It's been a while since I've been to church for anything but a wedding, funeral or memorial service. (At least they weren't my own!) But I have to admit that I at least stop and take notice when I see a cross looming over a landscape, like the Croix de Fer atop Mount Royal in Montreal.
For me, oversized crucifixes are both awe-inspiring and intimidating. On one hand, I am impressed with the effort it takes to build any large structure that stands out in its environment. On the other, I can't help but to think about people who've been tortured and killed while or by hanging, whether from an upright tree or crossed staffs.
Sometimes I wonder whether the person who constructed a large cross-like structure intended it to mean more than just its ostensible function--which, in this case, seems to have something to do with sails.
Somehow, seeing it over the water seems especially fitting today, the anniversary of Columbus' "discovery" of the Americas. (I think Vikings, and possibly even Phoenicians, got here before him. And neither they nor he "discovered" anything: There were plenty of people living on this side of the ocean already.) Colonizers claimed lands in the name of their church as well as the rulers of the countries from which they sailed.
Although I was pedaling into the wind when I saw this "cross" during a ride along the World's Fair Marina, my trek wasn't nearly as difficult as anything a "cross" represents!
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