A Statue near Cathedral of Saint John the Divine

     Walking through the Columbus Avenue on a cold day, I saw a massive Cathedral right before me on the 110th street. Just a few steps before it was a very beautiful sculpture garden which stored many sculptures created by children every year. Within the garden, the most attractive and impressive one must be the Peace Fountain that located in the center of the garden.

     This statue was actually not just a normal sculpture but also a fountain though had not been used for many years. This statue was created in 1985. We can see a God with a huge pair of wing gently touches some docile animals such as deer. Under his feet, a few dead bodies of devil lay disorderly. According to the introduction near this statue, this sculpture reflected the fierce combat God fight to protect innocent lives and many competing components on our Earth like justice versus evil, brightness against darkness, etc. After viewing such an amazing sculpture, I immediately felt a strong sense of warmth and solemnity.  In my opinion, this statue evokes my childhood memory. When I was about eleven years old, a huge earthquake struck Sichuan Province in China and caused nearly a hundred thousand people forever lost their life. Such a terrible disaster shocked the whole world and I felt painful, at the same time hoped there existed an omnipotent being that could prevent it. Right now, standing before this statue, I saw the same hope people placed on God for giving them the belief and strength to overcome the fear, the unknown and the barricade.

     Giving the basic information of this statue, without any hesitation, I immediately recall the reading The Long loneliness of Dorothy Day. In this book, Day abandoned her ideal job and chose to help the poor people in the community. During the process, her volunteer group met countless difficulties even including the scarcity of living place, but she and her fellows succeeded to deal with them under the strong belief and help from God. At the same time, lots of people felt much more energized due to influence of God’s instruction and hence brought harmony and happiness to the world as God did to the deer in this statue. Besides, Frederick Douglass’s “Slave Holding Religion and the Christianity of Christ” also has similar situations. During the slavery, many slaves suffered from huge amount of work, severe working condition, and brutal treatment by the owner. During this time, it was Douglass who spread the words from God and the instruction of God not only appeased slavers’ bad mood but also let them see the hope of freedom one day. In the end, we can see from history that with the lead of God African Americans finally overturned slavery and racial discrimination and lived an equal life.

     From those examples above, we can find out that the statue like God protects animals has tremendous symbolic meaning. Though God doesn’t directly involve changing the result, God leads us through invisible ways like strengthening our faith and giving us confidence. After all, through this visiting to the sculpture garden, I have a better understanding of the way and the role God to us, and this visit also enhances my comprehension of previous reading. In the end, I believe people will keep advancing in different aspects and live peacefully together under the instruction of God.