Now, I’ve got a hero worshipping streak in me, and I’m very sentimental about certain objects that hold particular personal meaning to me. I teared up when I saw one of the few remaining pairs of Judy Garland’s ruby slippers at the Smithsonian. I can still go back to my scrapbook at home and see a pair of false eyelashes glued to a page, the ones I wore opening night when I played Dolly in “Hello, Dolly!” in high school. I enjoy going to historic buildings and standing where kings and queens once lived. Seeing an actual object or standing in a real place gives you a certain connection or perspective on the meaning behind an event.

The one thing I don’t understand is the worship of relics that have no true historically-backed truth to them. Shards of the “True Cross,” bones of saints, fingernail clippings of Angelina Jolie (well, at least those can be DNA tested?). Anyway, most people who are believers of a certain faith will harbor or hold sacred a relic for hundreds, sometimes thousands, of years. And they do so on faith or word-of-mouth alone. A beggar man walks into a village with a mysterious collections of fragmented bones in a tiny bag and tells them they’re bones from Saint Ethel. The villagers raise a huge church in Ethel’s honor, hire the beggar man as chief overseer of the relic, he dies fat and happy, and in 1000 years there’s even a gift shop clumsily parked next to the church with “I saw Saint Ethel!” tshirts printed on them.

So, I read that it turns out that one particular collection of relics, those supposedly of the bones of Saint Joan of Arc, include a cat femur, and that the rib bone and piece of cloth supposedly collected from Joan’s funeral pyre contain embalming fluid and blackened dye to make it look scortched. Now, I’m not saying that the relic don’t contain actual parts of Joan mixed in with the cat, but chances are the relic is a hoax.

Here’s the deal. This is not to say that Joan wasn’t the Saint she is so revered as. It is not to say that she is not worth worshipping or honored. She was a bit insane in my opinion, but had a modern sensibility about her and could have kicked ass in the 21st century. However, this is a perfect example of how humans should never take any information, especially when it is by word-of-mouth and undocumented, for granted. People spend thousands of dollars traveling to holy lands, relicaries (sp?), and other places where relics and “holy spots” lie just to be close to what they believe is connected to their faith. I guess they’d rather be safe then sorry when it comes to visiting something that they truly believe in. They’d rather believe it’s true or they might lose out on the chance to actually be close to something connected with God.

I just hope they don’t get snookered into spending money in the Joan of Arc giftshop under false pretences. And if there is a Joan of Arc giftshop, can anyone buy me a shirt that says “I got burned at the stake and all that God got me was this lousy tshirt”?

I believe that faith should be enough. If you believe in Joan of Arc, you shouldn’t have to go and be near her bones to feel more worthy of her praise. Then again, I didn’t NEED to go to see Judy’s slippers in order to love her work. It was just fun to do, and I got to see many other pop culture, space, and historic pieces of art up close and personal at the same time. But I know that they’re real and that they connect to something I saw and heard

…or do I? Maybe those slippers are fakes and I don’t know it! Perhaps in 1000 years humans will look back on Judy’s slippers and say “wow, Saint Judy wore those? And be snookered into purchasing hologramatic replica slipper-shoes to wear at the next “Wizard of Oz” worshipping ritual. Bring the holy Scarecrow scroll too.

Linked article here

Yesterday morning I heard on the radio and read this news article that the FBI finally let go of 10 documents (or 300 pages) of previously unreleased data on former Beatle John Lennon and allowed them to be revealed to the public finally. These pages were held away from the public eye due to the FBI’s assertion that the information was classified. They said they had reason to fear that the information held may cause retaliation against America by the MI5.

The information? That Lennon was thinking of opening a peacenick bookstore and reading room in London, that he was arrested of marijuana posession, played around with illicit drugs, and that he harbored left-wing sympathies and sometimes gave money to them.

Whee.

This overabundance of hysteria through the ages has got to stop. On CNN this morning there was a newscast about how strollers and some baggage isn’t being scanned on the way into an airplane. OK, I understand that security is important, but in the great scheme of things there is still more probability that I will be killed driving home from work (all 15 minutes of bumper to bumper traffic) than crashing down during my flight to North Carolina next week due to a bomb or terrorist attack. I mean, now babies are being stupidly placed into X-Ray machines. Okay, that last point was slightly off topic, but there may be a connection. The baby could have been packin’.

If America’s foundation of freedom, justice, liberty and the tenants of democracy is strong enough, we citizens shouldn’t fear left-wing, long-haired, scrubby, bed-sleeping-in-for-peace musicians, even those as powerful and as British as John Lennon was.

Let’s learn from our superior’s idiocy, and grow up and out of it.

-Siskita