"...for God to me, it seems,
is a verb
not a noun,
proper or improper;
is the articulation
not the art, objective or subjective;
is loving...
Yes, God is a verb,
the most active,
connoting the vast harmonic
reordering of the universe
from unleashed chaos of energy.
Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983)
The church of Carsac is sublime. Its restoration is near completion and I recently visited it one glorious spring day and took some photos.
The Stations of the Cross are incredible, done by Léon Zack and his daughter Irène. The one pictured at the bottom of this page is called "The Body Falls". Under each are amazing quotations, each as unsettling as his works. Best go see.
VERBUM. Now what is that about?
I have been teaching conjugation and grammatical analysis since 1988. Initially, I just thought that I was giving French lessons to English-speaking people living out here (in the Dordogne, in my case). Sounds easy enough - I was two thirds of a way through my degree in French and had been coming here on all holidays since I was 11. I could talk the talk and walk the walk. Looking back on it now, I realise that I didn't really even know what giving French lessons meant! Me, the teacher! No piggin' idea. I've been taught a lot since then and I hereby formally thank every single one of my 'pupils' for teaching me how to do it. I improve with every class. I should be paying them!
Back to the pulpit. What is that about? Why "Verbum"?
I'm an atheist. Us atheists are often flabbergasted by all the different gods that are knocking about. They all have different names. Buckminster ("Call me 'Bucky') Fuller deals with this beautifully; "...for God to me, it seems, is a verb not a noun". I think that this means that god is not a name; it's an action. It's actually doing something. Doing something; that is a verb. Or not quite...
I would like to share with you my thoughts about French, and it all begins with the verb.