Comments on: The subway as a religious experience

By: Marg

Marg — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 01:54:13 +0000

Thanks for visiting my blog~This was of particular interest to me, because my brother travels, and he was the first one to tell me about guardian angels for each country, state, city, area …you get the picture. What a comfort!

By: philangelus

philangelus — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 21:43:21 +0000

I was actually born in the Bronx, but I lived in Brooklyn from age five until I moved out of the city, and yes, Canarsie.

Say hi to him for me.

By: Lirioroja

Lirioroja — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 21:38:05 +0000

Hi, I just surfed over here from Julie’s Happy Catholic blog. I had to comment because, as a life-long resident of NYC it never occured to me that the MTA has a guardian angel. Makes a lot of sense. It’s just easier to hate and blame the MTA. So now I’ll ask the GATA for help, especially on the weekends when my train usually has service disruptions (for maintenance but I rarely see anyone working on anything). Oh, and on weekends often have to ride the B82 to the next train line over to get to a Manhattan bound train. It’s more frequent than every half hour these days but not nearly frequent enough if you ask me. I’m guessing from your artwork and your story you lived in Canarsie? I’m a born-n-bred Brooklynite: born in Flatbush, teens and tweenties in Sheepshead Bay, now live in Gravesend.

By: weblog tour: where I live « Seven angels, four kids, one family

weblog tour: where I live « Seven angels, four kids, one family — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 11:16:27 +0000

[...] What spurred me to move was the closeness of the city, only now I’m realizing how convenient it is to have everything close. You can’t walk anywhere in Angeltown or Angelborough. And the thing I miss most about NYC is the subway system. [...]

By: CricketB

CricketB — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 16:33:44 +0000

One of the “messages” I keep reiterating to my kids is that, while you can’t totally control things, many people who feel the world is out to get them helped create the situation. Simplest example is not clearing the path to the bathroom before going to bed. (There are many things we can’t control, but if we do what we can, the odds improve.)

No, I don’t think it’s silly to thank an angel. The most selfish view is he’ll do nice things for you again. Less selfish is it helps you see the good things, so you don’t feel the world is out to get you. Least selfish is it’s easier to do a good job if it’s appreciated, and I’m sure the rest of the city appreciated fewer malfunctions as well.

Maybe Guardian Angels for countries are a committee of all the angels of the people in it. Maybe a hive mind. Maybe a shared consciousness. Maybe bits if each angel join the a group mind. Really not sure, but I don’t like the idea of angels having “bosses” other than God. I see them working as teams, and maybe having facilitators, but overall looking for the greatest good and agreeing on it, not having a boss make a decision. Real fuzzy analogy. Probably break down if I think about it, but it fits at the moment.

By: philangelus

philangelus — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 01:41:57 +0000

Agh, I forgot that one when I skimmed the shelves. I do actually have a copy. I’ve never read the Zohar, though.

I also have a bunch of other less-memorable works. And there was one book that messed up my spirituality for a month with its interpretation of angels. (And yes, it purported to be orthodox. It was just…obnoxious.)

By: ivyreisner

ivyreisner — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 01:34:23 +0000

If you don’t mind books from a Jewish perspective, knittingthrough, then try A Gathering of Angels by Rabbi Morris B. Margolies. He looks at angels in the Bible, but also in the Talmud, the Zohar and in a variety of Kaballistic texts. While you’re at it, read the Zohar if you haven’t yet. It’s amazing.

By: philangelus

philangelus — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 00:42:31 +0000

ROTFLOL! No, I don’t think *that* angel is “Jason with wings.” Although I do imagine him as a mechanic half the time.

The artwork is pretty bad for the most part, except when I was doing stick figures. Either I traced comic book panels (so it looks like comic book characters) or else I tried drawing freehand and it stank, at which point I’d put silly captions on the drawing to indicate exactly how badly it stank. Writing was definitely more a strong suit than drawing!

By: karen ^.,.^

karen ^.,.^ — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 00:11:29 +0000

no, no – no art burning parties! that angel was probably very pleased to have his portrait drawn, it came from the heart. and it’s not like he could step into a kodak photo booth and have some snap-shots taken (eyes more blinding than the flash and wings way too big!) what i see when i look at that picture, is jason with wings.

By: philangelus

philangelus — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 22:05:29 +0000

I’ve got a post on this coming up in a few days, but I imagine teams of angels that are organized under one presiding angel. So the guardian of Spain might well have twenty angels working beneath him in his structure.