Two remarkable images found their way to my computer screen today and buoyed my spirits. One is a photo taken by Herb Knufken, the great chronicler of Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve not quite a week ago. A glory of elegant terns in flight - and an insouciant seagull acting as if nothing's happening. The other is one of the earliest depictions of the Ascension, the Feast Christians celebrate today, an exquisite carved ivory from c. 400 CE Milano, now in Munich. Combining the Ascension (with a classical hand-up) in the background with the women at the rather Constantinian tomb in the foreground, it takes us back to the early days of Christianity... even scroll-bearing Jesus looked young!
