So, we had some electricians over doing a job at our house today. And let me say first of all that they were extremely nice, higly competent, and, thankfully, affordable. I plan to call them back for some other work soon. So I don’t want to make too much fun of them. However, their logo—well, I just couldn’t not share it with you. Here ‘tis:
Yeah. You are seeing that. That’s a lightbulb with an American flag background, and the “T” in their company name is indeed a stylized cross. For reasons that need no explanation if you’ve ever been there, this design makes me nostalgic for the gaudy slopes of Gatlinburg, Tennessee.
I appreciate, at least, that it’s an apparently non-partisan logo; all it says, technically, is “We’re Christians and Americans and Electricians.” As I am also a Christian and an American, I don’t have much problem with that. If it had been, say, a Confederate flag, well, that might have been crossing a line. And, while I’m not an Electrician, I do accept the validity of their belief system and find much of their scripture quite beautiful. But it’s interesting how I—and I suspect many other folks—have come to associate any public pronouncement of one’s Americanness with right-wingery, and any public pronouncement of Christianity with reactionary fundamentalism—or at least, any public pronouncement that I deem to be aesthetically hamfisted, like this one is.
But believe me, next to what you’ll find at this site, the logo above is a model of subtlety and indirection. I apologize in advance for the blood that will soon be coming out of your ears. Just stuff a tissue in there, it’ll stop in an hour or two.
And speaking of meditations on the conflict between American self-reliance and Christian compassion, Fred at Slacktivist has a dynamite post on just this topic today. What I like to do is read it, shake my head soberly at the material excess and lack of compassion of the wealthy in America, write a check to guy who services our swimming pool, and continue basting in my own hypocrisy.* Mmm, tangy.
*I believe I nicked this phrase from co-marinatee Darren. I also seem to be using the word “nicked” a lot lately, a habit which I nicked from re-reading old issues of Hellblazer, which is, by the by, a terribly overrated series.
Heh. The validity of the electricians’ belief system.
“basting in my own hypocrisy”
Hey, isn’t that my line? Fred has been on fire lately. In fact, I’ve pretty much stopped ranting about religion and politics at Long Pauses because every time I get angry about something, I go over to Slacktivist and find that he’s already expressed my anger better than I could have.
Do you need me to pick up anything for you in Gatlinburg? I’m still on the lookout for the holy grail of T-Shirts: one with a cross (or Bible verse), a confederate flag, and Dale Earnhardt. If Dubya’s on there too, so much the better.
Oh yeah. Sorry about that. I thought that sounded familiar.
If you do find that silk-screened holy grail, buy me one, or, actually, don’t and just take a picture. It’s got to exist! The question is how much Gatlinburg gift-shop browsing you can stomach.
I think I said “simmering” or maybe “stewing.” “Basting,” for whatever reason, is not a word that comes to my mind very often.
“Simmering” and “stewing” are both a little more poetical—either one flow nicely with the “s” sound in “hypocrisy.”
I used to have an awesome Mississippi shirt. It was green and had a rattlesnake coming out of a skull’s eye and above that it said “Mississippi” sigh what an awesome shirt.
What was the slogan? “Mississippi: Poisonous and Decaying”? “Mississippi: Rotting from the Inside”?
we associate the thing w/ the holy rollers because jesus totally dissed them in the bible calling them posers and said if you were down w/ JC and the boys, you’d tuck yourself away and get your god on instead of fronting when you’re giving propers to Jehovah.
as for the wealthy, etc. i think they found long ago they’d get whatever the hell they wanted from poor religious white folks as long as they tossed them a bone over jesus, that way they can fight over who hates abortion MORE on their way to paying for the next corporate handout.
you know, my vote for the MS quarter was 2 Opossums shooting craps by the river while a squirrel played guitar in the background. that is enough metaphor to go around.
haw! as willie morris said about MS “we may not be able to read, but we sure can write”
Hey, what happened to Calla?
Freak snowmobile accident.
I was wondering what happened to her, too. I emailed gorjus to see if he made her mad, but no reply. snowmobile accident, my foot!
The snow, she is bad here.
I assumed you’d all understand that “snow” was slang for “cocaine” and “mobile” was slang for “dealer.”