As I lie restless in my bed at midnight on the beginning of this Sunday, I'm compelled to wake up and reflect on the Virgin Mary.  It occurs to me how the story of Jesus' life can be viewed from the perspective of this divinely humble little girl that really was at the center of it all.  But you have to look between the lines of the Bible, using deep common sense hidden in your own lived experience on Earth while remembering that Jesus was also a human boy with a mom.  Martin Luther's insistence on Sola Scriptura (latin for "Scripture Alone") in his formation of the Lutheran and Protestant church really seems sets up to tragically miss out on the portion of our story of salvation from the mom's point of view.  

You see, Mary is not mentioned a lot in scripture so the Protestant church with its nose to the Bible might presume her role to be minor in Christianity.   But consider the details.   It was with Mary where the story and miracles surrounding our salvation begins.  She is believed to be the most humble and perfect woman to have walked this planet and it was her Son that saved us.  It was her innocent feminine sensitivity to her friends impending shame of running out of wine at the Wedding in Canaan, that she beckoned the world to follow her Son and to witness Him performing miracles.   She fired the starting gun for Jesus' fulfilling Old Testament prophecy on the messiah.  What a proud mom she must have been– after all she was human too.  She doesn't get credit because she never needed or wanted it for herself– the virtue of humility in perfection.  

If we lose or diminish her significance in time, it will be us that lose out.  I am reminded how the Nazi's started editing the Bible subtly altering Jesus' origin story by removing his Jewishness and recasting him as some sort of Aryan superhero.  The story of Jesus is parables all the way through.  Not only did he preach through them, his entire life is also one and changing even minor seeming aspects of it has cosmic consequences to any who try to.  Shortly after this gross feat of vanity and pride by the Germans, the war started not going so well for them.  Thankfully, with the truth around Mary, I think we are only guilty of letting her fade out because she is hiding between the pages in ways that only humans and not artificial intelligence LLMs can find.

I was in Florence, Italy last year at an art museum and one of the things that struck me was how there were so many ancient paintings of the Virgin Mary.  She even had her own approved color scheme and as such seemed to be adored more by those first generation Christians than modern ones.   I fear what affect on culture that shift away from Mary may have had.   Her story seems hidden "between the lines" of scripture, so I wonder if its more tuned to resonate with female intuition than mine.  You didn't need to waste lines of scripture reaffirming a basic human truth everybody knows about sons and their mothers.  Some things I think we are meant to use our innate empathy to understand and for that pages in the world's instruction manual are unnecessary.  The Bible is not a work of homage to history, its a lesson in it.  I think its one thing to hear what Jesus preaches about humility– how you feel about the story of his mom is the hidden test to see if you were paying attention.

I think its worth contemplating how the story of our salvation is parsed by men differently than women.  Both sides are perfectly capable of understanding the other, but it may take a small investment of effort.  This required "effort" can be exaggerated by the devil as evidence of systemic misogyny in the church, but its really not difficult to dispel if you choose not to take the baited false interpretations.  The sexes really are different, despite modern culture's insistence that they are just "social constructs".  I am not ashamed to be a part of a religion that aims to replicate through time the disposition of Jesus into men and Mary into women.   Who wouldn't prefer to see the highest held human ideals present in all your neighbors?

The above is one of the reasons I'm not ashamed to be disinterested in women's professional cycling– I can be awed and draw inspiration from men suffering (in sport) like Jesus did, but cycling, as a dangerous sport, conflicts with notions of a peloton of little aspirational Virgin Mary's so I can't help but cringe and want to turn off the TV the moment theres a crash or evidence of the inevitable emotional distress of competition.  If someone claims that makes me a misogynyst or sexist, they'll have simply identified themself as an idiot or another one of the devil's boring language game players.   I have no contempt for women's sports, I just am not ashamed of having less interest.   Modern culture's attempt at reprogramming my generic male disposition on these sorts of things didn't take– the devil seems to be having more success on that front with the next generation.  Good luck to parents on that– I wish I could help.  Feminizing men and masculinizing women just seems dangerous and comes off as resisting God's will– theres got to be better ways of reconciling the two if in conflict than homogenizing them.

I live within cycling distance to one of the holiest places to honor the Virgin Mary: Fátima, Portugal.   She appeared to kids there during World War 1 and there is a huge church erected in her honor.  There is even a 2020 movie about the occurrence.  We share roads with the pilgrims on their month long Camino de Santiago hikes from Fatima to Santiago de Compostela in Spain, where the remains of the apostle James are.   Being in proximity to these holy places and holy peoples I can't help but think they might be rubbing off on me too.  I think we all need to be reminded that these were all real people whose graves you can actually still visit thousands of years later in the real world.  

I remember somebody I knew once telling me a story on how an in law was so offended when he hinted that he didn't believe the Virgin Mary was an actual virgin.  The in-law was a Catholic and obviously got very defensive and didn't find the joke at all funny.  The story was being shared to me almost as a comedic warning that I might "tip toe" amongst the likes of the crazy religious types.  Boy, have my opinions of things changed since back then.  I realize this is basically how the devil recruits to his cause.   I'm so glad I got out of tech– though I do miss having a practical application of mathematics and reasoning, the nihilism is infectious there and not good for the soul.   There are people there I fear are simply there for collecting possibly ugly life anecdotes from people who trust them for the superficial purpose of providing comedic intrigue at lunch meetups.  I know I was shared stories I had no business in hearing which usually means the reverse is also true. I probably unwittingly provided material for somebody elses entertainment, but luckily, I'm not present in that world anymore.   The difference is that I now have faith it was all part of His plan for me and for them.  People change, and their opinions of them also change.  There are some scifi authors (Isaac Asimov) whose stories I have alternatively admired and then became convinced was the devil incarnate, then admired again.

Anyway, back to the virgin Mary.  Don't forget her lest she make another appearance in my neighborhood to remind us all.  I can guarantee theres a bunch of Portuguese scouring the woods near Fátima that are at least looking for her.