In 1984 Jerry O. Anderson, a football player, rescued people from floodwater in Tulsa, OK. Five years later he lost his life saving two boys from drowning in Mufreesboro, TN. During a live broadcast in April, 2016, Steve Campion, an ABC-13 reporter in Houston, TX, helped a man to safety just moments before his car went under floodwater. The seemingly confused man was only ten or twelve feet from a concrete embankment, but he began swimming toward the other side. Campion waded into the water to assist him to safety.* In Baton Rouge, LA, David Phung jumped into floodwater to pull a woman and her dog from a sinking car.** Near Amite City, also in LA, Fire Chief Bruce Cutrer helped arrange for the National Guard to helicopter out a motorist stranded on a fallen tree in the middle of fast-flowing floodwater.*** And in Clarksville, TN, Officer Holden Hudgin carried a child to safety across floodwater.**** Seems that there’s no shortage of people who are willing to save others imperiled by dangerous waters.
What are we supposed to do with all those statuettes and medals in cars? They show “Saint” Christopher, the patron and protector of travelers, carrying a child—Jesus, representing the weight of the world—across dangerous water. Christopher was a very big guy and very strong—or so the legend goes. And what are we supposed to do with all those old posters and models of the Solar System? They show Pluto as a planet, a celestial body once categorically equal to giant Jupiter.
St. Christopher isn’t an official saint, and Pluto is no longer an official planet. Oh! How times have changed from those simpler days when both saint and planet were part of the heavens. Is it a coincidence that both Christopher and the planet Pluto have been reduced in stature or that the spacecraft Horizon that explored Pluto left Earth in the same month as Christopher’s feast day? Well, of course it is. But imagine if the connections were more than coincidence.
As passed through the centuries, Christopher’s story relates that in his wanderings to find the most powerful leader to follow, Christopher supposedly once served a strong warlord/criminal called The Devil. Eventually, Christopher found purpose in helping people cross a river. Interesting. Pluto was the Roman god of the Underworld. And Pluto had an assistant named Charon, the ferryman who took people across the River Styx.
Christopher on Pluto would be the stuff of legend, too. Giant man on a dwarf planet, he would be living where no traveler ever went. The irony of it: A man that dwarfs others of his kind stands astride a planet that dwarfs none. I could imagine him there, his eyes looking to the heavens and spying distant Earth, wondering when we will come. He stands on the bank of a frozen river, waiting to carry someone across the ice. He'll have to wait. You have more local travels to make and dangerous streams to cross.
Unlike little Pluto, your world is big enough to be classified as a planet, and it is warm enough to have turbulent waters difficult to cross. It would be nice to know that there was a sure-footed and strong helper out there, waiting on the bank to carry you across. Alas, with the reassessment of Christopher, you seemingly have to ford dangerous streams on your own most of the time, but you aren’t without help. Miss the time when a protective giant assured you that some powerful overseer cared? Miss knowing with certainty that a St. Christopher will help you in times of trouble? When the floodwaters rise, you might have your own Christopher that saves you at least temporarily from life in the Underworld. He goes by various names in our modern world: Jerry O. Anderson, Steve Campion, David Phung, Bruce Cutrer, and Holden Hudgin. Or, as others appear to be sinking, maybe you will become the next St. Christopher.
* http://abc13.com/news/video-abc13s-steve-campion-rescues-driver-/1296639/
** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbiPT5VMo8E
*** http://www.wwltv.com/news/local/northshore/man-rescued-from-floodwaters-after-clinging-to-tree-all-night-long/296658551
**** http://clarksvillenow.com/local/clarksville-police-and-fire-conduct-flood-water-rescues/
What are we supposed to do with all those statuettes and medals in cars? They show “Saint” Christopher, the patron and protector of travelers, carrying a child—Jesus, representing the weight of the world—across dangerous water. Christopher was a very big guy and very strong—or so the legend goes. And what are we supposed to do with all those old posters and models of the Solar System? They show Pluto as a planet, a celestial body once categorically equal to giant Jupiter.
St. Christopher isn’t an official saint, and Pluto is no longer an official planet. Oh! How times have changed from those simpler days when both saint and planet were part of the heavens. Is it a coincidence that both Christopher and the planet Pluto have been reduced in stature or that the spacecraft Horizon that explored Pluto left Earth in the same month as Christopher’s feast day? Well, of course it is. But imagine if the connections were more than coincidence.
As passed through the centuries, Christopher’s story relates that in his wanderings to find the most powerful leader to follow, Christopher supposedly once served a strong warlord/criminal called The Devil. Eventually, Christopher found purpose in helping people cross a river. Interesting. Pluto was the Roman god of the Underworld. And Pluto had an assistant named Charon, the ferryman who took people across the River Styx.
Christopher on Pluto would be the stuff of legend, too. Giant man on a dwarf planet, he would be living where no traveler ever went. The irony of it: A man that dwarfs others of his kind stands astride a planet that dwarfs none. I could imagine him there, his eyes looking to the heavens and spying distant Earth, wondering when we will come. He stands on the bank of a frozen river, waiting to carry someone across the ice. He'll have to wait. You have more local travels to make and dangerous streams to cross.
Unlike little Pluto, your world is big enough to be classified as a planet, and it is warm enough to have turbulent waters difficult to cross. It would be nice to know that there was a sure-footed and strong helper out there, waiting on the bank to carry you across. Alas, with the reassessment of Christopher, you seemingly have to ford dangerous streams on your own most of the time, but you aren’t without help. Miss the time when a protective giant assured you that some powerful overseer cared? Miss knowing with certainty that a St. Christopher will help you in times of trouble? When the floodwaters rise, you might have your own Christopher that saves you at least temporarily from life in the Underworld. He goes by various names in our modern world: Jerry O. Anderson, Steve Campion, David Phung, Bruce Cutrer, and Holden Hudgin. Or, as others appear to be sinking, maybe you will become the next St. Christopher.
* http://abc13.com/news/video-abc13s-steve-campion-rescues-driver-/1296639/
** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbiPT5VMo8E
*** http://www.wwltv.com/news/local/northshore/man-rescued-from-floodwaters-after-clinging-to-tree-all-night-long/296658551
**** http://clarksvillenow.com/local/clarksville-police-and-fire-conduct-flood-water-rescues/
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