Two Are Better Than One

Two are better than one,

Because they have a good return for their work:

If one falls down, his friend can help him up.

But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up!

Ecclesiastes 4:9-10

There is a Safeco Insurance commercial currently playing, showing two women sitting at the kitchen table having coffee and talking about the neighbors.  Apparently, the people next door have a place in the mountains, go there every weekend, and thoroughly enjoy doing so.  The gossiper’s question?  What in the world do they do up there?  There’s no TV, no internet, no restaurants…  She comes to the conclusion that they must just sit up there and talk.  The music comes on at that point, and the narrator says, “There are people who don’t understand the way you live; there’s an insurance company who does.”

I’ve known several people in my life whose way of living has puzzled me, but one lifestyle that I just don’t get is… bullfighting.  I know, you’re thinking, “Wow, didn’t expect you to say that!”  However, a friend of mine recently asked me to list some vintage bullfighting magazines on E-bay, and I have been reading them (with the help of Google Translator), particularly those that recorded the tragic death in 1984 of a world renowned, 36-year-old matador named Paquirri.

When a man reaches matador status, he is a rich and famous entertainer, employing five assistant bullfighters who begin the bullfight with him.  He is, however, the star, and must end the performance alone, playing the bull with a red cape, and finally killing it with a sword.  When something goes wrong, which it does almost every season, the matador ends up in the hospital for a few weeks (best case scenario).  If things really go wrong, and your five assistants cannot reach you in time, you will have a huge, gaping wound from the goring of a bull’s horn - your life’s blood pouring out into the barren dirt of the ring.  Riches and fame are worth very little if you are not alive to enjoy them.  Medical intervention at bullfights has improved greatly since 1984, but I still cannot fathom why anyone (including both of Paquirri’s sons) would choose to fight a bull.

There are few things in life that I am willing to face alone. I cannot imagine dealing with the vagaries of life, or the “bulls” of sin and temptation, without friends and family beside me and God at my right hand.