Saturday, December 4, 2010

Deception

  I saw the movie Inception the other day.

  I was told, and was hoping, that it would be another Matrix.

  There has got to be a lesson here about bringing high expectations into the movie theater.

  I should have learned this lesson back in high school when I went to see the movie, "Night of the Comet". This movie was released in 1984, presumably to capitalize on Halley's comet which was scheduled to return in 1986.

  The movie centered around the near extinction of the human race after the earth passed through the tail of a comet.  Despite this dark premise, however, I honestly went in to the movie expecting it to be a comedy!

  To understand why you have to realize that I had learned most of what I knew about this movie from its trailer, and the trailer included the following scene:
  A small group of survivors is shown walking cautiously down the sidewalk of a deserted city block.  The group comes to a crosswalk and looks up to see that the street lights at the intersection are still functioning .. and that the "Don't Walk" sign is lit.

  The group stops on the curb obediently and begins waiting for the light to change.  One girl in the group, however, turns to the others incredulously ..

  "We are the last people on earth!" she shouts, "Why are we stopping at a cross walk"?  She then whirls around defiantly and begins marching across the street.

  At just that moment, a car barrels into the intersection and swerves around the corner, narrowly missing the girl as she jumps back to the curb and to safety.

  You see where this is going?  A dark comedy, right?

  Night of the Comet was a zombie movie.  Blood sucking zombies.

  And the scene from the trailer?  It was the very last scene in the movie.  Boy was I disappointed.

  I wasn't that disappointed with Inception, but it wasn't a Second Matrix.  Of course even the second matrix wasn't a Second Matrix, if you know what I mean.

  But there was one scene in Inception that made me think. (Just one?) It was the scene "on the shores of [his] subconscious," if you recall.  I won't give away any details from the movie, but this scene, and the story surrounding it, made me think because it reminded me of a short story I had heard many years ago.  A story that brought home for me the limits of our humanity and the horror of those limits in the face of eternity.  Perhaps you, too, will think of this story next time you see Inception.

A man finds himself walking down a lonely wooded road.  He sees a figure in a cape leaning on a post along side the road.

"Where am I," asks the man?

"You are dead," replies the figure.  And slowly the truth of this revelation becomes evident to the man as he recalls his life and the circumstances of his death.

"What do I do now," asks the man?

"You may do whatever you like," replies the figure.  Again the truth of what the figure says dawns upon the man and he realizes that he is, in fact, able to do anything he can imagine.

Reveling in his new-found abilities, the man transforms the landscape. He creates and destroys whole cities, continents and even planets. Entire civilizations rise and fall under his command. He finds that he is the master of everything he surveys.

One evening, many years later, the man once again came across the shadowy figure, still standing by the side of the same lonely wooded road.

"I'm curious," says the man, "I have accomplished many things since I first arrived here, even things I once thought impossible.  But now I wonder, is there anything else that I might do?"
"You may do whatever you like," replied the figure.

"Yes," said the man, "I understand that. But I was just wondering if there might be something else?"

"No," replied the figure.

"That's odd," said the man, "I mean, I'm not complaining or anything. I guess I just expected something more from heaven."

"Oh," replied the figure, "now I understand your confusion.  You see, this isn't heaven."

  People often associate hell with fire and brimstone.  But the idea that hell might be doing whatever you want .. forever?  Perhaps it takes a while to sink in, but in the end, that is a truly frightening thought.

Ecclesiastes 3:11 [God] has placed eternity in man's heart, but man cannot understand [it].

Thursday, September 30, 2010

Champions

  I have a couple of new heroes this week. My heroes are both 8th grade girls on the Linn-Mar cross country team and both are true champions.

  The first one's name is Madeline. Madeline is pretty easy to find - just wait at the finish line and she will be the first person you see at the end of the race. Madeline wins cross country races like Tiger Woods used to win golf tournaments .. squinting into the rear view mirror to spot the runner up.*  But, as Tiger Woods also demonstrated, being a great athlete does not automatically make you a champion.

  The other girl's name is Annie. I don't know too much about Annie, but what I do know is that as a child she had surgery on her legs to improve her ability to walk. Did you catch that? Her ability to walk. Did I mention that Annie is on the Linn-Mar cross country team?

  At tonight's meet, Madeline was conspicuously absent from the leader board. In fact it wasn't until well after the girls race had finished and the boys race was underway that I actually caught sight of her. But it wasn't Madeline who first caught my attention .. it was Annie.

  I was watching the boys enter into their first straightaway when a figure in the crowd caught my eye. It was Annie, attempting to extract herself from the sweaty, panting mass of humanity and begin her final assault on the finish line. But Annie wasn't alone.

  Tonight Madeline and Annie had run the race together.

  As the two approached the finish line, a small group of girls caught sight of them and ran to the edge of the track cheering. Madeline crossed the finish line alongside Annie .. to a hero's welcome.

  A true champion is someone who, after accomplishing more than one might reasonably expect, still has something left over to give to someone else.  Thanks, girls, for giving me a rare glimpse of what it means to be a true champion.

* Yeah, you caught me exaggerating.  When Madaline looks back over her shoulder she actually sees Stephanie, a 7th grade runner, also from Linn-Mar.  It is Stephanie who has to squint into her rear view mirror to spot the next runner up.

Hi Ho

  Facebook won't let me create or edit notes, so here I am.

  Will this work any better?

  Who knows?