Weekend Update 6/5
We Could All Use a Little UPR
That’s Unconditional Positive Regard.
Master Iconographer Baker Galloway talks about it in the interview he did for Come See Something Beautiful.
The interview is actually a transcript of a conversation Baker had with John Bell, a St John’s seminary student. You should really read through the entire conversation—there’s a lot of good stuff in it—but, in today’s post, we’re going to focus on this exchange:
John Bell: Do you believe icons have anything special to say to contemporary men and women? In other words, within the canonical understanding of what an icon can and should be to the faithful, is there something unique to our historical moment that icons are accomplishing?
Baker Galloway: I only have one idea about it, really. If we explore the fact that an icon is made of durable materials that don't change, and contrast that with the images we see on screens or even in print that do change and decompose, we have the opportunity for what, in counseling, is called Unconditional Positive Regard: the requirement that no matter what is said in the clinical setting, the therapist affirms the client and does not dismiss them. To the extent that an icon can't reject you - it can't turn up its nose in disgust and leave, it doesn't go away, it has that to offer. It can't be repulsed. It's something real when most everything we see isn’t real.
Think about that for a moment: Icons “can’t be repulsed”.
Folks often talk about unconditional love, but the reality is that just about all of us have limits to what we will or can accept or affirm. However, as Baker points out an icon “doesn’t go away”, and that tangible, personal presence proclaims that the love of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is more reliable than the love of anyone else in this world.
But “He has not left Himself without testimony to His goodness…”
That’s St Paul preaching to the folks in Lystra (Acts 14.17). The apostle certainly understood how unreliable we humans are, but, in that homily, he’s talking about all the blessings that witness to the love that the Most Holy Trinity has for each of us.
St Paul specifically mentions “rain from heaven and fruitful seasons” and “food and gladness”, but, without a doubt, we could also add to that list of blessings the animals that have been entrusted to us.
Because, hey, when it comes to Unconditional Positive Regard, it just doesn’t get any more real than the UPR you get from the cat that curls up on your pillow each and every night or the dog that puts his head on your knee every time you sit down on the couch.
That’s why, this past Pentecost Weekend, we held our Annual Blessing of Animals. We always do that on the Saturday closest to May 27, the feast of St Melangell of Wales.
As you can see, she was a protector of rabbits. We’ve written before about St Melangell and other holy women and men who have had special relationships with animals, and, at the Blessing of Animals, we express our gratitude for all the creatures with whom we have special relationships.
The dogs.
The cats.
The birds.
The lizards.
The rabbits.
The hamsters and gerbils and guinea pigs.
The turtles.
Of course, there’s a big difference when it comes to the UPR we get from our animals and the UPR we receive from icons. As Baker observes in the interview, icons are made of “durable materials that don’t change”; but those creatures with whom we have special relationships do not stay in this world for very long at all.
Still “…love never fails.”
That’s also St Paul; it comes from his First Letter to the Corinthians (13.8), and, once again, the apostle is talking about how we can rely on the love of the Most Holy Trinity. But, if those creatures with whom we have a special relationship also bear witness to that love, then we ought to be able to honor the memory of those animals, even after they have departed this life.
We’ve also written about this before (Back to Oz and Remembering the Departed), but what we’re basically doing is using the Calming Room in our new temple to bear witness to the Unconditional Positive Regard that we have received from the animals in our lives. These images will not be icons; they will be memorials made of made of “durable materials that don't change”, memorials to creatures that are an important part of our lives for only a short amount of time.
And, honestly, there’s only going to be so much space in that Calming Room, so if you wish to commission an image, please get in touch with us soon.
But if you’d also just like to help out our community with our temple project, there are all sorts of other ways you can do that: Join us in offering The Akathist for a New Temple each and every week (PDF/video); restack or share this post with everyone you know; take out a Paid subscription; purchase a Come See Something Beautiful T-shirt; make a direct donation to our Building Fund.
And since we’ve been talking about animals and UPR and how important it is to have all kinds of actual, living presences in your life that witness to that Love which just “doesn’t go away” (really, you ought to read that interview with Baker), we’ll wrap things up with a fun song from Brett Eldredge.