Unity

I found the photo below in an online journal of an Australian couple who are travelling round the world.

A Rare Sight.... While traveling in rural western Trinidad, we came upon this humble church, mosque, Hindu temple...

The Trinis are very proud of the fact that all religions are tolerated and accepted in their country. We drove through neighborhoods of Hindi, Muslim, and Christian residents with religious symbols in the yards. Different churches stood next door to each other or directly across the street. When we came across this church it said it all.

It is cheering somehow to contemplate the Moslem Crescent, the Hindu Aum, and the Christian Cross in close proximity. I remember getting a warm feeling seeing a design with a similar idea when we were in Kerala, It was a was a decal combining a stylised Mosque, Temple, and Church fixed to the dashboard of a boat.

Sometimes I think that there is not enough emphasis on the similarities, and porous borders, between the great religious and moral traditions of the world as opposed to the differences.

I have therefore set myself the task of working through and connecting these symbols with the intention, I hope, of creating a narrative and the basis of a design that Jane can illustrate in some jewelry. I really need to think of a good name for the project and design as well, but I will just call it Unity for the time being. Watch this space over the next couple of weeks.