The Jesus Likeness

Remind me, the next time I see that intriguing and relentless Jehovah's Witnesses lady who decided some time ago that nothing will do but that I must not waste a minute more in joining their ranks so that, after having been around for just a few months short now of eight decades, I can finally be sufficiently educated, most likely by her, the large-eyed mother of three grown sons, with her ever-present little textbook, the Bible, in her cute little hand, to ask her why every picture of Jesus Christ that they show in their literature has him looking like a certified Nordic Euro -- an Englishman, an Irishman, or maybe a Norwegian -- instead of somebody from the Middle East, a small section of which, if we are to believe the accounts, the Son of God never left. Judging by the people there now, and who have never left throughout the ages, I strongly suspect that the real Jesus looked a lot more like Yasser Arafat than he did somebody like Brad Pitt or Colin Firth. Yet, in all their other illustrations, the Witnesses go to great lengths to emphasize that their religion takes in people of all hues and ethnic origins.

I don't get it.

On the other hand, I will probably continue to keep mum to the endlessly devout and devoted L. about this matter, as I already have about quite a few other issues. It would be different if she was alone, but the Witnesses have it all figured out in always appearing at least in pairs and sometimes in a small gang. They learned from the first, I guess, that protection is always needed, and against impertinent and potentially embarrassing questions more than because of anything else. This is even though I believe that L. is completely prepared for questions of any kind. After all, she usually carries around all the answers. They've been written.