The Hound (Dog) of Heaven Courtesy of my sister…..
admin August 17th, 2006
The Hound (Dog) of Heaven
Courtesy of my sister…
August 16th Feast of St. Elvis the King
So, once again, a crowd of people has gathered at Graceland for a candlelight vigil in honor of Elvis Presley, to remember the 29th anniversary of his death. WHY? I’m sorry, but really, WHY? Sure, the man was a great singer and performer. But people are acting as if he was some kind of saint. I don’t understand the mentality of people who do that kind of thing. He was a celebrity – a rock star (granted, the first rock star). That’s it. He didn’t feed the hungry, clothe the naked or let the homeless crash at Graceland. He didn’t even visit prisoners, like Johnny Cash. He was just a man, and apparently one with some serious problems.
And I can’t even say it’s a generational thing, because of course the next generation does the same thing each year for John Lennon (the second-coolest Beatle) and my own generation does the same for Kurt Cobain.
I guess my major problem with this whole phenomenon is that these same people basically ignore the truly good people around them. How many of these people lit a candle in remembrance of Mother Teresa, who actually did something important during her life? Step outside our culture for a moment – what do you see? People who become racked with grief every year over the death of someone they have never met, people who immortalize a dead NASCAR racer on their cars. You must admit, it’s more than a little strange. All this emotion for people who got rich off you, who don’t know you, and who you don’t really know either.
Me again. I have to say I basically agree with Caroline, but I do have a humble explanation for at least part of the phenomenon…
I think we are starved for God. I also think we are starved for love. Really, though, it comes down to the same thing: deep within ourselves we need to worship our Creator, and if something blocks that it becomes perverted. We then have this immense longing for SOMEthing or SOMEone, but since we do not accept or honor God, we look for other avenues. It becomes love of self, love of money, love of power, or love of earthly heroes, including Elvis, John Lennon, Kurt Cobain, Dale Earnhardt, and yes, even Mother Teresa. If I focus my adoration on Mother Teresa instead of on God, to whom she dedicated her life and every great work she did, it is a perversion of that love (and one that Mother Teresa herself would disavow). I think in our culture it’s just more common to focus that love on a secular icon than a religious one, because ours is largely a secular culture.
What I’m saying here isn’t new. Smarter people than I have said this much better than I am saying it. But I think we would do well to remember it more often, and not just when people are out paying homage to St. Elvis.
We live in a horribly impoverished society, and I don’t mean materially. Since we’ve said so much about Mother Teresa, let’s use her words: “The hunger for love is much more difficult to remove than the hunger for bread.”
