Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Cognitive Dissonance

In terms of keeping up with the times, this church puts me to shame!! Holy Trinity Church in Coventry, England was established in the 12th century (even though its sign says it was built in the 14th). The first written record of it is from 1113. To put this in perspective, that means that this church was already 379 years old way back in 1492 when "Columbus sailed the ocean blue." The United States has not been a country for 379 years yet, and this church was already that old when Columbus sailed.
You can get a sense of the history when you look at the second picture here and see the wear on the stone steps from feet traversing them for centuries. Of course this is not entirely the same building that was there in 1113 - renovations have been done over the years, but still . . .I say this church puts me to shame; it does! I showed up in the 20th century, but I don't yet know how to text, and I don't have a MySpace or FaceBook page, but this church whose history goes back to at least 1113 has a WEBSITE!!! I guess I'd better get with it! Yes, I realize a lot of things have websites, but seeing the sign below just . . . . . . well was just such an experience of cognitive dissonance after coming around the corner from the other stately looking sign. Not only do they have a website, but they have this modern-looking sign out front ADVERTISING the website!

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