Saints

Baptized into the Catholic Church & named after Paul the Apostle, my parents were hellbent on naming my brother and I after the Apostles, yet my sisters seemed to get the sloppy seconds as far as the grab bag of biblical names go. Eve, Mary, and Delilah didn’t seem like a good fit for them. Maybe they were the lucky ones. Maybe that paved the way for them to be heathens, non-believers, or maybe they were just typical Catholic school girls who cut up before, during, and after school.

What is in a name anyways?

While attending Catholic Grade School the only thing I knew about Paul the Apostle was that he converted to a believer in Christ. Most of his life was spent not believing God would make his son the Messiah by raising him from the dead not because Paul didn’t believe in resurrection but because he never believed God chose to favor Jesus by raising him before the time of Judgement of the world. So essentially young Paul persecuted Christians before seeing the light and converting.

Paul was never officially canonized into Sainthood by the Catholic Church but is widely recognized as a Saint.

The day that I was to be confirmed I had snuck out with some friends because one of the neighborhood boy’s fathers had built him a half-pipe. Naturally we all bum-rushed his house with our skateboards to see who could be the next Tony Hawk. I had not even learned to fully drop-in yet and to be honest I was petrified. Upon my 1st attempt I faceplanted on the newly constructed plywood sheathing and busted up the left side of my face. I showed up back at my house looking like I attended my very first neighborly fight club. I was late for my own confirmation. When my parents saw my face, they simply laughed and said:

“You want to be confirmed looking like that? you are on your own kid.”

My sister (one of the heathens) and my Sponsor, walked with me to the church and we snuck in line.

She was intent on trying to make me feel worse.

“Is your skin burning yet little bro?”

Some part of me thought, yeah, I know I really fumbled the ball on this whole confirmation thing, but maybe this is the day I turn it all around, maybe I see the light like Paul the Apostle.

It doesn’t work like that.

As a boy, I never understood the vision Paul the Apostle claimed to see that convinced him Jesus was the Messiah, and I still don’t. It’s been noted throughout history that people have metaphysical experiences that awaken their soul and deepen their relationship with God but what is the purpose of this experience? In Paul’s case, God wanted him to preach the word in the early days of Christianity.

What is our purpose as we navigate the modern world with it’s endless barrage of temptation, materiality, and ideology?

Saint Luigi

Just because you scribble down a manifesto which is nothing more than public credo, a statement of record of intent, motives, or vision, doesn’t mean you have any real purpose in the world.

“Luigi” the musical will premiere at The Taylor Street Theatre in San Francisco this summer. Too soon? Maybe Luigi’s tale is one of caution, nothing more.

However, I am not surprised to see the Theatre of the Absurd actually take place in a literal Theatre. This is the Art we create now. It’s a byproduct of the passions only with a unibrow to put a bow on it.

Luigi Mangione has been made into a martyr, fashion icon, sex symbol which is a good indicator that our culture might be screwed. To date, the defense fund for Mr. Mangione has raised over $1 million dollars from 28,000 individual contributions.

Mr. Mangione has been canonized into Sainthood by pop culture.

Subjectivism

It’s weird in a way as we are living breathing testaments to what the industrial revolution has produced but we never acknowledge what it may have helped destroy. If someone is radicalized by this notion that rationalism as the only way to understand the world and industrial progress perpetuates that-than what does it say about the current information age? I am inclined to think we worship the idea of subjectivism as opposed to objective truths that we should universally live by.

The U.S. healthcare system is undoubtedly a broken system that has wreaked havoc on millions of Americans by saddling them with debt, uneven care options, and treating a multitude of symptoms but not actual diseases/conditions but this is not what this about.

Perhaps Saint Luigi became radicalized by an ideology through something that we are all falling prey to by to a degree -Mimetic Desire.

Mimetic Desire (Rene Girard)

refers to the idea that our desires are not inherently our own but are often modeled after the desires of others, particularly people we admire or perceive as successful. Essentially, we desire what others desire because we see them having or achieving it, and we assume it will make us happy or elevate us.

It was widely reported after the assassination of UHC’s CEO that Mangione had previously read and reviewed “Industrial Society and it’s Future” by another former Ivy League student, Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber. Mangione thought of Kaczynski as a “Political Revolutionary” and the subject matter to be “insightful” and “thought-provoking”. And you know what, Mangione is right but only in the abstract.

We still need to live in this world.

When you resort to literal violence as a means to communicate a message, that’s when you no longer have a seat at the table. A healthcare CEO laid slain in streets of NYC, and you have all but sealed your fate by stopping a McDonald’s in a random Pennsylvania town because killing someone in cold blood really triggers that appetite for a quarter pounder with cheese. When I heard the news that Mangione was caught in a fast-food restaurant in broad daylight I just thought to myself: Jesus he’s just a kid.

________________________________________

Modern Day Saints

We are currently living in a culture that upholds political figures, celebrities, athletes, activists, and other prominent personalities like Saints. MLK Jr., Rosa Parks, Barack Obama, John Muir, Harvey Milk, Ronald Reagan, JFK, Nelson Mandela, Anne Frank, Steve Jobs, Lebron James, Anthony Fauci, etc. are all clear and present-day examples.

Under Barack Obama’s leadership the pentagon ordered more drone strikes than any other administration but that’s ok because it was a “war on terror” and under that same leadership millions of Americans had to foreclose on the homes while the government injected billions of stimulus dollars propping up corporations and Wall Street but that’s ok, we need to capitalize the gains and socialize the risk.

