Relics, Stuffed Cats, and Curses

This is Kitty. Kitty came into my life on a long ago December as a Christmas gift from my grandmother. She's an average, orange stuffed cat, tattered from years of love. Kitty has traveled with me through every major event in my life - from pneumonia, broken arms, my brother's move to Maine, a death in the family, my mother's remarriage, my move to Woodland, my first heartbreak, and my experience as a college freshman. It was Kitty who consoled me, who I have prayed to/with throughout the years. In this way, Kitty, a simple tattered orange cat, is sacred to me.

Many people would tell me that placing my trust in a stuffed cat is absurd. And it probably is. Yet is it more absurd than placing faith in other objects that have been considered sacred throughout the centuries? Is faith in a cross, a statue of Shiva, or a star of David absurd? Hashim, the money lender character in Salman Rushdie's short story "The Prophet's Hair" places his faith in a silver hair that he discovered on the side of the road, believing it to be from Prophet Muhammad's head. Rushdie, ever the satirical author pokes fun at religion as he tells the story of Hashim and his 'sacred' hair. In truth, the idea of something as sacred is similar to the idea of beauty, that it is all within the heart of the beholder. Kitty is sacred to me, not to you. The silver hair is sacred to Hashim, yet not to the thief who would later attempt to steal it.

The theme of relics as a curse or as a blessing also comes up within this short story. Kitty, not quite enough of an antiquity to be a relic, has been a blessing for me. However, other, more established relics, such as Hashim's hair have the capability of becoming a "curse". The hair becomes a curse as Hashim goes mad trying to keep it in his possession. The hair, and the doctrine that he believes that hair represents, overcomes his logic. Hashim is not alone in seeking the divine in the mundane.

There are those who would find images of the Virgin Mary in grilled cheese sandwiches or rock surfaces. People seek out this image, struggling to find evidence of faith in a world which could easily tear faith apart. These people, searching for bizarre relics in the everyday world, neglecting small every day miracles are as "cursed" as Hashim who neglects and abuses the miracle of his children. The "curse" occurs when the relic becomes of more value than the actual faith that the relic represents.

The removal of this silver hair from it's authentic home does not necessarily damage it's value as a sacred object. However, the way that this object is viewed shifts slightly. Within the confines of a church the Prophet's hair is a symbol of faith, of hope and inspiration. This relic is shared among the congregation, becoming a symbol that unifies those who put their faith in it. However, the moment that the Hair became the property of one man, the relic changed form. Belonging only to Hashim the relic's power overtakes him. The relic now, instead of acting as an object of inspiration and unity becomes an object that distorts the truth and divides.

At any rate, who ever said that this hair originated from the sacred home of a church? Perhaps this hair was dropped from an old man's robe, a mundane, every day, mortal hair. If this was the case, removing it from it's home (the old man's head) made the hair sacred. Perhaps this is the point that Rushdie attempts to make. Rushdie eliminates the concept of sacred by pointing out that 'sacred' is not innate in an object, rather, it is created by mankind's desire to find evidence of faith in the every day world.