What is sacred? What is profane?

Are they two roads running parallel
      in opposite directions
      divergent from a fixed point:
            upward to heaven
            downward to hell

Are they eternally fixed on a path
      never waivering from the ruts cut to guide them:
            blessed, blasphemed
            protected, polluted
            venerated, violated

Can they be the same road
      viewed through different lenses, perspectives
      what is sacred to one
      is profane to another:
            holy, shit
            mother, fucker
            god, damnit

What is sacred? What is profane?

Are they merely words, figures of speech
      defined by the sounds our voices make
            our minds and hearts believe
            our hands fashion to use, abuse

Does the time we spend
            around the dinner table
            at the basketball game
            in bed making love
      constitute as much sacredness,
            space and time
      as worshiping a god
            at a set time each week
            for one hour

If it, whatever it is,
      is hallowed, set apart
            honored, defended,
            guarded, cherished
      it is sacred.
If not,
      it is profane.
 

sa·cred (sā´krĭd) adj. 1. Consecrated to or belonging to a god or deity : holy. 2. Of or connected with religion or religious rites. 3. Regarded with the same respect and reverence accorded holy things : venerated, hallowed. 4. Set apart for, and dedicated to, some person, place, purpose, sentiment, etc. 5. Secured as by a religious feeling or sense of justice against any defamation, violation, or intrusion : inviolate.

—syn. holy, blessed, consecrated, hallowed, sanctified, angelic, godly, saintly, cherished, sacrosanct, inviolate, esteemed, worshiped, defended, guarded, protected, shielded, immune, untouchable, numinous, spiritual, divine, religious.

pro·fane (prō-fān´) adj. 1. Not connected with religion or religious matters : secular. 2. Not initiated into the inner mysteries or esoteric knowledge of something. 3. Not hallowed or consecrated. 4. Showing disrespect or contempt for sacred things : irreverent.

—syn. lay, secular, temporal, unsacred, heathen, ethnic, gentile, infidel, pagan, earthly, mundane, terrestrial, worldly, ungodly, irreverent, obscene, dirty, sacrilegious, blasphemous, nasty, raunchy, smutty, vulgar, defiled, polluted, unclean.

Definitions taken from Webster's II New Riverside Dictionary. Synonymns taken from Roget's II The New Thesaurus.

Sound recording of "God Song" by Bad Religion, courtesy of YouTube.
   

What I know of the sacred is housed in a church building, recited according to the prescribed liturgy and lived one hour a week during a time reserved for only one thing: God. Of course, I use the word sacred in other ways, to refer to cows for example. But the truly sacred in my lexicon can mean only that one thing, which is a really big thing in fact. What I know of the profane is housed in my body, reacting according to the human condition and lived every hour of every week throughout a lifetime destined for only one thing: death. Of course, I use profane words all the time, to refer to bodily functions for example. But the truly profane in my lexicon can mean only that one thing, which is a really big thing in fact.

In this moment, I stand at the intersection, the crossroads, of the sacred and the profane—a moving toward and a moving away from, an embracing and an avoiding, a rushing in and a running out. I wonder,

Does the sacred swirl around the profane or does the profane encrust the sacred? Is each a separate stream flowing at cross currents? Or do they share the same loom, weaving a pattern that interlaces, causing each to touch a part of the other?