The spirituality of kites

It being a windy day, today we  transferred our mid-day worship to the Lower Paddock.  And spent an hour in the spiritual practice of kite flying.

Kites have a long history of being flown at eastern festivals - which makes them a good candidate for being mysterious. But they are no-where mentioned in any scriptures of the Judaeo-Christian tradition. Which means we can make up anything we like about them without any danger of being accused of heresy yet again.

I like to think of kites as a symbol of the human spirit. When they are caught by a breath of air, they can fly as the "wind blows where it will". They are colourful and spiritually uplifting. Without pneumatic elevation, however, they are dull and lifeless things that sit around on the ground. And if they lose contact with the wind, they crash to the ground like - well like falling kites, really.

But for a kite to do its job it has, like us, to be grounded. That is, it has to keep in contatct with the earth. We must never lose our spiritual uplift, nor our spiritual strings. For with the wind in our sails and a ground-based tether, we can soar and fly in safety.  But if we cut the strings that hold us to the ground, then we fly across fields, the Motorway and the railway line, until - like Marston's kite this lunchtime when the string snapped - we finally crash, unsupported and useless, into the middle of the landfill - to be buried in rubbish and eventually sealed under a clay cap for all eternity.

You know, I'm starting to remember why we never contemplate the spirituality of kites.