Jesus Weeps

And so should we all.

Usually, I try to add some commentary or background information along with my photos.

These do not need it. Words will not, cannot do them justice.

This is a case where a picture is indeed better than a thousand words....but a thousand tears are not enough.

At The Cross of Our Lord, Groom, Texas.

"Father, Forgive Them"

Originally posted 4/10/09.  A "bump" for Good Friday. Other Groom Cross posts (and mentions)

The Face of Cruelty

The most heart-wrenching of all the Stations of the Cross is this one, where Jesus is being nailed to the cross. We'll have more photos of it at a later date, and especially those of Jesus and His face, but this one is about the soldier who is wielding the hammer.

It's not the most expressive of the bronzes at the Groom Cross, but it is certainly one of the ones that stirs the most emotions in me.

I like to take these sorts of photos when no one is out there; I have to almost lie down along side Jesus to get some of these and I garner enough curious and bemused looks when I'm out there photographing anyway, so....

A closer look shows that the face is much more crudely cast than are the others, but there's no mistaking the emotion shown: cruel glee, taking delight in his task.

That photo disturbs me, and is one of my favorites;  yet, on the other hand, it is one of my least-liked photos I've ever taken there, as is the following. I know that doesn't make much sense and I cannot explain my feelings toward the photos, just as it is hard for me to explain how I feel about this statue.  It's definitely a case of cognitive dissonance.

This one gave me the perspective as if I were the one driving the spikes into His flesh; from an "artsy" and objective perspective, I suppose one might say it is interesting, but it really makes me feel uncomfortable.

I've visited the Groom Cross dozens of times, taken thousands of photos and I have also seen hundreds and hundreds of people who stop and look, many of whom let their dogs out for a walk (on a leash, please) and "constitutional" in the lovely manicured grass around the outer walkways.

Almost every time, especially since I've made a note to watch, the dogs will react to this particular station. Some will bark at it, some will growl and some have to be dragged by their owners to get close to it. I don't know if it's because the life-sized soldier bronze has a weapon, or... something else.

Perhaps I don't like the photos of the cruel centurion because I'm afraid that same look has been seen on my own face; seen by people I least wanted seeing it - by my mother, by the rest of my family, by my friends, by women I've let get close to me and...almost worst of all... by total strangers who were treated with less than respect by me and for no good reason.

How many times have I driven a stake into someone's feelings just because of my own cruel nature? I hope I've managed to atone, to at least apologize to those I could and hope all others have forgiven me or at least let time soften any cruel blows I sent their way. Forgiving myself is much harder, but I'm working on it.

Getting His forgiveness was so easy, though.

Cross in Sunshine

Click the photo for a larger view and it will be easier to see just how massive is the Groom Cross. The statues surrounding the cross are life-sized and you can gain a better perspective by comparing the people walking around the base.

Groom Cross
Late afternoon
Facing East northeast
June '07

I'm Seeing Double...Again

Ever watch Everybody Loves Raymond?

I never watched it; oh, I've seen bits and pieces of a few reruns, so I am familar with it and the cast. It's a cleverly written show, but I figure it will be on one channel or another (or several at the same time slot) for the next twenty years, so I expect I'll get to see each espisode a dozen or so times before I die.

Speaking of dying, I was saddened to hear of Peter Boyle's death back this last December.

(he's the one in the middle)


You may remember his role as The Monster in Young Frankenstein.



That brings me to this: If you're a regular reader of this blog (and the question would be: Why WOULD you be?) you would most likely know that I'm always "seeing double". No, not in vision, but seeing similarities between people. For instance, I sure think my friend's betrothed looks like a famous movie star and I had a post the other day where I thought the angel atop the empty tomb at the Groom Cross looks like my ex-wife.

As I've mentioned a hundred and forty two times before, I really love to go over to the Groom Cross and am particularly intrigued by the bronze statue's faces. One of my favorite stations is the first one, where Pilate is washing his hands and leaving Jesus to His fate.



After gazing into Pilate's face a dozen times and taking dozens of photos, sorting them, cropping the best ones down to how I like them, I've decided that Pilate has a double, too.

My Angel

If you know me you also know that I love to take photos of the Groom Cross and in particular the angel atop the empty tomb. I've posted some of these photos before, but wanted to include them in this presentation.

Looking towards the northeast, you can get the cross and the tomb and angel all into the same shot. I really don't like the trees that were planted and "spoil" the bottom part of the view of the large cross.

I prefer to have the cross at my back and take photos nearly due west. I have to be careful because there are some ugly radio towers in the background.

I love it when there are clouds behind her.

And sometimes I like to photograph her head on, facing nearly due north.

My favorite time to photograph her is in the late evenings, near sunset; I am almost always enthralled the way the sun, the clouds and the sky frame the shot.

And sometimes I like to take the same photograph from the same perspective, but shoot with a different setting, such as in black and white:

It sounds silly, but sometimes when my days are dark and dreary I think of her and a ray of sunshine pierces my gloomy mood.

