Who You Gonna Call?
One thing I know about cities is that you can really read their vital signs by paying attention to the posters stapled to telephone poles. Looking for where the reggae fans hang out? Search for the neighborhood with the largest number of reggae show posters on the phone poles. Want to hook up with the jazz and poetry crowd? Check out the poles outside a random sampling of coffee houses, and you’re sure to find the spot where most of the cool cats meet.
The same is true for churches—or, if you prefer, darshans and Buddhist retreats. Find the area in the city that sports the most posters advertising a certain faith, and you are almost assured of meeting like-minded folks there. You can tell a lot about the spiritual make-up of a city by the diversity on its phone poles. Which is why I am so enamoured by a recent development in Portland, OR.
Surely you’ve heard of Portland. The relentlessly groovy, happier than Seattle yet drearier than San Francisco, coffee-swilling, independent-bookshop supporting mecca of the Northwest. As my son has mentioned on more than several occasions, Portland even has a vegan grocery store called Food Fight. Is that demographic genius or what? It is a young city—I have never in my life encountered so many adorable babies in one place than at a Sunday farmer’s market in Portland.
Apparently, Portland is precocious in all ways. A friend of mine sent graphic evidence of this the other day. Never one to be outdone by the evangelical Spanish-speaking churches or Cambodian Christian outreach missions of the Bay Area, Portland has decided to wear its Pagan heart on its sleeve, so to speak, by stapling actual altars to different gods on telephone poles throughout the city.
I’m not sure you’ll find Ganesha hanging out in a local burrito joint near this telephone pole, but
then again you never know. My sources close to the project say that none of the altars erected so far have been disturbed. And I know what you’re thinking, Buddha is by no means a Pagan god. Well if that’s true, why are Pagans going around sticking Buddha altars on telephone poles in downtown Portland? Powerful icons are powerful icons, I suppose, and free public art is always a good thing. Plus if you tried to separate all the Buddhists from the Pagans, you would have a lot of people cleaved in two. Kids, don’t try this at home.
I think the gauntlet has been thrown down for all of us living in cities other than Portland. Are we going to let them have all the smug, Utili-Kilt wearing, bohemian Earth lover organically grown fun around here? I should hope not! Photos! I need photos! Do not let Portland get away with this—they’ll be impossible to live with. Even if they do have really good coffee, and pastries too. And Southern food, for that matter. Oh man, they have great Southern food. You see what I mean? This is critical!!!
March 3rd, 2008 at 11:16 am
Well…(un?)fortunately, the Buddha altar has been disturbed, or transmogrified since the photo you see here. The Buddha in the attitude of Vishnu, with the cape of rearing cobras has been replaced by a Chinese-style Buddha who, for some reason, is missing his head. It’s interesting–the Buddha and Ganesha altars went up at the same time. The Buddha altar actually had some interactive space to either side of the statue, which quickly filled with plastic trinkets (including an elephant riding a bicycle) and spare change. The Ganesha altar has no interactive space, and has not been messed with. Birch says the headless Buddha reminds him of the pillaging British, who would remove the head of a gigantic piece of temple art because that was all they could carry.
March 6th, 2008 at 1:11 pm
Anne, thanks so much for sending out these photos. What sweet altars. Delightful.
They remind me of the altars I make on the banks of the Mississippi River as part of my regular river devotions. When the river is down and the banks are snowless, I build miniature temples wherever I find a promising site. I gather river stones of various sizes and build, play, pray and work magic quietly and usually by myself. . I often have a specific intent to the work. But, I also simply sit down in the sand and build miniature stone hedges simply for the delight and beauty that fills me. Sometimes I work with others. Sometimes we have a shared intention. Sometimes we each make our own individual temples. It is all great fun. By the way, I have noticed that even after just a week, the temples have almost always disappeared. I will take a few photos when I next make my way down to the River after the snow thaws.
March 8th, 2008 at 7:16 pm
Thanks for the update, Miles—now that you are no longer cloaked by my careful anonymity. How odd that the Buddha was replaced by another. Maybe someone wanted to upgrade their altar at home? Once again, those wacky Portlandites!
Donald, I very much look forward to seeing the pictures of your river altars. And thanks for reminding me to link to your blog!
March 13th, 2008 at 1:50 pm
Ah…now you know why we moved here :-)
Now that the sun is back, I shall take what pictures I can.
It will soon be berry picking time. Come visit.
Sia
March 19th, 2008 at 3:49 am
Love these altars! What a great kind of street art! What a great way to use to those oh-so-many tchotchkes we seem to accumulate!