Laughing at an altar

I was with a friend's mother who was explaining what she saw on TV. She was telling a story that went somewhere along the lines of:

I was watching TV the other day when I saw this lady who was saying: "I wake up early every morning and make some coffee. I serve 2 cups and I take one to him."

My friend's mother gravely looked at me and said:

And then she walked to an altar an placed a cup of coffee in front of a picture of Chávez.

I cracked up at once. I had imagined that people would idolise the man as a leader, but to treat him as a divinity? We call him "The Intergalactic Commander" as a joke, and I've heard "The Eternal Commander" or even "The Eternal". I somehow thought that it was just a saying, but now the idea solidified in my head: people are worshipping Chávez as if he were a deity.

When I was cracking up, I suddenly shut up and looked at my friend's mother. I hesitated and thought "wait, is she approving or disapproving of the woman?". We never know if we're talking with a Chávez supporter or someone from the opposition. I worried that I was making her feel alienated, and she wasn't laughing. I simply decided to stop laughing and continue probing.

We talked for a little more until she spoke a bit more about what she thought about the situation, and then her son talked about running away from an interview because they started asking him political questions and he realised that this was a politicised institution and not just a simple factory. I realised then that his mum was also disapproving of the lady and I joked a bit more about that, but the thought stayed in my head.

We also talked a lot about similar cultures in Japanese Shinto. They also have their altars and pray and give them food. We wondered whether the lady walks to the altar in the night and takes the cup of coffee away. My brother mentioned that perhaps she thought the spirit of it was consumed and only the physical carcass of the coffee was left. Then he asked: "does she drink the coffee afterwards or flush it?"

It's so strange to see that these things have become usual. How can there be day-to-day exoticism? Everything is so strange nowadays, like a horror/suspense movie where the directors go out of their way to make the viewer hesitate all the time, but at the same time, it happens so frequently that I would think I could get accustomed to it. But it gets weirder all the time, and every day, I look around and wonder how we got to this state. It wasn't sudden but very, very gradual. How can I stay surprised for so long?

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Posted for today's freewrite from my blog with SteemPress : https://cryptosharon.xopus.io/laughing-at-an-altar/

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