I think of how achingly beautiful she can be with the setting sun creating a halo of pure dazzling white against the azure sky, a few wisps of clouds disappearing with the light.

I never could get very close to her, though; using zoom gave me the best detail I could get from the ground, even standing on a stepladder I sometimes take with me.

Early one Sunday morning, I got up and over there around sunrise. I wanted to get some closeups of her, without anyone around because I had in mind climbing out on top of the "tomb" structure -- where there's a sign that asks people NOT to climb on it.

I felt a little odd doing something like this, at a place I love (and would hate to be banned from), but I also felt obsessed with looking into the statue's face.

A few weeks earlier, I had mentioned to a woman in the gift shop that the angel was one of my favorite things to photograph out there. She told me that before the tomb "exhibit" was finished, the angel was stored in the store. She said people would put their babies in the angel's arms and take photos. I thought that a touching story.

With camera in hand, I climbed out on the slippery fake rock, slick with the morning dew. I nearly fell a couple of times, but got close to "my" angel. I was nearly there!

I jumped down into her little "niche", the cubbyhole where she was mounted and where the lights and wiring for the tomb were hidden.

She was as beautiful as I thought she would be; I sat there in the cool Texas dawn, staring at her, oblivious to the noise of the truck traffic on nearby I-40. Something was SO familiar about her and then it hit me so hard that I nearly fell off the structure.

She looks JUST LIKE my ex-wife!

This is where I'd normally say something like "But my ex was no angel!" but that would be a lie, at least hateful and undeserved. She put up with me for over five years, and if she's not going to be an angel, she at least qualifies for sainthood, bless her.

Groom Cross Photo

Since I've uploaded hundreds of photos of the Groom Cross to the 'net, from several posts in MSN Groups, to Webshots, to Photobucket and to here, I was wondering if Google had indexed/trawled any of my photos.

A search showed none of mine, but I did run across a website with a photo taken from an airplane flying fairly close overhead. It's an older photograph, and it doesn't show the fountain that's now there or the Last Supper exhibit, but it shows the entire location.

Cross at Dusk

Groom Cross
Facing east at sundown

I like this shot because it shows how the cross can change colors, depending upon the cloud cover and angle of the sun as well as the time of day and from what direction the photograph is taken.

I also like it because it seems to be leaning, and I may have leaned to one side because of the optical illusion provided by the two crosses, the one in the foreground being very small compared to the larger one in the background. I'm pretty certain I wasn't drunk.

I will have to come back and edit this post, tell about the lights that illuminate the cross at night. There are only two, but they're powerful suckers.

Groom Cross News

From the Fredricksburg Free-Lance Star

BY DONNIE JOHNSTON

GROOM, Texas--A biker exits Interstate 40 and wheels his Harley-Davidson down the dusty road to what is billed as the largest cross in the Western Hemisphere.

"I never stop for anything but I had to stop for this," says the man, who is on his way to Georgia from Albuquerque, N.M.

He begins to get dizzy as he looks up at the 190-foot structure, which sits on 10 donated acres between I-40 and this little Texas Panhandle cow town of 450.

"This is awesome," the biker continues, shaking his head with amazement.

He calls someone on his cell phone and describes the sight before him.

Several yards away a woman sits and prays, the 19-story-high cross before her and a replica of Calvary at her back.

This place is truly one that evokes a religious experience from almost everyone who visits.

REST OF THE ARTICLE

They Cast Lots

While not my "favorite" Station of the Cross at the Groom Cross, the tenth one is an interesting one. I need to take some more photos, some close-ups of the faces.

I've also not taken any good photos of the bronze plaques anchored in blocks of granite around each station. I would like to make a presentation someday of each station and need these all to look somewhat consistent. My best efforts, that is to say, the ones that were the clearest and truest to the actual color, had part of a necessary bit chopped off or had my big feet in them.

Click any photo for a larger view.

There's not a great perspective to take the photo of this station; any more to the right would have the gift shop in the background. As it is, I-40 and at times the traffic can be seen.

The detail is much more impressive as you get closer. I'm sure, since this is a "double" bronze, that it's one of those that (I was told) cost upwards of $30,000.

Jesus, exhausted from the labor of carrying the cross, bleeding from hundreds of cuts from vicious lashings, shows a sad resignation. He knows His greatest torment is yet to come.

The headdress/helmet of the Roman guard is almost comical, but then one's eyes drop to his face.

A mean, cruel face, insensitive to his captive's suffering. The exaggerated wrinkles in his face show a face prone not to laughter, but to sneers and scowls. He loved his horrible job.

And then they gambled for His clothes.

Shroud of Turin

This is the Shroud of Turin exhibit at the Groom Cross. The replica of the shroud is on the wall in the photo above. Before this, I haven't taken photos in there because I'm not convinced of the "real" shroud's authenticity but also due to the fact that's almost the only thing in there.

