Angels are everywhere, especially at this time of year.
I never cease to be amazed at today's technology! (yes, I am that old - just read my articles Techno-challenged Mom and What's an 8 Track? This old dog takes a looong time to learn new tricks, so if you would like a link to these articles, you'll just have to look them up on my profile page.)
Now where was I? Oh yes, amazing technology. When I was in school, I had to ride my dinosaur to the library to do research. We had to look through card catalogues full of tiny index cards to find research material. These little index cards contained a Dewey Decimal Number for each book, and then we actually had to find the books, read them, write notes with pens on paper, return the books to the library, and then write several drafts of our articles, (because back then cutting and pasting required the use of scissors and glue), and after all that, type the final draft on a typewriter. No delete key.
Angels on Google
Research is done very differently now. I am sitting at my computer, in my PJs. I googled (that's a verb now!) the word angel. Google informed me 0.18 seconds later that it had found 354,000,000 sites containing that word. I didn't look them all up. Then I googled for images of angels, and found 49,900,000. Just to be thorough, I then explored Triond's data base, and looked through a few of the 4368 articles that my fellow writers have submitted. The data base would have only contained 4367 articles on angels, but I wrote to R J Grant to let him know that his article Vampires, Angles, and You Folks might be more logically titled Vampires, Angels, and You Folks. The original title was misleading; the article had no references to angles whatsoever. Here I was expecting something about geometry.
Grant is right about one thing, though. Women do recover from writer's block quite easily. I have now written 465 words and I haven't even started into the topic yet.
Angels in Artwork, Classic, and Contemporary
Back to angels. Angels, angels everywhere! In classic art, angels have been the subject of the grand masterpieces of Raphael, Michelangelo, and Leonard o da Vinci, just to name a few.
Angels have been a popular subject of stained glass windows in churches and cathedrals.
Today, angels are more popular than ever. We see them as Christmas ornaments, jewelry, art work, and in the snow.
Angels in Pop Culture
From Charlie's Angels to Hell's Angels, Angels in the Outfield and Victoria's Secret Angels, angels are big in pop culture. Who can forget Frankie Avalon descending a heavenly staircase crooning "Beauty School Dropout" to Frenchy in "Grease." Elvis gave us "You look like an angel - but you're the devil in disguise!" Sarah McLachlan's hauntingly beautiful "In the arms of the angels" could melt the heart of a devil.
Angels have been busy in the movies and on TV. For 62 Christmas seasons now, we have heard actress Karolyn Grimes as young ZuZu Bailey declare: "Every time a bell rings, an angel gets its wings" in It's a Wonderful Life. On the small screen, we've been Touched by an Angel for nine seasons.
Angel Statues as Memorials
The spiritual nature of angels makes them popular as memorial statues. You can find them standing guard in cemeteries, memorial gardens, and church yards.
I could go on and on and on - and I often do. My bouts with writer's block are usually followed by a burst of writer's diarrhea, which is marked by increasingly lengthy run on sentences - punctuated by way too many hyphens.
In Angels Part Two, I will explore angels in a more spiritual discourse: Angels: the Good, the Bad, and the Deceptively Beautiful.
