First posted on Mark Is Cranky:
The death, mourning, and pageantry surrounding the death of Pope John Paul II is truly something spectacular to behold.
Hmmm...maybe spectacular doesn't quite convey what I mean. I'm not in any way happy about the man's death, except the relief in knowing that his suffering has passed. His long, slow decline was a sad thing. I wouldn't wish such a fate on anybody.
My 'relationship' to the Catholic church is a weak and distant one. I was brought up in a Catholic family and attended the same church and school as my father did. He actually graduated from that school while I bailed out after the third grade, fearing the particularly mean and crusty Sister Dulceline (I just let out a little shudder). Somewhere in the middle of my high school years, the realization arrived that I didn't believe any of what I was taught: not heaven, not hell, not purgatory, not limbo, not mortal sins, not venal sins, not the church stance on contraception. None of it made sense.
What's left of my early Catholicism is mostly cultural. We still celebrate Easter at my house, mostly for the babka bread that my mother bakes, and the the hard-boiled eggs we eat with healthy doses of horseradish. And of course there's Christmas, which has more to do with gathering the family than anything else. (I also have an unusual affinity for plaid, a phenomenon best left alone here out of respect for the Pope).
But still, it is somehow inspiring to me to see all of these millions of people so touched by the passing of John Paul. He clearly meant something to them and no amount of my own disbelief can (or should) change that.
In much of the (sometimes excessive) coverage of this event, the word spiritual is employed. This is a word that is often thought equivalent to 'religion'. I myself sometimes wonder what it means. Things have a spirtual component. This is the same as objects having a Buddha-nature? Could be. Or not. What I do know is that inspiration can come to a person from many diretions. That is one (of many) idea of spirituality in my mind.
I picked John Coltrane's A Love Supreme because it's a stupendous example of a postive outcome of a person under the influence of spirituality, this time of a religious nature. This record smolders with Trane's love of his god. I don't have to agree with his thoughts to feel the absolute explosion of emotion.
Article comments
1 - Aaron, Duke De Mondo
great as ever mark. i ain't heard the record in question, but you make me wanna, and there's the thing.
i agree with you thoughts on religion, too. i would classify myself as "spiritual", andi believe in A god, not neccesarily the same concept of such that anyone else employs.
but it suits me, man.