I did notice an odd reflection when I went in; I was hoping to catch the reflection of the huge cross through the large windows, but instead I got the light coming in through the lovely door into the building.



It's not just the massive cross structure that endears the site to me, nor is it the bronzes that ring the location, some of which stir my emotions as I've never before experienced, but it's the "little things" such as this door that prove to me that this is indeed a labor of love and intended to be the best that the "owners" can make it be.

Mary, Mother of Jesus

One of my favorite Stations of the Cross at the Groom Cross.

Zach Thomas Retires

Retiring as a Dolphin

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An Amarillo radio station has been playing some ads of Thomas' "Zach's Club 54" gym, saying they're re-opening after a million dollar overhaul. I hope he makes a ton of money and wish him nothing but the best.

Thomas as a Cowboy

Zach Thomas

And, if you didn't know, Zach's father built the Groom Cross/Cross of Our Lord.

Groom Cross in National Geographic

Looking through my Google Reader subscriptions earlier this morning, I saw an photo that looked familiar at the Damn Cool pics site (second from top). The article is about photo submissions to the annual National Geographic contest, but it took a bit of searching to find out more about that particular photo. Finally I found it at Boston.com.

Several times when I've been up extra-early because of booming thunder from an early morning thunderstorm, I've thought about going over to the Cross and get some similar shots (I would hope to be).

Vote for your favorite at the National Geographic website.

Sad Misery

The face of Jesus
The 2nd of the Stations of the Cross
Groom Cross

Cross at Night

Groom Cross at night
Spring '07

Like a Rock

The Ten Commandments
Groom Cross

This is one of those times where I was trying to be more "artsy" than I have any right of being. On this photo, I lay down on my side trying to get the reflection of the huge cross behind me and didn't think about the reflection of the huge pile of lard laying on its side trying to take the picture.

My Sister's Feet

Not these; these are the feet of a statue at the Groom Cross, those of a kneeling woman in front of Jesus carrying the cross.

I was marvelling at the detail of some of the statues when I was over there this evening. There were as many people there as I'd ever seen (travelling down I-40 on a Sat. afternoon, I should've known) and the shots I wanted to get weren't available to me because of all the folks in the background, so I was giving a bit more scrutiny to some things I had paid little attention to in the past visits over there.

See the wrinkles in the pads of the sole of her foot? I've taken thousands of photos of all of the bronze's faces and love the detail on them, but never noticed this before tonight.

The patina, the green color, is a natural oxidation of the metal, but I really don't like it. Sometimes I want to volunteer to take a toothbrush and metal polish and get it out of the cracks and crevices. (I have taken my trusty bandanna and bottle of water and cleaned the bird poop off of some of the life-sized figures when no one else was out there)

After downloading the photos I took and viewing them, I started remembering my big sister's feet, all during the summers of her teen years. (I haven't paid any attention to my sis's feet in years) Until govt. regulations prohibited it, my dad always oiled the dirt roads to his wells and tank batteries and to our house; the road surface shed water very well. He also would "drag" the roads with a home-built metal skid made of large pipe/casing cut in half, inverted and welded together; on top that he'd add or take off as needed weights made of scrap metal. It kept the roads smooth.

Growing up in the country back then was, for a teenager, pretty darn boring. We lived far enough out in the country where we could barely get the translator signal from the nearest town and were on the very edge of the Amarillo TV station's broadcast area. The best Top 40 radio station was in Oklahoma City and the signal wouldn't come in at strength until after 9:00 p.m.

Since there wasn't a lot else to do other than the usual chores and homework, we ate a lot and read a lot. To this day, my sisters and I are all a bit overweight still, but we could all probably each make a showin' on Jeopardy.

I can remember the evenings when my sister, her head full of the things that most 16 yr. old girl's heads are, would want to get away from our small, cramped and crowded house and be to herself. She would set off down the oily road, barefooted, and walk to the mailbox and back, a distance of a couple miles and small change.

I didn't have to do the laundry, but I laugh thinking about how it might have been a problem. I'm sure Sisterbelle would wash her feet before going to bed, but I also know from much personal experience how oil gets into your pores and sometimes takes a few days and a few scrubbin's to get it all out. I'm smiling as I type this, thinking of the bottom of my sister's feet being darker than that statue's feet pictured above, like a Blackfoot Injun's or her own travellin' tootsies minstrel toe-show.

She probably had some green on her feet, too... from pickin' dandelions with her toes.

She could also reach under the table and pinch her little brother with 'em.

The Empty Tomb

The empty tomb at The Cross of Our Lord, Groom, Texas.

My friends and regular readers of this blog know how much I enjoy going over to the huge cross at Groom and taking photos. These are a year or so old, but I don't think I've yet published the following photo in this blog.

If you've seen my other posts about the cross, you'll also know how I love the angel atop the empty tomb.

(My Angel has many of my favorite photos of her)

A closer, straight-on look at the stone that was rolled away.

Inside the tomb is this angel:

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A "bump" for Easter Sunday