Word: worships
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...like the fact that in our small-bore times, we can look back and see rock-jawed men (rarely women, I fear) like Caesar and Mark Antony, heroes who bestride the narrow world like colossi. There's much to be said for hero worship--a lot more, in any event, than for its opposite, which is the cynical assumption (distressingly common among journalists) that nobody but liars ever entered public life. But we can misuse the past too, especially if we look back to what we think was a time of moral clarity and of actions based upon...
...worship overpaid movie stars like Angelina Jolie...
...excited or perhaps even enter into trances and feel as though they have made contact with the deities that way. But the distinction between what's religious and what's recreational is a pretty fine line to draw. If you look at a contemporary storefront Pentacostalist Sunday morning's worship, you'll find people dancing, you'll find a lot of music, and you'll find a some ingredients of traditional kinds of festivities...
...surely our star worship is misplaced, when those we so idolize can barely keep a hundred people awake for a full hour, to say nothing of the hundred people who couldn’t be bothered to get out of bed to come to class. And while there are some faculty members who truly are captivating teachers, they only teach “Justice” every other year...
Most of these traditional festivities were religious, as Christmas still faintly is. But the line between religion and recreation can be a fuzzy one, since in so many religions--from ancient Dionysian worship to modern-day Brazilian Candomble and storefront Pentecostalism--the best way to contact the deity or deities is to get up and dance and sing and shout. The climax of the ritual celebration was not a drunken stupor but ecstatic union with the gods...