The Planning Phase (3)

Well I am watching the men's Wimbeldon Final at the moment and cannot help thinking that in a few short weeks we will be there - not Wimbeldon but England at least , albeit that it is a life long ambition to be able to see tennis played at the "Mecca" of all tennis tournaments. I love attending the Aus Open each year so Wimbeldon would be dream.

But today spent some time looking into tours of the Vatican. There are some "after dark" tours that particularly appeal wherein the Sistine Chapel is more accessible and that certainly holds some appeal, but I would also like to visit the V Gardens to get a different sense of the place.

I expect to have a somewhat love/hate reaction to the whole place. Not from any terrible catholic education experiences per se (other than a healthy cynicism for the quantum leap or suspension of logic one had to make to survive the nonsensical learnings to become a "good catholic" girl)......but more from the accumulation and display of such wealth when so many of catholicism's most devout followers live in such abject poverty and retain such a strong sense of faith.

I can appreciate the history, the beauty, the art and the architecture. But concurrently I am also reminded of Popes that had mistresses and children, of vendettas, plots, poisonings and murders planned and executed in the pursuit or maintenance of a slippery grip on power. As such, I have no strong views about the private lives of these people, except to the extent that they espoused and imposed a morale framework or code upon their followers whilst they lived by an entirely different code altogether. It is this inherent hypocrisy that I have always struggled with. When I was taking Chinese politics at Uni, I came across the quote from Mao Tse Tung that " Religion is the opiate for the Masses" I tend to agree that an intrinisically good thing (spirtuality) has been hijacked and become a "product like any other seeking to increase marketshare and its management or governance framework,  for mine, becomes an organisation is like any other corporation - power is an extremely potent drug and people when in positions of the like will endeavor to do whatever to maintain it. In doing so, they can also develop a sense of entitlement to be exempt from the same obligations or rules that they enforce or impose on their followers or believers. I clearly am not a fan of organized religion, but then you have probably already worked that out by now !

Still, I am looking forward to seeing the beauty and the majesty of it all.  To witness the reactions of others around me will also be pretty amazing. So I will sign off with  a loss by Raphael, and the rebirth (again) of junior tennis in Australia. !!!

Ciao Tennis Loving Comrades

Kelly