“I’m near the end of my rope” says a New Mexico woman disabled by a drunk-driver in a horrific car accident who tried to sell her soul — or have it saved — on eBay. Listed for $2000, bidding started at $100 and ramped up to $405 before eBay pulled the auction. “Item 180921301712 is no longer available” the listing states.
“Describing it as a ‘slightly used soul,’ Lori is offering buyers a ‘Carfax’ so they can see the black and white marks her soul has accumulated over the years. Religious bidders can save Lori’s soul through conversion or prayer,” Business Insider reports:
Pop culture abounds with examples of people selling their souls to the devil in exchange for money, however, this doesn’t seem to be what’s motivating Lori.
After being disabled in a drunk driving accident years ago, Lori told NBC 2 that she feels like she’s “at the end of her rope” and just wants to connect with another soul.
“This Ebay soul-selling was a sad and misguided attempt by a woman to have someone notice her,” Matt Archbold at the National Catholic Register notes. “Someone to realize that there’s a soul in this IP address. In a way it’s almost a sane response to an insane world. As Christians it’s our responsibility, our duty, our joy to connect with other people. Let’s make an effort.”
Archbold takes the opportunity to lambast a bit social media:
Technology has pulled us apart. And I’m not saying I’d get rid of it. But let’s face it. Air conditioners and television have destroyed communities. People used to sit out on their porches and talk. Now we’re inside – dashing out movie quotes and pop news items with our own brand of snark on our IPhone while watching Ice Road Truckers. The Ipods and computers are just finishing the job air conditioners and television started. People don’t know their neighbors at all anymore. And it’s getting worse.
We don’t connect. I remember when we first got a remote control for our television. I was twelve and I couldn’t watch one thing. I just couldn’t. I always thought there had to be something better on. Somewhere. So instead of watching a perfectly fine Gilligan’s Island episode I spent the half hour looking for something better. And miserable. Now that I’m 43 I know that there’s few things better than Gilligan’s Island.
But technology has so advanced that I think we flip through people like we used to flip through channels. Instead of actually talking and making eye contact with the person in front of us we check our phone, our email, our texts, our Facebook. We’ve made Gilligan’s Island of our friends because maybe just maybe there’s something cool going on somewhere else. And gosh darnit, that cool thing ain’t gonna’ happen without me knowing about it. Early. So I can tweet it, email it and post it on Facebook.
Actual conversation is supposed to take a while. I honestly wonder how many people can tell a joke anymore – I mean a really good joke. There’s a set up, the anticipation that makes you earn the laugh, and then here it comes…the punchline. But with technology, everything’s a punchline. There’s no time for set up. No background. That’s why movie quotes are the coin of the realm. We’ve all seen the movie so we don’ t need set up. We need punch lines in 140 characters or less. And maybe an emoticon for good measure.
But Lori’s problem, and Matt’s, isn’t social media, rather, it’s a Church and its leadership that have abdicated their social contract role and opted — actually, demanded — its members eschew biblical direction and become political. It’s a Pope that has chastised and disciplined nuns in America for trying to care for the poor instead of combatting same-sex marriage.
Archbold tells a nice story. Lori has a problem. Looking to religion and the church to solve them is the wrong way to go.