Subj:  Superbowl xXx Symbols                 96-01-29 17:28:46 PST
From:  Joe Uhrig

This seems to be the only folder I'm posting in these days, and since this sort of relates to the general subject matter...  There seems to be a great deal of energy expended in the traditional religions in keeping alive the symbols of the past, keeping open perhaps the emotional pathway  through the labyrinth of "His"story.  We do more than record history, we keep it alive, whether through monuments, statues, celebrations, rituals,  or anochronistic communities and beliefs.

The place where I got the clearest sense of this however was in reading about and seeing the activities of the Civil war reinactors.  I have little doubt that some of the people who participate in these reinactments have a sense that they are participating in something  larger than life.  When the National Park service recently allowed the reinactors of the movie Gettysburg to step off Picket's charge on the actual hallowed ground within the park, many of them were crying as they did so.  There was an earlier reinactment in the early part of this century involving some of the original participants.  The very landscape of the single largest battle in the Western hemisphere is fraught with symbols.  Devils Den, Cemetary Ridge, Seminary Ridge, and of course Little and Big Round Tops.  Providence created this "field" of mythology and the carnage of history was played out there.

Which brings me back to the subject above.  Symbols and their emotional content can be created and recreated anew within the human collective psyche, and in today's world, amplified across a world stage.  The halftime show at Superbowl xXx (there's those three crosses again) was a very good example of this.  Though no doubt this kind of thing upsets the purists, there is no doubt that the essence of the symbol created or reenacted on this particular gridiron or field of mythology  was an ascent.  An ascent celebrated by joyous and energetic gospel singers.  A nice  contrast to the suffering embodied in xXx don't you think?  And what a magnificent multitude of hands I see reaching back in unbroken faith and wonderous hope to bring the past forward.

"Shoulder your duds dear son, and I will mine, and let us hasten forth.
Wonderful cities and free nations we shall fetch as we go"

 



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