Hunting for Apparitions

Dear George,

I had a lousy time falling asleep last night. I’d spent much of the afternoon photographing apparitions of the Virgin Mary in Burnet Woods, and my heart was still pounding. I got the inspiration for this project several months ago when I posted some photos of a stump in a neighbor’s yard and astute blog reader Linda C commented that some of them looked like the Virgin Mary. When I checked back, I found she was absolutely right, and it reminded me of my childhood days in Menominee. My family was sort of laissez faire about religion, so I got most of my religious upbringing from my peers. When I was in sixth grade some of my Washington Grade School friends recruited me to go to Sunday School at the Presbyterian Church. The main thing I remember was having to compose a prayer each week. I thought mine were pretty good, but the teacher, Miss Kobotnick, almost never called on me. Once in a while we would go to mass at St. John’s with the O’Hara children, and we learned how to do the various rituals. The best time was when somebody was going to be having confession. Sometimes they would reveal their indiscretions to us, sometimes not, but it was always a topic of great curiosity. We’d also spend some time looking around for apparitions of the Virgin Mary in the forest. Usually we would poke fun of the so-called apparitions that our playmates would find, but, now and then, we’d agree that we might have found something supernatural. When all of this came back to me, I did a Google search and discovered that people have documented a wide array of Marian apparitions: in the grease on a frying pan, in the newly washed office building window, on the side of a church fountain, on the stomach of a baby turtle, etc. So I decided I should do this too. I’m glad to report that apparitions of Mary are still there to be found, as these photos taken in Burnet Woods and our Clifton neighborhood will attest.

I’d say Mary is dressed in black in this tree trunk image because she is in a state of mourning. She is apparently talking to her husband Joseph.

To me, this looks like Mary holding her infant to her breast.

Mary appears to be very dressed up. Maybe she is going to Herod’s court.

Mary seems in obvious grief. I think those are two cherubic angels are looking up at her.

This is not an apparition, but rather a message that I found in the woods when I was looking for an apparition. I hope this person gets in touch with his or her inner Mary.

This could be Mary in the Garden of Gethsemane.

I discovered this amazing image on a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in our kitchen. After documenting it with a photo, I ate it.

I showed these images with Katja to be sure of the plausibility of my interpretations, but she gave me no support at all. She said she had a lot of tasks for me to do around the house that would be more useful than looking for apparitions. I would never say anything critical about Katja, although she did seem a little lacking in imagination. The way I see it, it’s a lot more interesting to search for apparitions than it would be to clean up the attic.

Love,

Dave

G-Mail Comments

-Linda C (8-11): David I am so impressed. The pictures of the stumps were good but I was a little disappointed that you did not see all of the designs I had seen, but now I so impressed and even taken aback by the virgin Mary sightings. They are far more realistic than any other collection I have ever seen, if you decide to loan them to a museum be careful, in fact I recommend a legal document forbidding the museum from ever ever giving out your name , with a large amount of money being granted you if your name is leaked . I can guarantee the Jesus people would make your life a living hell and nothing kind or heavenly about how they would treat you. Still now that you have two grandchildren to get through princeton you might want to make some money. Didn't god strike oral Roberts and his big hands dead? So there might be an opportunity to make some hard cash if you are willing to exhibit them yourself and charge money to see them. I don't see myself being in a position to help with our grandchidren's education but I could certainly do some pr on the project and help the money flow in. Sincerely a grandparent in crime

-Jennifer M (8-11): Definitely visions of Mary! :-)