In the modern world our souls aren’t pure, and our morality is pliable as we can justify just about any shady deed.

MLK Jr. cheated on his wife.

Anthony Fauci brazenly declared: I am the Science. Any criticisms against him are an attack on science because he represents science.

Ronald Reagan rolled out the Just Say No mass marketing campaign to the nation’s youth while simultaneously waging war on drugs with policies that included counterterrorism and covert military operations . Hearing the Just say No to drugs message in school and on TV as a kid only whet my appetite for drugs.

While all of these people represent pillars of society and lay out a smorgasbord of accomplishments and legacies maybe we should slow our roll on lionizing or worshiping them as Saints.

In his 2006 presidential campaign speech, then candidate Barack Obama, made the observation that U.S. is no longer a Christian nation and he’s right on many levels. While Christianity continues to be marginalized Secularism has become our national religion. Our government was founded and operates unofficially on the notion and principle of “separation of church & state” but somehow a loophole for Secularism has been created without anyone noticing.

When Trump ran for his 2nd Term we were told a vote for him is vote against Democracy. It was a vote for a fascist dictator. Trump, who has been canonized in his own right by his most ardent supporters maybe because he was characterized in the mass media as a existential threat to the core principles of our nation. It was an inconsequential drumbeat. It was as if this undercurrent of Secularism captivated those closest to us to the point that any dissent would make you a target for persecution. We had the moral imperative to vote against him. Our collective mimetic desires overshadowed our ability to be individuals.

His most loyal supporters consider Trump a Saint and when a kid assassin took part of his ear off last summer Trump was Canonized (unofficially). The difference with Trump is he leans into it because he knows it will drive his critics to foam at the mouth which always strikes me as strange, he’s a cult of personality yet he’s created this adversarial wedge of combatants that somehow (through their own foolishness) eclipse any ridiculous thing he’s said.

The Self

It’s even worse now because we worship ourselves above all else. Self-care, Self-prioritization, and good therapy will set you on your way or so we are told that. Focus on yourself, take that boxing class, the spin class, run the Boston, buy that boat, travel to Cairo, take that work sabbatical, focus on yourself. Somehow, we have all turned into recently divorced Moms who have been on the shit end of a marriage raising 5 kids while the workaholic Dad traveled in Southeast Asia 10 months a year learning the fine art of pacific rim jobs and now this newly liberated Mom needs some Me-Time and her lifestyle does a 180.

It’s an industry of cool and our social media addictions only put a laser type focus on it.

People get married now but do so for different reasons. We have polycules with several different partners because why not spread the love around even if it is confusing as it is contrived:

Metamours-The partner of your own partner. They are the other people that you share a partner with. Clear as Mud. So, like a friend with partial benefits?

Primary Partners-In the Hierarchy, these partners are considered to have a higher level of priority in the relationship. Mufasa!

Secondary Partners-Not as important as the primary partner, the bench warmer.

Nesting Partners-Partners who live together in a shared home. Let me guess, separate bedrooms? Kind of like old couples who can’t sleep together anymore because their bodies are breaking down and can no longer tolerate another’s body sweat next to them.

Non-Nesting Partners-Partners who may have long-term relationship but do not live together. Noncommittal to the noncommittal layer cake.

Comet Partners-Partners that are intermittent or long-distance. All the above.

I am not going to try and understand it in its entirety but it seems like an elaborate excuse to cheat and undermines the whole concept of marriage. Not to mention, too much work. Isn’t one partner a handful already?

Polycules are the extreme examples, but marriage today is seeing a shift with more and more couples keeping finances separate, sleeping in other rooms, owning or renting separate homes, known as LAT (Living Apart Together). Between 2000-2022, the % of married couples who decided to live apart grew by more than 40%. It’s a marriage hack.

The typical factors for this include personal autonomy, privacy, work-life balance, and fostering intimacy while remaining self-sufficient.

What happened to loving all parts of your partner?

-the way they float air biscuits when they laugh too hard.

-guaranteed snoring after 2 glasses of Glen Livet.

-browse the previews on Netflix for a solid hour not knowing what movie to pick.

-leave the car on E when you really need to bust move to that appointment.

-wake you up at 2AM because they are convinced a racoon is in the attic.

My wife has the goods on me as I do her. We are no Saints, we take care of ourselves, we annoy the hell out of each other, love each other awfully, try to raise our kids with one goal: don’t be losers. We live for each other and keep each other honest and know when to stay apart to hang out with our respective tribes. In other words, we’re adults, we try to be individuals who take responsibility. If it sounds boring and wholesome that’s because it is. I’ve woken up in too many strange beds to want to go back to the circus.

After reading this book from Crawford I do wonder the more we collectively adopt ideologies the further we are from individuality. Crawford argues ideology revolves around material interests and the stronger the interest the more perceived power one wishes to wield. Perhaps Mr. Mangione sought this ideology out for the sake of materiality, he wanted to be relevant, and in the wake of the shooting his many fans jumped on the bandwagon.

If we have any chance of becoming individuals again maybe we can look at the life that our actual Saints led and the pain they had to endure. Maybe being an individual means investing your heart in others and expecting nothing in return. Like everyone else, I am a product of my time so perhaps a lot of this stems from a resentment of the generational divides and emboldens me to point out the shortcomings of society.

No matter the generation or time you come up in, without any pain and suffering how do we fill our hearts?