CHOREOGRAPHED DISASTERS
"In the Guatemalan village of Santiago Atitlan, people used to build their houses out of traditional materials, using no iron or lumber or nails, but the houses were magnificent.
Many were sewn together out of bark and fiber.
The house that a person sleeps in must be very beautiful and sturdy, but not so sturdy that it won't fall apart after a while.
If your house doesn't fall apart, then there will be no reason to renew it.
And it is this renewability that makes something valuable.
Because the village huts were not built to last very long, they had to be regularly renewed.
When your house was falling down, you invited all the folks over.
Once the house was back together again, everyone ate together, praised the house, laughed and cried.
In some ways, crises bring communities together but Mayans don't wait for a crisis to occur; they make a crisis.
Spirituality is based on choreographed disasters - otherwise known as rituals - in which everyone has to work together to remake each other's houses or the community or the world.
Everything HAS to be maintained because it was originally made so delicately that it eventually falls apart.
It is the putting back together again, the renewing that ultimately makes something strong.
That sort of constant renewal is the only permanence we should wish to attain."
Martin Prechtel: http://www.floweringmountain.com
DAY 1: Semana Santa in Santiago Atitlan from A Mayan Journey on Vimeo.
