"THE BOW - Tebow and Intangibles

Through careful conservation of their fuel, the engines of creation continue onward.

Mayor Luke Pays UP

Decades of work in the "off-beat" have taught me the very real role played by the Unknown in our daily lives. While a cynic, a quitter, one of religion without faith might dismiss the Tim Tebow phenomenon, we can look back on the "Change" meme, the "Don't Worry" fun of Bush 41, the direct line to god of W, and the energy of the Steeler Nation to respect the influence of emotional rooting for the underdog. Conversely, when the energy of support leaves the competitor, the results can be convoluted. Following each Super Bowl victory, Ben Roethlesberger has done something utterly stupid. His motorcycle incident of 2006, riding a crotch rocket without a helmet, then two sexual assault charges in less than a year following the 2008 Super Bowl victory prompted bonfires of "Steeler Gear" by fans no longer inclined to indulge the caustic behavior of an overpaid jock. In Pittsburgh, the "No Name" barely-out-of-the-Minors Pirates of 2011 were the darlings of the Family Fans because none of the players who streaked in first place right up to the 2:00 a.m. blown call of July 25 at home plate, were anybody but teammates. No Name believers in themselves inspired the "joes" who go to baseball games to be together. Nobody who lives in a real world wanted the party animal to defeat the genuflecting Tebow last Sunday. The Steeler Nation dutifully turned out and tuned into the Denver game, but in their hearts of hearts, grudgingly conceded the "Higher Ground" to the gesture that has even the most cynically immature high school boys taking a knee with a bowed head to the bigger circle drawn 'round the circle. Cartographers indicate 'elevation' by drawing

"circles" that connect points of equal feet above sea level described as contour lines. The key to these amoebic circles is that they neither cross nor intersect. They are, in fact, meaningless to those on other levels and, while they are known to each other by virtue of shared existence, they establish separation as a function of their existence, and are, hence, mutually exclusive. A cloud at 1,600 feet is produced and held there by a set of characteristics forming a stream. In a stream, the choice is removed and awareness, not activity, determines presence. We who call upon Americans to come together in decency and patriotism are unwilling to lend our hearts and minds to the contrivances of media hype. We see, in the Steelers logo, the "Unseen." To the top, a gold hypercycloid, to the right, a red hypercycloid, and to the bottom, a blue hypercycloid - marketing symbol of United States Steel, the building block of twentieth century skyscrapers. To the left, as described by Thomas Carlyle in his book On Heroes and Hero Worship: in his French Revolution (1837), "A Fourth Estate, of Able Editors, springs up; increases and multiplies, irrepressible, incalculable. ...Ideas to be gathered from those ethers of the next higher levels where dream-like impressions without actual substance call us onward, upward. "We're better than this." Where inventors, angels and necessity move us to explore space,to "See a need, fill a need," we are gridded up/down to an opening in the membrane that separates our level from that which calls to us where-in we have always existed but have yet to explore in time and space. This is the mystery and the universality of creation. Where what doesn't exist becomes the basis of everything new, we do it. We leave behind despair, anxiety, demoralization and the Who, What, When, Where and How to lay EYES on it. Recall the first time you saw the actual White House, or the Washington Monument, or the Statue of Liberty, or the Grand Canyon - landmarks of history that you'd seen many times in photos, and now in the flesh. Flying points of reference cause the vision to lurch dizzy-ingly until we are able to bring into focus our emotion, our relationship and our experience. From the moment a teacher or book raised our consciousness about the significance, we have seen the same image time and again. When we see it in the "flesh" we actually drop all those depictions into the little computer in our mind that compares and concludes: 'this is it.' We suspect it but remain to be shown that Tim Tebow depicts such a future. In a moment frozen free of the emotion surrounding his gesture, the viewers are sorted by their own emotions. Some embrace and applaud. Some reject and react. Some aren't "there" yet. Cross/Over attention begins to attract the uninitiated to "market" the idea whose time has come.  The momentum of the marketplace erases whatever preceded. 

 Championships and Elections are thus won.


In the minds of we, the Thinkers,

Tebow has embodied the often attempted (Dobie Gillis) but not-quite-nailed, moment of oneness with the desire of the heart. In his sideline re-enactment, the victorious play-master processes the outcome of the battle just waged, between his known and desired. While the potential exists, the quarterback represents what can be, and drives through doubt, history and the wind beneath his non-existent wings, to land in his next "life." In the moment of completion of the play, Tebow's leap of faith is rewarded by his teammates, fans and the big scoreboard in the sky. Momentarily, the others reaching for the same bouquet are resolved to accept the results. No "marriage" in store for them; No "Next In Line" for Union. Ah! The Game. Secularists need not apply. To any who defile the magic of the moment, hopelessness reigns, sealing their hearts and minds to the sight. Sparkle and Glimmer protect the essence of what happens when the unfolding of events have prompted this action, and prior to taking his next step, the BOWing #15 gets over himself.  While everyone is looking at him, he's looking within, calming desire with culmination.

At the line between what is heaven and what is earth, where the light is slightly brighter, faeries play....