The Agony of the Feet

I apologize.  I couldn't resist using the title to this post.  It, and this post, is a reaction to the remarkable and disturbing commercial shown during last night's Super Bowl courtesy of the entity known as "He GetsUs."

Commercials for religions are, I suppose, to be expected in our Great Republic, where religion is itself commercial more than anything else.  I'm not a fan of them, but think it interesting to consider their merits as commercials, if not as religious.

 How explain it?  For that matter, how describe it?  One can see it in all its creepy glory easily enough, of course.  It's there and presumably will be forever, thanks to the Internet.  Perhaps its should be seen at least once, as a kind of penance, appropriately maybe, though that may not have been the intent of its creators.

Just what was the intent?  According to the Gospels, or at least some of them, Jesus washed the feet of his disciples.  It is, or at least was, something the Catholic Church made its priests do on Holy Thursday.  I remember it being done, in any case.  Not by me or to me, happily.  It's not something I would do, I admit, nor would I want it done to me.  Leave my feet alone, please, I would respond to anyone offering to cleanse them.

I imagine that the intent was to make us all reflect on the fact that we're no better than anyone else, as the foot washers depicted engaged in the solemn vignettes were generally stereotypical opposites of those depicted having their feet washed.  We are thus all equally worthy of having our feet washed and washing those of others.  It's a humbling observation, no doubt.  It's also a peculiar one.  Communal washing of feet isn't something normally done, these days, especially if it's done by some to others.  One would think there would be a less odd way of making the point.  HeGetsOurFeet?  Why?  Feet washing isn't what it used to be, it can safely be said.  Didn't people wash their own feet in the 1st century C.E., in Palestine or Judea?

My guess is that they typically do so now, most everywhere, at least where the Super Bowl is shown.

It seems not to have occurred to those who foisted the commercial on the millions watching the game that displays of feet washing, particularly lingering, loving washes, aren't attractive to most of us.  They may be very attractive to some, but I daresay those who find them so are in the minority.  That appears clear from the reactions to the commercial I've seen.  Sometimes people are appalled by it, sometimes they're amused by it.  Inevitably, the fetish associated with feet is mentioned by some commentators, with a kind of leer or giggle.  All these reactions should have been predictable.

This Super Bowl was in many respects unremarkable, even dull, but for the overtime portion of the game.  For someone like me, not a fan of either team and not particularly interested in the much talked about romance which was played up so extensively, the outcome wasn't welcomed; we've seen far too much of the winners already.  As to the half-time show, it was very Vegas, but in Vegas that isn't extraordinary.  

But it was remarkable in the sense that it's now apparent that one must be very rich to attend this spectacle.  It has become like so much in our society a pastime of the only very well off.  That couldn't be said even of the Roman spectacles, which gave the best seats to the rich and powerful but allowed room for those less fortunate.  The very rich  are very different from the rest of us; Scott Fitzgerald's comment is more telling now than it was then.  This is the common state of our social affairs.  

It's is also remarkable, though, because of this commercial.  This Super Bowl will be remembered as the one featuring wet, glistening, and very clean feet.