Where’s the Beef? – Sunset Observer #42

November 21, 2016 Victor El-Khouri 1 Comment

…By Whitney Farmer

@farmer_whitney (Twitter/FLICKR) or farmerwhitney (Instagram) and whitney.farmer.146 (Facebook)

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Un Pop Culture

What do I tell them?

Today, maybe nothing. I know I need to listen.

I have an English class that I will teach for the first time after the election, and I will stand in front of refugees from Egypt who came to America after the Arab Spring.

I could talk to them about women’s rights and nuances of the liberal perspective, but my newsfeed on Facebook now includes not just cat and puppy videos but also decapitations that are shot like porn because I have clicked ‘friend’ on these newcomers who have escaped carnage. They have flesh and spilled blood reasons to disagree with my hypotheticals.

Times like this bring out the Celt in me.

In the Táin Bó Cúailgne, known as the Irish Iliad, the mythic hero Cú Chulainn is provoked to rage in a battle against his foster brother Ferdiad. Cú Chulainn hadn’t intended to wage war on the young man with golden hair, traded between kingdoms in a treaty, who had been raised alongside him to prevent wars between Connacht and Ulster. But he was trained to win wars, undefeated, and he had challenged the forces of Connacht. He gloried in his triumphs one after another, until he was confronted by this golden man of different blood whom he loved as brother. For three days they fought on the banks of the river, until the hero of Ulster fell into a rage and loosed Gáe Bolga, the Spear of Mortal Pain, which never misses its mark. Ferdiad died in his arms. Cú Chulainn, stunned by grief, let the invading troops walk by him and claim victory. Over a cow.

Yes.

A magic cow.

When the Connacht forces brought the magic cow from Ulster in triumph, their resident magic cow got into a fight with it and both died. And then Cú Chulainn went off alone and died of his injuries that he had received from his foster-brother, too close to the heart to survive. Moral of the Story: Maybe sacred cows are just cows? Or perhaps that falling into a habit of waging war will eventually cause everything we care about to die in our arms.

When something is torn, the wound is different than a cut. It is ragged, but thankfully has a better chance of being knit back together and become whole again. But a surgeon must give attention to both sides to avoid infection and scarring.

SO – if America is torn in two – how do we mend it? How does a victorious candidate discern between any fight and what must be fought? The truth is that the more time you spend with someone, the more time your heart can become entwined and cause you to be compassionate, and merciful even in the face of the offense of Ferdiad who raised a sword against his brother. We can LEARN. If we can just control our tempers…

The ancients had some interesting ideas that might help. Giving our children to our enemies to raise alongside their own isn’t palatable yet, but maybe we can start with just dating. Democrats crushin’ on Republicans and Republicans jonesin’ on Democrats. #MatalinHeartsCarville. Whatever strategy we can adopt that will make us all pause before we do the unthinkable and irreversible I suggest needs to be righteously pondered immediately. In an interview with Werner Herzog on NPR, he proposed that hope lies in the office of President, that the job alone, that seat of responsibility, can make the man. Speaking as a person who is wiser, stronger and kinder than I have been in the past and as a person who has been forgiven much and been able to put the past behind, this was a timely reminder. If I have hope to be a better person, why couldn’t a President?

Dave Chappelle also said something recently that was interesting. Paraphrased: It’s a good idea for us to wish our new President well and to give him a chance.

And it’s fair to ask for the same to be given to the ragged and bloody half of the country that still feels the tear.

Quote of the Blog, from Daniel to King Nebuchadnezzar in the Book of Daniel, chapter 4, verse 27: “Therefore, O King, let my advice be acceptable to you: break off your sins by being righteous, and your iniquities by showing mercy to the poor. Perhaps there may be a lengthening of your prosperity.”

Public domain image: ‘Cú Chulainn Riding his Chariot into Battle’ by Joseph Christian Leyendecker, 1911

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