In Reply to: now I do feel like an alien posted by lydia on January 06, 2007 at 00:29:37:
Irony is a sudden reversal of expectations.
First irony: A popular image of Jesus at prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, where the Gospels tell us he agonized and felt abandoned by his sleeping disciples. What you might expect the music to be, if this were conventional, is serious, sad, dark. Instead, there's this upbeat tempo that makes your feet start tapping.
Second irony: Dancing disco Jesus in a loincloth on a busy city street. "Dance, dance, where ever you may be...I am the Lord of the dance, said he" In light of a hymn like "Lord of the Dance," dancing disco Jesus in a loincloth is another reversal of expectations.
Third irony: Getting run over by a bus. Totally unexpected. I was nearly killed from a collision with a huge vehicle, and if there's anything in contemporary life that I can compare to being crucified, getting hit by a bus or truck comes pretty darn close. It hurts like hell, you agonize with the pain of the torn flesh and brokwn bones for months, not just hours, there are times when you feel abandoned and powerless, and if you don't actually die from it, there are times when you wish you had.
Suddenly, out of the blue, death can run us down when we least expect it. We are as powerless to stop death as Jesus is in the video. Maybe the real Jesus could have chosen not to live and die, but he didn't. To me, the reversal of expectation is to go down dancing and singing, "I will survive." Whether or not you believe something inside us will survive death, it's funny to see Jesus go down singing about survival.
Honestly, if you can laugh at death, the ultimate abandonment of self, you will indeed survive. (Thus, saith the Lord...) :)