Holy/Unholy Experiment, Day 1

by Simon Chang

In Leviticus, the distinction of holy and unholy things is of paramount importance. Failure to comply results in a death sentence to be carried out immediately, so it was not a trivial matter. (Leviticus 10:10)

Starting today, and for the next seven days, I am keeping a detailed list of the sights and sounds during my day that can be classified as being either holy or unholy. In this case I am not necessarily looking at it from a dietary or cleanliness point of view (as most of modern America will be filthy beyond hope), but more from a moral/ethical point of view. I will make clear of cases where both elements seem to be present in the same issue. At the end of each day I will upload the daily note to the group discussion section on the Leviticus project.

DAY 1

7:20 AM (at home) - Lori and I had a fight yesterday that pretty much went on all day. Given the fact that my employer decided to have everyone stay home because of the snow storm, it made for a very, very long day for everyone. Last night we had a sit-down talk about what went wrong, but it was still very tense. So this morning before I woke up Victoria, Lori asked that we reconcile. We had a good talk and then we kissed and hugged. She said that she bore the lion's share of responsibilities for what went wrong, but I doubt that that was the case. My own attitude in this fight could hardly be said to be holy and loving to my wife. So it was necessary for us to make up and acknowledge our own sinfulness to each other. It was a good way to start the day. Verdict: For the fight, UNHOLY. For the reconciliation, HOLY.

9:27 AM (on the T to work) - A local weight-loss clinic had put up several signs on board the T, and one of the signs said, "People don't fail, diets do". There are two problem messages in this ad: It suggests that people are never to blame, and that it's always someone else's fault. Imagine Moses' reaction if this had been put up at the entrance of the tent of meetings. That sign would have been incinerated by fire faster than you can say "Nadab and Abihu". Even with the slaughterhouse of calves and lambs and goats, that's no way to blame my lack of self-control on someone else's offer of food. Verdict: UNHOLY.

12:11 PM (reading on Yahoo! news) - The 20-year-old pregnant Marine soldier died of blunt force trauma to the head and was burned and buried with her unborn baby, according to the military autopsy report. The only bright spot in the previous sentence was that someone took the pains and noted her and her baby's passing in an official report. Such a grievous crime. Verdict: UNHOLY.