Mom & Pop Home School

Today I was wished a happy Festivus. It got me to thinking.

A while back, on a homeschool forum I frequent in order to network with other homeschool moms, I asked the questions “What does ’sacred’ mean to you?”, and “What is sacred to you?” It seemed as though I’d had a few conversations scattered over several months in which someone had asked me something about LDS customs and beliefs, and when I’d explained that we do such and such because we consider this or that sacred, they didn’t really seem to “get” what I meant by that. I began to wonder whether that term had a different meaning to other people, and thought I’d get some input. The responses were, to me, surprising. Even in a forum dominated by strongly religious Christian people most of the responses seemed to be, “I’m not sure,” and “I’ve never really thought about it.” Some posters did expand on that a little, more along the lines of, “I guess it means holy. I’ve never really thought about it, but I guess I consider the Bible holy.” A pagan poster responded that things that are sacred are things that you shouldn’t mess with. But that didn’t really seem like a definition to me. You don’t “mess with” them because they’re sacred, they’re not sacred because you don’t “mess with” them. At least in my view. But she at least had a list of things that she thought you shouldn’t mess with, including (if I remember correctly) family, the earth, other people’s beliefs, and a few other things like that. 

The responses I got, though, did give me some insight as to why saying something was “sacred” didn’t help in those discussions of my beliefs. It wasn’t so much that the word had a different meaning, as that the word just had no meaning. To me, the idea of sacredness, sanctity, holiness, is one that ‘feels’ universal. I should be able to say a thing is “sacred” and have the concept understood, just as if I said the thing was “blue” or “cold” or “fuzzy”. It does seem, though, as if in our current, modern society very little is considered sacred. Perhaps nothing is sacred anymore, since the very concept of sacredness is becoming foreign. In some circles the idea of sacredness is distasteful–everything should be “equal” and therefore nothing should be ”special”, let alone special to the degree of “sanctity”. However, looking out from my own cultural window–from a perspective in which much is sacred, and the sacredness, the holiness, the wonder and preciousness of that which is sacred gives such richness and depth and meaning to my life–looking out my cultural window modern society seems distastefully superficial and narcisistic. I cannot see how any amount of neon lights, chemically-induced euphoria, trendy bits of plastic and wires, and frenetic leaping from one shallow, melodramatic “relationship” to another can even begin to fill the void left when the very concept of sacredness is removed. It seems to me sometimes as though the public obsession with celebrities, fashion, even intellectualism, is a search for something sacred–something “special”. People need SOMETHING to fill that emptiness.

Still, in that atmosphere it almost seems appropriate, in a twisted sort of way, that a new “holiday” (not to be confused with holy day) should be born, not out of anything remotely related to the holy or divine, but out of a superficial, jaded sitcom. If we reject the concept of sacredness and replace it with a new form of worship at the altar of air-brushed anorexic models, self-absorbed actors and designers, flashy gadgetry, mindless entertainment, and witty one-liners, we deserve a “holiday” based on telling the most important people in our lives how miserably they’ve failed to meet our self-centered expectations for them, decorating with an aluminum pole, and wrestling the head of household to the ground. It’s a nonsensical “holiday” that represents well the nonsensical ideals of modern society.

Me though, I think I’ll stick with my old-fashioned holy day. I will revel in the sacredness, the holiness, the divine grace and tender mercy that surround me and I will cherish it, because it is so very precious to me.