WHAT'S IN A HERD? COULD IT BE US?

When a loved one dies, family and friends remember. When an icon dies, cities and nations remember. But why...?

Poets like John Doone answer, because a little of us dies with them. Researchers at Stanford University have just come up with a more clinical answer. In "New Scientist" magazine, they report we remember because we need to find connections among ourselves. Being able to share stories about famous people -- alive as well as dead -- "serves as social currency, and connects us to a larger national conversation."

If this be true, does it suggest the deaths of Michael Jackson and Walter Cronkite along with the antics of Britney Spears and Paris Hilton have more to do with us than with them? Well, yes and no.

Yes..... especially if you understand our species as an evolved form of planetary dust whose irrepressible core drive is survival and reproduction. And while not even Darwin posited this, many Darwinians do. No.... especially if you understand our species as a created form of divine life whose irrepressible core drive is to be reunited with its creator. In other words, these two ways of responding to icons may offer two ways of understanding our existence.

Then again, maybe that's stretching things.....!

There could be a simpler, third way of figuring out those curious crowds that gather around living celebrities and dead icons. An old cowpoke who long ago rode the range always avoided both parades and wakes. When asked why, he poured a long drink and smiled this dungaree theology: "Ever watch a herd of buffalo? They just keep eating and moving. Eating and moving. When one of them stops to drop a newborn, or when another of them drops to die, some of the nearby buffalo pause and sniff. Then back to the herd without ever looking back...."

When he was asked to explain that, the old cowhand is reported have slapped the young questioner in the face. "Hey, what's that for?" The disenchanted reply he got back is maybe where today's bumper-sticker came from: "Stuff happens and then you die!"

Personally, I reject that sticker. Still, every time I notice one of them, its hard not seeing the honking cars around you as a herd. The question then becomes -- how do you break out?