A Loss Of Passion

I was in Spearfish to watch the Passion Play but my attention was captivated by the lightning storm overhead and not the drama onstage. That’s how I’m wired. I tend to think most people were once wired the same but their senses grew dim as they exchanged awe for nature over simple amusement in a living room.


The Passion Play occurred in the Black Hills of South Dakota for seventy years. The community would take parts and portray the events centering on Saviour and Easter. Culture changed and crowds diminished until the last passion play was performed in Spearfish on August 31, 2008.

The play left no mental picture. The lightning exploding against the backdrop of the amphitheatre is an image I will remember my whole life. I can’t help but think we’ve lost something in our addictions to pictures on plasma screens. The death of the Spearfish passion play was due in part to this change in the way we seek amusement. The death of our own passion is a response to the way we choose couch and brain-numbing comfort over the beauty and splendour of the creation.