked to the religion. She was responsible for the writing of the main textbook on which the religion is based and expresses her beliefs about healing and nature through this book. I have to say that at this point I started to get a little confused and to tune out slightly. Mary Baker Eddy started to formulate her ideas and the basis for her religious texts while recovering from a severe knock to the head, again I may be cynical here but I’m thinking I might spot a link, knock to the head, you can heal like Jesus… your call…

Sunday was another trip to church, but this time a more conventional one, and a remembrance service for November 11. The sermon was really interesting, I would actually quite like to see the Re. Nobel Scheeper talk about his life again, because whilst he was keeping the spirt of hope and peace, his life sounded fascinating. I think I may have to become a google stalker later. I will keep this brief because I have mentioned the Old North Church before. It began its famous adventures in April 1775 when the redcoats marched on Concord and the two lanterns where hung in the steeple as the signal for Paul Revere- yes, my favorite (very tongue in cheek) revolutionary J

The church is officially known as Christ Church and is the oldest standing church in Boston, dating from 1723. In 1775 it had a predominantly loyal following to the King, who had even given a bible to the church, the Governor was a member of the congregation, as were several important officials. All of this making sexton Robert Newman’s actions, in the placing of the lanterns, somewhat obscure, again no judgments, but General George Washington needed all the help he could get.

I think I am fairly convinced, and it is dark outside, pyjamas may be calling again.