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I ran into M, who was working at a place I sometimes work. She had a smudge on her forehead and I let her know. She explained that it was Ash Wednesday and that it was a cross. I apologised to her but I was really thinking that she was being a bit of an exhibitionist. It's a multi-cultural arts and community centre and frankly, it's true that there is little emphasis on Catholicism there. But I guess I felt that she was making a statement.Something about visibility or maybe representations of Christianity / Catholicism. But it felt wrong, misplaced. Christmas is celebrated there, but not Easter, I guess. On some level, I guess I feel that Christianity is a private thing and ashy crosses on your forehead should be washed off before going back to work. But really I was afraid that she was displaying this visible mark of religion in some kind of a knee-jerk reaction to the visiblity of the religions around her, that she felt somehow wronged as the dominant religion by not being regularly represented in the context of the arts centre.

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