What a powerful image this is with arms outstretched to the world and going with the flow.
To me it is the body language of balance, of being in the flow.
I can relate much more to this Christ than one nailed to a cross.
I don't think Rio would give you the same feeling if you saw
a giant Christ suffering on the cross as you arrived in Rio.
I guess it is fitting then that Christ is overlooking not just the city of Rio de Janeiro, but the ocean as well.
Rio is the Greek word for flow and the city's name, Portuguese for River of January, reflects the fact that the first European explorers to visit the bay, in January 1502, believed it was the mouth of a river.
I found this poster on a Google search
(just going with the flow, I was;-)
and it sums up a lot of the feelings I get when I see
"Christ the Redeemer" looking out over Rio.
But that's not all the feelings I get when I see this statue.
Lucky for me there were more posters which could express more of the feelings I get when seeing the photos of Rio from the behind the Christ with the outstretched arms.
I like the pine cones down the bottom of that poster.
Anyone reading some of my older posts would know what I think of pine cones.
And what about being in Rio at night?
And speaking of Rio, who could forget the Samba.
The samba is most frequently identified as a musical expression of urban Rio de Janeiro, where it was born and developed between the end of the 19th century and the first years of the 20th century.
It was in Rio that the dance practiced by former slaves who migrated from Bahia came into contact with and incorporated other genres played in the city
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| Our Lady of Victories Catholic Church, Brisbane, Australia. |
Just about every time I see the blue cross on the church
in the photo above, I connect it in my mind with the statue of
Christ the Redeemer in Rio.
Probably because I saw it most from the stands of Perry Park when I was growing up watching soccer games, and Brazil was the team on everybody's mind when they thought of the highest standards of the game from a skill point of view.
No team earned the honour of "going with the flow" more than Brazil.
And maybe no better player than Paolo Rossi
(born 23 September 1956)
has demonstrated that go with the flow philosophy in a big game like in the clip above.
The blue cross on that church has always represented a living energy to me,
much like the feeling I get when I see the statue of
Christ the Redeemer in Rio.
That's why I picked up these items at the Woodford Folkfest last year.
The blue cross reminds me of the blue cross on the church and the blue that the Native Americans use so much in their art and jewelry.
To me it is a living energy like the neon blue cross seen at night on the church in Brisbane, as well as the blue on the Australian Aboriginal rock I picked up at Woodford also.
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| St. Gabriel medal |
The bracelet/medallion above was hanging near the blue cross at the stall at the Woodford Folk-fest and since I've had so many syncs with Gabriel, I just felt I had to buy it.
I will write another post about the Gabriel syncs later, but just to let you know how weird these Gabriel syncs are, that Gabriel card above the photo of the bracelet uploaded itself along with the bracelet photo.
I was going to delete it, but then I thought I would just leave it there.
Nothing like this has ever happened to me when uploading photos to this blog.
And it's not as if the photos were next to each other when I up loaded them, so it's a mystery to me.
But I don't expect anyone but me to believe that happened, so it's more there for me than for you who might be reading this post.
If you want to know what site I copied the posters from, here's the link here;
I've not bought anything from this site, so I can't recommend buying anything from it.
Buy at your own risk!
But ...
GO WITH THE FLOW!
This statue is the main reason that Rio is on my bucket list, and for all the reason you mention. No suffering Christ heading the list.
ReplyDeleteI agree. Christ with arms outstretched is positive and meaningful, a great symbol, whereas nailed to a cross is full of suffering. Rio at night: great pic.
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