The Way of the Cross

Alice Walker is shown here wearing a silver necklace.  When an old friend saw this photograph, she was upset that Walker was wearing a cross.  Walker responded, "This necklace...was made by a Native American artist; it represents the four directions.  There have always been four directions, you know, long before there was a cross."

She goes on to tell about an African American artist who gave her a "cross," and explained, "I think for most folks the cross is something people die on, but to me, when I was making the necklace and pondering its four directions, it seemed to represent choices."

Here is Walker's favorite definition
of the cross:  "the cross represents the place where spirit crosses matter."  Maybe her favorite definition is more lovely than mine though their meanings are similar.   To me  the cross represents the intersection of the vertical and horizontal or depth and breadth.  These definitions can mesh with the traditional Christian meaning of the cross, but they add a more universal meaning.  Here are two of my favorite crosses

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The quotations from Alice Walker come from her book The Cushion in the Road.