Posted by
Sue on Friday, January 05, 2007 7:05:12 PM
I watched our 38th President's Funeral. I did not plan it. It was pretty much all there was on the cable channels I watch. Once started, however, I watched until the Air Force jet took off the runway and headed West.
Everyone, all day, talked about the simplicity and dignity of the funeral. I loved the church services and the church in particular. Churches hold a special fascination for me as an old Catholic girl. The grandeur and the majesty has been lost in the past few decades as the new churches of all religions are built "simplistically". There are none, in these new churches, of the ancient mystery that surrounds the old churches. There was a reason the churches were built the way they were by the powers of the religion.
Simplicity should not be part of a church structure. At least not, in my opinion. Going to church is much more than simply sitting, standing, kneeling and following the usual service. There should be an air of the ancient. A symbolism that should touch that archaic part of each and everyone of us regardless of whether we believe in deities or not.
Carl Jung, a contemporary of Freud, based his psychological thesis on his belief that we humans have, deep within our DNA, ancient archetypes that trigger emotional responses in our lives. Jung separated himself from Freud because Freud believed so much of our "problems" were based on some sort of sexual repression, particularly women.
Today, we say "marketing" to denote the tickling of our ancient archetypes to promote a response or "politics" to tickle the response that "marketing" has been conditioning us to respond to. Whether you buy a certain brand of anything, you have been the subject of a form of "marketing". Some Wall Street type on the East or West coast has been making a load of money by getting you and I to believe whatever he sells. Most of us tend to not only buy into their philosophy, but we end up buying the product!
So, the funeral service was a real treat for me. Simple, but majestic in its aura of ancient archetypes. May he rest in peace!
01/05/07