I had an epiphany yesterday and I credit Dr. Sexson and his Bible Lit class. I found a better film to represent my "distractions/needful thing" argument better than "Music and Lyrics" at the same time. And it comes from the world of comics. Does it get any better than that?
The movie I am referring to is Spider-Man 2. Yes the sequel. I did not show this in class because a) I did not think of it until now b) I don't think we had 2 hours to watch the entire film. But many of you have seen this movie. It came out when most of us were still in High School. And it ranks somewhere on the top 25 highest grossing worldwide movies of all time, so the rest of this blog is based on the assumption that you have seen Spider-Man 2 (if not, you should!)
Tobey Maguire plays Peter Parker/Spider-Man and his life is full of distractions. He lost his job; his aunt can't make her house payments; his best friend feels betrayed; and the girl he loves is gonna marry some other guy. Oh yeah... and he has to save people as Spider-Man from burning buildings and bank robbers. He is overwhelmed with these responsibilities and he losses his powers. He goes back to being regular old Peter Parker. But then Doctor Octopus kidnaps his girlfriend.
It's a great movie and entertaining throughout, and if you watch it, you can see how it fits into the distractions vs. needful thing argument. Plus there is a wonderful scene where Peter sits down with Octavius (Doctor Octopus) and his wife for lunch and he remembers when they met in college, he was the big science student and she was an English major reading him T.S. Eliot! (Definitely one of my favorite parts of the film.) But now I must address the epiphany I had about this movie (and we have to finish the plot)
When Mary Jane (The love interest played by Kirsten Dunst) is taken by the villain, Spidey gets his powers back, and saves the day. Now ever since I first saw the movie in 2004 I thought that this was because of his love for her and, being the hopeless romantic that I am, I assumed that she was his needful thing. The epiphany I had is that she is NOT the needful thing. She is a focal point that allows him to concentrate on what is truly needful and eliminate the distractions. When her life is in danger, all of the distractions go away and he realizes that he needs to be Spider-Man; not just to save her life, but for everyone else who depends on him (like the people on the train.)
If he does not act, people will die and his life has no meaning.
It does not really matter if Mary Jane or Joe Average need to be saved, he will step up and do it because of the guilt he feels over not saving his Uncle Ben. In this film and in many of the comic stories he wants to give up being Spider-Man, but he can not. He needs to be Spider-Man for himself even more so than for others.
I was so glad that Dr. Sexson called me on being a slave to the needful thing. I focused so much on freedom from distractions that I did not bring up how you can, and probably will, become a "slave" to your needful thing.
My experience is with X-Men. I read Uncanny X-Men #331 last week. Then 332. The story was continued in Wolverine #101, so I pulled that out and read it. Went back to Uncanny #333, and I will read 334 after that and so on. I did not know how to put a positive spin on the word slave, but I guess I should just accept it. It is just a word. If you wanted to you could say "obsessively devoted." (but that just sounds worse.)
I started reading X-Men from the beginning last fall. That means the first issue written by Stan Lee back in 1963. Since August 2009, I have read well over 700 X-Men back issues (meaning not the current ones being published during that time which could be over 100 comics)
Now we get to the tricky part : what happens once I've read them all? There are only 530ish of Uncanny X-Men issues, 240 X-Men, 200 X-Factor, 280 some Wolverine. I'll probably catch up to what Marvel is currently publishing within the next year, so then what can I do? I think I'll read them again! Or go through Spider-Man. Avengers. Something...
I've learned that most people, myself included, are distracted by distractions. In the film City Slickers, Billy Crystal needs to find the one thing that matters because everything else pales in comparison to that one thing. The difference between a strong or a weak reading of The Bible is the number of distractions you allow to come between you and the text. However, this applies to everyday life as well. What matters most is finding that one thing.
I will now illustrate this point by using an example from everyday grocery shopping. I have a shopping list of only one thing: milk. I walk in the doors of Wal*Mart (for illustration purposes; and they have great prices on milk!) and I notice that there is a sale on Christmas Cookies, so I pick up a box and continue on my way. Then I see a doughnut in the bakery that I have to have since I did not eat breakfast. I finally get back to the dairy section and pick up a gallon of milk, but the aisles are packed with Christmas shoppers so I detour around them and head over towards electronics and see a sweet deal on TV's and Blu-ray players! You know where this is going. I entered the store with one thing on my mind and left with several items because I was distracted from my true calling: a simple gallon of milk. This has happened on occasion to even the most determined of us. It is important to remained focused on the task at hand; after all, if you have lived through the above example you know you just forfeited hundreds of dollars on impulse shopping.
