A Cathedral on Fire
The burning and desecration of sacred symbols and artifacts is tragic, I do not want to add a “but” on grief and anguish caused by the burning of the Notre Dome Cathedral. I would like to talk about what happens when what is sacred burns. I think there is no greater metaphor than that of the desecration of a body. I believe we are both our body and not our body, it is complicated yes but we cannot escape the notion of longing to escape our bodies. So we often treat our bodies like they are not a part of us: fill it with food that pleases but does not nourish, drink until we are numb, or hate it and curse it. When we recognize our bodies are us and a part of us and that we are good, we look at our bodies differently. There may still be pain and anguish held in our limbs, some things may not function the way we want them to or the way society requires them to function, but they are us and we are good.
There are many institutions, structures, and artifacts that can exhibit the same tendencies. They may seem separate from us, they may exhibit characteristics that we find distasteful, out of date, or corrupt. But if we approach them with hate, malice, and torches what have we done? We have not taken time to look within ourselves and our history. To understand why the destruction of something seen as sacred has such a profoundly powerful affect on those who weep and those who rejoice we have to understand deep human connection.
When we rejoice in the burning away of something with deep meaning and significance we will always loose something. The west has an incredible way of demanding the destruction of roots and the ripping up of culture, is that what we want to be a part of?
The truth is that there are indeed things that need to burn and people who need to die, but those same structures and bodies are part of us. We need surgeons more than executioners. If we pull apart a corrupt building but save the materials with respect, we can make something new and keep the connections which are sacred, sacred because they are human. We can destroy religion, the patriarchy, and capitalism but some of all of that lives within us and if we don’t acknowledge that and unearth those roots we might just burn up with the things we are trying to destroy.