"Mere man lives in houses, he encloses his gods in temples." Ludwig Feuerbach
My dad was a builder. In seventy five years of life, he built a lot of buildings. I grew up around his handiwork. It was his passion.
One day, it must have been one day, but that one day was a gathering of days of thought and decision. One day, he came to his children and told us that we would be leaving the farm. The plan was to go on the road and "build churches".
That plan culminated in fifteen years and two provinces of my Dad's handiwork. The picture above was a church in Holden, Alberta. That steeple was Dad's handiwork. Built in a shed that now belongs to his other daughter, he artistically crafted a topper for this old gathering place. A crane was hired to lift the steeple up on to it's resting place.
My dad has been gone fifteen years now. The same amount of time that they spent "on the road renovating and building churches". I wish I could access that part of his soul that felt the need to uproot his family from their home and, as Feuerbach states, "make temples to enclose his god in."
There is an ironic story about that church. It is now an art gallery and craft store called "The Gallery" . It didn't have enough income to continue to be a church, but now people go to see paintings and buy home made goodies. Creativity draws people into a building much like "God" drew them into the building before. It seems strange that people still need "temples" to experience a condensed version of what no "temple" can hold.
I have long since laid to rest the pain this caused me. I have gained so much as a result of his choice to move. I just wonder what he felt back then. Why were those buildings so important to him. He was an outdoors man. He loved nature and animals. Did he not find his "God" there?
