Sunny Banana
YouTube Channel: https://youtube.com/@sanibonani-y2g?si=09LymOLYjP7sE3cY
I am a school chaplain and the content is intended to encourage curiosity about Faith and it's impact on day to day life
The Sunny Banana, is a play upon the Zulu greeting, Sanibonani, meaning I see you.
As tech wrenches us from real life, we are not seeing each other. The Greek word 'idea' means to see. It is as if we have lost the idea of what it means to be human; social, communal, relational. The same word, to see, in Old English is 'seon' which has connotations of understanding.
Let's start seeing each other again, listening, respecting, and understanding each other and ourselves. After all, we are people through other people.
Sunny Banana
Charlie Kirk and George Floyd | Our religious tendencies
Have you ever stopped to consider that regardless of your formal religious beliefs, you might be naturally religious in how you interact with the world?
Through a thoughtful exploration of the Latin root of religion—religare, meaning "to reconnect" or "to realign"—this episode delves into how humans naturally venerate images and symbols. From sports heroes displayed prominently in school hallways to public figures like Charlie Kirk and George Floyd whose images appear on billboards and social media, we constantly engage in acts of veneration that mirror religious practices.
Drawing from personal experience finding solace in the Holy Orthodox Church, I explore how Orthodox traditions of icon veneration offer a framework for understanding our relationship with all images. The crucial distinction between worshipping an image itself versus venerating what it represents through that image provides a powerful lens for examining our contemporary culture.
The episode introduces a compelling metaphor: when we look through a window at a beautiful landscape, we don't worship the glass—we appreciate what it allows us to see. Similarly, the images we choose to elevate in our lives should function as windows to greater truths and values rather than endpoints of devotion themselves.
As societies become increasingly polarized around figures and symbols, this meditation invites listeners to reflect deeply on what we venerate and why. Our choices reveal our core values and shape our understanding of the world. What beauty are you truly seeking through the windows you've chosen? What do your venerations reveal about what you worship?
Sunny Bonanni, my Sunny Bonanna supporters, thank you so much for tuning in today. Charlie Kirk and George Floyd, I want to talk to you today about something that I believe you today about something that I believe that, as human beings, we are religious, and what I mean by that is, in terms of the word and its meaning, to realign or reconnect in the latin religare, to reconnect and realign. And I'm not going to comment on what Charlie Kirk or George Floyd represented and whether I agreed with them or not, but I want to point out a phenomenon that has struck me lately. We either venerate or worship things, physical things, in a way. For example, I work at a school and there is the veneration of sports people. When you go into the sports hall, there's big images of those who have done well in their particular sport, and so I would say, in a way that is venerating those people, looking up to them, looking to them for help, for guidance, for motivation, because when we look at them, they represent something we want to be like, almost in their image, like almost in their image with charlie cook or george floyd. We see images of these two human beings being displayed all over social media, some painted onto walls and buildings and massive billboards and images, and we too venerate or worship these images.
Speaker 1:I have recently found solace and peace in the Holy Orthodox Church. In the Holy Orthodox Church, where inside of one, you will see images, icons of saints, angels, jesus Christ and the Holy Mother of God. All these examples I am sharing with you is showing, pointing to us, that we are religious in nature, whether we looked up to George Floyd or whether we looked up to Charlie Kirk. But I would caution us to think deeply about who are we venerating and what is it that we worship. I'll leave you with this thought, and it's helped me with my veneration and worship of God, and particularly through icons and images of the saints and angels, and particularly through icons and images of the saints and angels. It's like when you look at a beautiful landscape, a rose, through a window, and you admire that and there's some beauty in that. There's motivation there. You do not worship the glass. In fact, it is the glass of the window that allows you to see the beauty.
Speaker 1:Now I would say this about images that we worship or venerate. Well, we don't worship images in the Orthodox Church. We venerate images, that is, those images remind us of what we do, worship the beauty of God in all His images, as we are made in His image. So again, I'll ask my Sunny Banana supporters Out there Just a question, a simple question. With all the craziness going on, what do we venerate and therefore, what are we worshipping Through the images that we venerate? Sunny Bonani, I see you. Through the images that we venerate, sani Bonani, I see you, god bless.