Subj:  A Trip to the Mall - Part 1           95-07-15 05:49:03 PST
From:  Joe Uhrig

"Over the carnage rose prophetic a voice,
Be not dishearten'd, affection shall solve the problems of freedom yet,
Those who love each other shall become invincible,
They shall yet make Columbia victorious."

I wanted to amplify a larger connection that I touched upon in my posts regarding the relationship of our history to the larger picture.  Though the smaller connections are extremely complicated, the larger pattern is clear.  Here in the great melting pot of the "New World" there is almost a morphological mapping of the "Old World" in geography, peoples, and symbols.  This becomes clear when you consider our national monuments in our Capitol (now the center of world power).  Before I start I have a lot of respect for the people I'm going to mention, yet the process of mythologizing often raises people and places to other meanings.

There sitting in the great throne of his memorial, in the shape of the Ark of the Covenant, is Lincoln, the "great white father", the head of a nation torn asunder, pitting brother against brother.  Behind him (the past) across the river (Jordan) are the tombs of the men who "trampled out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored".  Also behind him is the home of the great leader of men (Lee) who chose to oppose him.  Before him is the pool reflecting the phallus or the pike or the monolith (there are many other meanings for this symbol).  Beyond that is the dome of the capitol, symbolic of the distribution of wealth (the milk and honey of the mother, both nature and the milky way).  

Standing on the right surrounded by the water of life is Jefferson who echos freedom (sitting at the right hand of the father).  On the left is the grail wound, the black hole, the pit, the black wall of names of the fallen of one of our most recent wars.  Now filled with the living emotions of the people who visit there.  A living reflection of the loss of the great man sitting on the throne.

Also on the left is the White House.  The home of the captain of the ship of state. The symbol of power concentrated into the hands of one.  The place where more collective emotions are focused more frequently than any other place in the country.    Beyond that is the Smithsonian, the repository of our history.

"The kingdom of the father is spread upon the earth and men do not see it" - Logion 113

On the essential nature of the closet. It is the shame that is so so dehabilitating.  The closet is a place where you bow your head down and say "I am a wretched sinner."  If this sounds familiar it should, because we as Gay people fundamentally share the same cross as Christianity (there are many underlying connections).  The Catholic church in it's penchant for elevating symbolism clearly shows the connection.  The confessional is a closet.  The basic emotion experienced when you bow your head is shame.  It is so unbelievably manipulatable.

In my own beliefs we are volunteers, not sinners.  And to share in the suffering of another is an act of love of the highest order.    I think that Christ would want us to know this about ourselves.  

And the great father on the throne, contemplating the reflection, the past, the man standing on the right, the black hole on the left, and the monolith before him, knows he has a choice to make.  Will he butcher his children in the anguish of his Revelations, or will he look to the water of life, and reach out to the stars.

From the Great Seal of the United States:

"He has smiled upon our endeavors".

 



Archive Home Page