A Call to Community and Action (or How to Fall Asleep by 9:30 on a Friday Night)

I saw a strange move last night called Waking Life. It was shot in live action then animated over, creating a very surreal visual style. It was about life and beyond that I can't figure it out. Mostly is was fairly random people explaining their philosophies. I struggled to stay awake after the novel look of the film wore off but two scenes are memorable.

The first is near the end of the movie. Two people bump into each other on a subway station staircase. They politely say, "excuse me", then carry on a few steps before the young woman turns back:

Young Woman: Hey. Could we do that again? I know we haven't met, but I don't want to be an ant, you know? I mean, it's like we go through life with our antennas bouncing off one another, continuously on ant auto-pilot with nothing really human required of us. Stop. Go. Walk here. Drive there. All action basically for survival. All communication simply to keep this ant colony buzzing along in an efficient polite manner. "Here's your change", "Paper or plastic?", "Credit or debit?", "You want ketchup with that?" I don't want a straw, I want real human moments. I want to see you. I want you to see me. I don't want to give that up. I don't want to be an ant, you know?

Young Man: Yeah. Yeah, no. I don't want to be an ant either. Heh. Yeah, thanks for kind of jostling me there. I have been kind of on zombie auto-pilot lately, I donn't feel like an ant in my head, but I guess I probably look like one. It's kind of like D.H. Lawrence had this idea of two people meeting on a road. And instead of just passing and glancing away, they decide to accept what he calls "the confrontation between their souls." It's like, um, freeing the brave reckless gods within us all.

Young Woman: Then it's like we have met.

The second memorable scene is maybe two-thirds through. Four twenty-something year old guys were walking and disscussing some random phillosophy when they notice an old, seemingly homeless person clinging to the top of a telephone pole. The distraction interupts their discussion and they ask him what he's doing. He replies, "Well, I'm not sure". One of the guy's mutters, "stupid bastard" as they walk off. His friend insightfully replys, "No worse than us. He's all action and no theory. We're all theory and no action."

Both these scenes are true. I think the film struggels with the reality that it can only ask questions and is unable to provide any solutions for both the missing human contact and missing action in our world. It's ironic that probably the act of watching the movie inhibited me from existing in community and acting and instead encouraged isolation and theory for at least two hours on a Friday night.

May I seek community and reach for opportunities to act even when isolation and theory are the easier path.

Acceptable Love

I read a column on SI.com each week called Monday Morning Quarterback. The author, Peter King, writes mostly about football but also adds interesting thoughts about other aspects of life. He often updates reader on a soldier friend currently serving in Iraq. This past week he told of how the soldier's platoon suffered their first casualty. One reader set this email to be forwarded to the sargent:

Sgt. McGuire,

I teach the middle school students at my church on Sundays and I regularly provide updates on you and your platoon as Mr. King has the chance to pass them along. I started simply by comparing biblical figure King Saul, professional athletes, and you, and I asked the kids who they would prefer to model and be when they grow up. They could be Saul, who was so jealous over David's success that Saul repeatedly tried to kill David. They could be professional athletes who whine about injuries, travel, demands placed upon them, etc., all while earning millions of dollars per year -- more than I will make in my lifetime. Or they could be Sgt. Mike McGuire, who leads a team charged with clearing a path so that others may travel on a safe road. You and your platoon embody the term 'sacrifice,' and as followers of Jesus, the kids
and I had known one example of the term. Now we know two. On behalf of the men and women who, like me, serve in the federal government, thank you for doing your job so we can do our jobs. And on behalf of the kids I teach at church, I thank you for providing them with a current and real-life example of selfless love.

- Bryan Gold, Laurel, Md.

Initially I was at a loss for words. Is it really true that there are no other examples of sacrificial love? Regardless of my ever changing views on pacifism and war I refuse to submit that soldiers are the penultimate example of Christ-like love. As I've written here previously, in regards to Pearl Harbor, I can relate to the desire to be a soldier/hero. Its sexy and culturally acceptable. Maybe that is the Sunday school teacher's struggle; that soldiering is the only culturally acceptable example of "biblical" (again ignoring just war debates), sacrificial love.

May I not be trapped into limiting my hero's and examples of Christ-like sacrificial love to those that are acceptable or popular as well.

The Path to the Kingdom?

I read this at the conclusion of an article by Laura M. Purdy entitled Are Pregnant Women Fetal Containers. She discusses eloquently the ethics of a woman’s rights and responsibilities as carrier of a “potential” human life; specifically when it comes to forced interventions (such as abstaining from alcohol) that might improve the health of the baby.

We might want to consider expecting more of each other, both morally and legally. One form such expectations might take would be to assume that people should be willing to sacrifice expendable parts of their bodies (bone marrow, paired organs) to save the lives of others. A still more demanding expectation would be that people make such sacrifices to prevent serious illness on the part of others. Although the first of these would not affect pregnant women especially, because fetuses aren’t persons, the second would have a disproportionate impact on women, despite the fact that for all the reasons suggested in this paper, a humane world would invite many fewer conflicts between women and their fetuses….

A more caring society would be very desirable: its coming should be encouraged by those who are dissatisfied with the chill of the classic liberal approach to relationships. It is time for thinking about what forms such caring might reasonably take, together with their implications for our contemporary values. In the meantime, the contrast between this vision and our current world should be enough to fuel the fight against the invasions of woman’s bodies now occurring.

This has very much intrigued me. An extreme pro-choice (she also argues for the morality of infanticide) philosopher argues that sacrificial communal living may be a potential solution to many of the reproductive ethical debates we struggle with. It’s interesting to me that Jesus of Nazareth also argued that sacrificial communal living is a solution to many social debates in our world:

But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you.

Whether we listen to philosophers or prophets may we embrace sacrificial communal living as we strive to live in the Kingdom.

Literally

I spent the other night going for a long jog… then enjoying golfing at an awe inspiring driving range in the Rocky Mountains… then sitting watching the sun set. In the business of every day I way to quickly forget that our world is literally far “Better than Television”.

A Bad Movie but Maybe One of the Best

I’m watching Pearl Harbor on TV now and am struck again by what a terrible movie it is in any critical sense but despite this it makes me "feel" like no other movie.

Why?

I think the main reason is that the characters in the movie get it all. They are heroes and heroines but at the same time get all the good things; beaches, hot girlfriends etc. I think this is the tension that I live in quite often. I am torn between my desire to be a hero, help others and make a difference and my less altruistic drive to be normal, popular and have the good life. I think the characters, as badly acted as they are, have both these seemingly opposite lives and my dream can be sustained by seeing there fictional incarnation of this.

I think though that this is Hollywood and the American Dream and not the way of Jesus of Nazareth. It is my experience that the fight to live the godly life and the compromise to keep the dream of normalcy alive are not compatible. It’s one or the other.

Despite Pearl Harbor being one of the best movies ever, may I see the fallacy and recognize the way of Christ as the best live ever.