I was sitting in Mass Saturday morning and got lost in the Gospel…
In those days when there again was a great crowd without anything to eat, Jesus summoned the disciples and said…
My imagination, as it is wont to do, took over. And yet again I heard the roaring of 750cc twin-cam engines.
Wait, I thought, is Jesus yelling? How the heck can they hear him over the roar of the motorcycles? And am I rushing down the freeway on a Harley or am I in a chapel?
***
For three days running, every time I settled into a bit of contemplation, the whole crew of disciples shows up in my imagination as a group of bicycle riding, tattooed ruffians.
Holy Hand Grenades, can you use Lady Gaga in prayer? Isn’t it blasphemous to speak of prayer and Ms. Germanotta’s confusing mash up of dance numbers, strange costumes, and vague references to Catholic imagery in the same sentence? Oh YouTube, what have you done to us?! It’s not enough that she’s infiltrated pop culture, now her videos are leaking into my prayer.
Lady Gaga's Judas
But am I worried? Nah.
Not even a little, actually. I’ve grown up with mash ups. If Lady Gaga wants to conflate images to the point of utter confusion, then I’m perfectly happy to steal a few of her images and imaginatively slam them together for my own purposes. Now, every time I hear a Harley zip by, I wonder, “Where is Peter going today?”
***
Special note to the Little Monsters:
Sounds like a great name for a fan club, but it’s so 1989! When you say little monsters I don’t think of Gaga, meat suits and pounding bass lines. I think of Fred Savage and double check under my bed just before going to sleep.
