Every Good Friday, I listen to Wagner's opera Parsifal. The very name means "Holy Fool", or at least "Wise Fool". In Russian, it's called Yurodivy. A kind of court jester, combined with monastic asceticism and radical altruism. It's the guy who literally sells everything, rejects their family and follows Jesus. And maybe even shoots a swan.
What does "Parsifal" have to do with that? "Durch Mitleid wissened, der reine Tor" ("The holy fool made wise through compassion") describes the swan-killing protagonist of Wagner's opera, his finest in this author's opinion.
Parsifal has long been associated with passion narratives and atonement. Also, long associated with the wise rube, a kind of Uncle Josh Weathersby of Bayreuth.
Why, I wonder? Wonder with me over the fold....
Humankind is full of a hunger for stories about holy fools, about atonement, redemption, salvation. We do it in our politics, in our religion, in our myths, in our stories.
We have other stories, too. We have stories about Santa Claus. In the Netherlands, he's got a slave named "Black Pete". In the US, he's got a reindeer who's nose resembles that of W.C. Fields. Horrible as it may sound, Santa Claus is no Yurodivy. He's no Holy Fool. He is a Stalinesque figure who knows everything about you, start to finish, who is willing to judge and frighten young children. He will send you to Siberia with just one lump of coal if you don't "watch out". As a child, I was more scared of Santa than I was of Jesus. Jesus loved the little children. Santa judged them. Brezhnev looked benign in comparison to Santa to this little kid back in the 1970's.
Parsifal, by comparison, has no real idea what he is doing though what he is doing is looking for the Holy Grail. He is, indeed, a bit daft. But he is holy. I won't spoil the opera for you by telling you how it turns out.
Who are our Holy Fools, our "Yurodivy", our "Parsifals" today? Oh, they are around. Some might name Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Bill Maher. Others might name someone like Joe Biden, who always seems to have his foot in his mouth but means well, usually.
It doesn't matter if you like Wagner, Jesus or anyone for that matter. What might matter is how we look at each other. Oh, and being "Made wise through compassion". Mitleid, a wonderful German word, means just what our English word Compassion means. "Suffering with". Until we learn to suffer together, we cannot learn to live together.
This Diary is Dedicated to my brother, a Kossack, who is ill. Speedy Recovery to you, TheIsleOfMan.