And so to begin again after hand-in. In education terms and deadlines become the points of focus. I have missed, i think, having very definite points of focus. Self-driven work is another kind of hard, easier in some ways because the pace is driven by oneself, but harder because without the clock ticking outside of oneself the drive forward can lose momentum. It makes for different work. The struggle at uni is to keep up with the pace whilst simultaneously owning the path taken and not squandering internal resources. 
The last term's hand in was on election day. I wasn't sure if i was wired because of the election or the hand in but either which way it has taken me some days to come down. I did not want the Conservatives to win this election so my moods have passed through some changes, from numb to denial to anger to resignation. I am not sure where i am this morning it's quite early so i guess i'll have to wait and see. 
My next term's source story is the stations of the cross, christ's journey to crucifixion, and i think to rising again. Are there comparisons to be made between Corbyn's modern day crucifixion by most of the press and the old Blairite-Labour people who resented his leadership and his call to socialism as the way forward ? Perhaps it does bear comparison in so much as great stories, stories that are told over and over become guiding myths, with characters that become icons. At present Corbyn is just a man who came to be a leader. But there are similarities between the two stories. The crowds that gathered, the ask that all should be treated kindly, the calling out of those whose worship falls to money & false idols, and now the pillorying of the man and those closest to him. I will be interested to see how he rises again. I am sure that he will. 
Politics and art and religion, what a combination, i guess it's always been this way. They stand as bedrock to humanity. Politics is body, if we are not fed & sheltered our bodies cannot thrive, if this is denied us the body dies. Art is soul, life blood poured onto page, take page as any form of art, it is expression, how soul takes form. And religion, religion can be corrupt, religion can be debased, defiled, made unworthy, but religion as faith is not religion that has made it's bed in corporeal pleasure. Let me say that religion is spirit but the spirit can rise only so far as the body will allow.
Before the election the Archbishop, Justin Welby, and Chief Rabbi Mirfiz firmly placed their faiths in the hands of the Conservative leaders. There is no distance now between these men and those they gave their colours to. Welby is tweeting empty prayers for the poor. His prayers are only for himself, a throwaway token that carries his hope that he would still like to be seen as worthy and good. 
Oh how they wish to seen as kind. Oh how we wish to be seen as kind but the election result has also brought me up sharply against my own worst nature. I want a government who cares for those who are struggling so i don't have to. Honestly, that's my truth. I am not a brilliant or good person. It will be interesting negotiating Christ's path from birth to death and beyond this term as someone who is decidedly not a saint or martyr and has no inclination to be either. I have no doubt this is going to bring me up against myself and teach me some hard truths. 
The Bible is the holy story i was brought up on. I was Church of England as a child, my mum took us to church and later i sang in the village church choir. I can remember being confirmed. I love to visit churches now and i would say that christianity is a lingering scent but i have no religion as such. I take a little of any that ring true and walk away from doctrine because i'm uncomfortable with tethering, it doesn't suit me. However, as with the Ramayana which i have just spent three months researching, drawing it in to my body and then letting it out again as i have understood it, i am looking forward to immersing myself in Christ's story. It's more familiar, i know parts so the path may feel more familiar, but a path trod over and over again changes all the time. 
At the beginning of my MA we were taken on a trip and asked to think about psycho-geography which is a coined phrase for how we know a place, not just physically but emotionally too. I suppose that my meeting with these great stories, the birth of christianity and the Ramayana is a similar kind of knowing. By immersing myself in the storyline i begin to know my way, i begin to map the story, knowing it as i might know landscape. 
With this second term's story i have begun by thinking about the birth of Christ. It is good timing as we are coming up to christmas tho' i think Father Christmas is the more cherished god at this time of the year. Still if anyone is interested i have scribbled a Madonna & Child as part of my thinking and posted it on my Instagram rebeccaclifford8379. I think most people will only see scribble but most of my ideas begin with a scribble.