Worshipping Mr. Loh
(Page 2 of 2)
May / June 2004
Steve Silson Clamor
Like all religions, ours has its rules. Offerings made to Mr.
Loh must be somewhat in accordance with the request. For example,
while asking Mr. Loh to help us find housing in a new town, we
placed Monopoly houses, an old wasps' hive, a bird's nest, and
several shells on his altar. Regardless of the request, alcohol
must be present. Mr. Loh is a tippler.
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Requests made to Mr. Loh must be serious but not ridiculous. For
example, when Cathy won $72 on the local lottery, she attributed
that to Mr. Loh's influence. But we wouldn't ask his help to win
the $50 million Powerball. It would be presumptuous.
Over the course of three years, our belief in Mr. Loh has moved
from ironic to partly heartfelt. Belief in Mr. Loh gives us a place
to focus anxieties about the future; in a way it is a method of
removing responsibility toward what we cannot control. At the same
time, interacting with a god engages an attitude that things will
work out and helps us to recognize the limits of what we can
affect.
The Mr. Loh we worship now has little connection to the elderly
Chinese man we once heard about on a radio show. I'm not sure what
he has become, or what it is that we name 'Mr. Loh.' A belief in
something? A trust in the universe? A superstitious need for a god?
Whatever he is, he serves our purpose and helps us through times of
stress. I don't know whether the positive results we experience are
caused by some astral entity or by our improved attitude or just
good luck, and I don't care. What we've got works for us, and that
is what counts.
Steve Wilson is the editor of Motionsickness
(www.motionsickmag.com),
a quarterly magazine that aims to cover 'the other side of travel'
-- everything from the adverse cultural impact of international
travel to profiles of travel-industry workers to a critique of the
mainstream travel media. This article is reprinted from Clamor
(Nov./Dec. 2003). Subscriptions: $18/yr. (6 issues) from Big
Top Newsstand Services, 2729 Mission St., Suite 201, San Francisco,
CA 94110;
www.clamormagazine.org
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