Well I've never lived just down the road from an Illinois state fair before. It used to be that we would have to drive 45 minutes to get to the Illinois state fair in Springfield. We'd go every once in a while, mainly just to bask in the glory of the butter cow. I mean really, how many people live in such a great and glorious state to inspire a cow made of butter? But even the grandeur of the butter cow wasn't enough to keep us coming back to the fair year after year once I got into high school and decided I was much too cool for any of that business anymore.
It's been about 10 years since I've been to an Illinois State fair. But just a couple weeks ago I moved to a little town in southern Illinois which just happens to be about 15 miles from Du Quoin, the home of the Southern Illinois state fair. I hadn't really intended to attend the fair, even though it was just down the street, but between my sweet wife asking to go and the allure of trying a deep fried snickers bar, reluctantly we went to the fair last night.
State fairs, as a rule, are not edifying places. At least not in a positive way (unless you count the guy with the tent asking if you were "100%" sure you would go to heaven [i thought of starting a conversation with him about the epistemological presuppositions necessary for 100% certainty and modernity's failure to adequately support said presuppositions, but that would have been mean of me]). However, state fairs are GREAT places for people watching! It started for us as soon as we pulled up to the gate. I don't know where these people live through the year. Sometimes I think they must just materialize ex nihilo any time there is a fair or stock car race. Anyway, I spent the next 2 1/2 hours observing the oddities of state fair anthropology. Then we ate some fried snickers and oreos and went home.
State fairs are not edifying places. At least not in a positive way. But at least for me, state fairs are edifying places in the way that they bring me to repentance. I like to think I do an ok job of not judging people but that delusion is shattered when I plunge myself into the mass of unwashed, toothless, mouth-breathing hillbillies that is the Southern Illinois state fair.
I heard a story the other day on a podcast about an atheist who went to a monastery and demanded that the abbot show him God. The abbot then went and found the shabbiest monk in the monastery (I think the guy had spent some time working at a state fair before joining the monastery), and brought him to the atheist. The abbot said, "here you go, this is God." The atheist wasn't buying this at all. In fact, he grew angry with the abbot because he thought the abbot was toying with him. But the abbot responded to the atheist, "If you cannot see God in this shabby monk, you will not see Him anywhere."
Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner.
Ah, the State Fair. I think all your Illinois folks come to the Arizona State Fair every year, or at least work the booths. I was standing in line tonight to "charge up" my electric company's card to keep our electricity on. We're on a "pre-pay as you go plan" because we got too behind on our bill this summer. It was Friday night (payday) and I saw there were 8 "trailer park trash" folks ahead of me...it took a few nano-seconds for me to kick myself, but yeah, it was still my first thought. sigh....
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