We plow the fields and scatter....

Well, I have to say for a Sunday morning which inevitably means compulsory chapel, the weather was not that bad; the sun was shining, it was quite nice and warm, and the birds were singing. Woke up 10 minutes before we were supposed to be seated (no surprises there), and whilst walking through the doors of the stone block which is the chapel, saw a girl (probably some 3rd former) holding out a tray of bread; she wasn't even doing anything, just holding a random loaf of bread. At one point I was tempted to go grab a chunk of it, but decided against it at the last minute. It only then occurred to me that it was that time of year again... HARVEST BLOODY FESTIVAL.

But what the hell happened? Does anyone else miss the prep school harvest festival where you would actually feel like you were doing something to 'feed the poor' or whatever? You know, when you would bring in flour, vegetables, cans of sun soaked oil-smothered asparagus, and the teachers would lay everything out on a big table so that the children could point and say;
"Hey, I am so proud! Thats my can of sun soaked oil-smothered asparagus sitting next to the pile of potatoes! Oh boy I feel like such a good citizen!"
Now at secondary school, when we are supposed to be at the age of being able to be morally responsible, all we do is sit in a building, listen to some dude talk about the metaphors and symbols in some story from the Bible, sing some nice songs with a loud organ, and then proceed to take bread and wine at communion. I thought we were supposed to be giving food and drink to the poor, not eating it ourselves?! Well, I can't really talk about communion... I mean, when I was younger and my parents took me to Catholic church to see what communion was like, all I did was shout out;
"Hey mommy, are they COMMUNISTS??"
We didn't return there.
Anyway, strange to think that it is the kids who aren't even old enough to have a clue what they are doing who are the people who are in fact keeping with the proper tradition of harvest and giving. So the chaplain finished saying something about wheat and grains of rice (I think he was talking about the Chinese take-out he had the other day) and I finally returned to house, only to find that the front door was jammed. Perfect.