One of the most well-known products of Spanish culture is bullfighting, and we are often asked about it. There’s something built into men that makes us crave the adrenaline rush of cheating death: whether it’s a roller-coaster at a theme park, jumping off a cliff with a rope tied to our ankles, or facing off against a 1200 pound bull.
Also there’s my personal favorite: telling your pregnant wife that she needs to lay off the Oreos! For the record, she doesn’t need to, it’s just fun to look death in the eye and laugh… and then cry like a little girl when she brings the pain. Don’t judge me, she has the strength of a regular woman AND a baby!
Much of the allure of bullfighting is the silly idea that man can “conquer” nature: it’s the same thing that makes us climb Everest and the like. Yeah… you are sitting on top of the mountain that is totally unchanged while you lost 9 digits to frostbite, but somehow YOU won?
Maybe it’s because I am unable to turn off “preacher mode”, but I see things like bullfighting, mountain climbing, and space exploration as things that often (not always) are a wrong response to the awesome power of naure: the Psalms tell us that the Heavens declare the glory of God, Romans that His eternal power and Godhead are clearly seen as His power is reflected in forces that could crush us like ants… But usually we just try to “beat the elements” instead of acknowledging who He is revealing Himself as.
I read this story about bullfighting today, and thought I’d share it. A pretty gruesome reminder that man vs Creation is a stacked fight.
Spain: Bullfighter Survives Terrifying Face Goring
MADRID – Spanish bullfighter Juan Jose Padilla is recovering from a five-hour operation to repair his face after a terrifying goring in the northeastern city of Zaragoza, the hospital that treated him said Saturday.
Television images showed the moment when the bull’s left horn ripped into Padilla’s lower jaw to emerge beside his protruding eyeball as spectators screamed in horror.
Padilla, 39, suffered eye, bone, muscle and skin damage when the bull pinned him to the ground and gored him, the statement said.
TV footagealso showed Padilla getting up from the ring, his face gushing blood, as the bull was distracted by bullring assistants.
“I can’t see, I can’t see anything,” the matador shouted as he was rushed to emergency facilities at Zaragoza’s Misericordia bullring before being driven to the city’s Miguel Servet Hospital for surgery.
The bull, named Marques, weighed 508 kilograms (1,120 pounds) and was the second fighting beast Padilla had faced during the second day of the annual Virgen del Pilar festivities in Zaragoza.
Surgeons used titanium plates and mesh to reconstruct parts of Padilla’s facial bone structure and eye socket, doctors Simon Sanz and Nadal Cristobal said in a very detailed, signed statement.
A hospital spokesman told The Associated Press that surgeons had tried to reconstruct the bullfighter’s left ocular nerve.
Padilla was lucky the horn did not penetrate his brain, said Vicente Yesteras, one of Padilla’s retinue of bullring helpers.