When you stay focused you can get it done faster and more effeciently. But is life nothing more than a race to the finish? Northrop Frye posed this question when he asked “How do I live a more abundant life?” In Luke 10:38 we see a rather unusual occurrence: Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village: and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet, and heard his word. But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, “Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? Bid her therefore that she help me.” And Jesus answered and said unto her, “Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: but one thing is needful, and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.” Is that The Bible's way of saying “stop and smell the roses?” Jesus tells Martha that she is troubled with too many things while her sister Mary has found the one thing that matters to her. Sure the dishes need to be done, but are they really more important than spending an evening with Jesus? This story appears to reward the slacker, much like the story of the prodigal son. In it the son who left home to party and drink and chase women (I would assume) returns home and is given a feast, while the son who stayed home and tended the farm and the animals was never treated in such a fashion. He asked his father why they would celebrate so for his brothers return. His father replied, “He once was lost and now is found.” (though not in those words.) These parables are an attack on the readers expectations. I learned in nursery rhymes that if you do not help old mother hen bake the cake you can not have any when its done. Does not every church in America say “God helps those who help themselves?” So why does The New Testament tolerate, maybe even encourage, the behavior of Mary and the prodigal son?
I for one spent hours upon hours “doing the dishes,” this semester which is my way of saying I was overloaded with homework. Let that be a lesson to anyone wanting to take 19 or more credits in one semester, use the summer session! Of course, being a business major and specifically in the accounting program, I had: more fake tax work than should be legal in most countries; loads of busywork from audit and cost courses; a few group projects more than necessary in financial statement analysis; and the most pointless assignments imaginable in the college of business capstone course. Dr. Sexson pointed out in the first few weeks of class that we all have the same number of hours in a day, so it simply becomes a matter of prioritizing and unfortunately I prioritized many of these burdensome things over my complete reading of the Bible. I did however, read the entire Book of Revelation. (Perhaps my one needful thing in this class that I knew before going into it.) Personally I just had to read this portion of The New Testament and come to the class lecture to hear what Dr. Sexson had to say. We could have easily spent everyday of this course talking about this one book, but again, we must prioritize and spread the wealth. These final pages did provide me plenty of ideas to write about in my blog posts; I only wish now that I would have given the other books the same attention that I did Revelation. But I can not dwell on the past and I will not worry about the future. After all the concept of time is only an illusion. The only moment we have is right now. What I learned in this class, from Dr. Sexson and my father, is that the future is inconsequential to what we do now. I have an infinite number of possibilities at every moment I have. Perhaps The New Testament is not rewarding lazy behavior so much as it is encouraging us to enjoy life every once and a while. Remember The Shinning? “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” If you want to avoid going crazy you have to step away from the type writer and find something fun to do. Or take you hands out of the sink, stop doing the dishes, and enjoy the company of your guests.
Frye asked how to live a more abundant life and Crystal responded with the needful thing. But what is it? The phrase “to each his own,” comes to mind. My personal necessity is entertainment. I do not view it as an escape; more like a vivid journey your mind takes while your body remains where it is. In Haroun and the Sea of Stories, Haroun is repeatedly asked what the point is of stories that “aren't even true?” What these characters are getting at is that fiction only distracts you from what is important. I argue that the only distracting fiction are the bad ones. How can you tell if it's bad? Dr. Sexson had a quote last year (I apologize for not knowing who said it) that “If you feel depressed after a piece of literature, then there is either something wrong with it or more likely you.” I might have to disagree and say that if you do not not feel anything after reading a piece of literature, then there is something wrong with it or you. Storytelling conveys a plot and characters and settings to the readers, but it has to elicit an emotion to be any good.
After this class, I learned to find my needful thing and to spend everyday enjoying it. For me, I need to be a part of the give and take of storytelling. Whether its William Shakespeare's Tempest or Scott Lobdell's X-Men. The greatest Greek tragedy or the worst Hollywood horror film. A feel good party song or the saddest break-up ballad. Or indulging my own award winning writing skills.
“Each days a gift and not a given right” -Chad Kroeger
Today's individual presentations were amazing. But I want to pay attention to two very special ones that really touched me. Ben's is the first I need to talk about. I have not seen any of those movies. But The Silence sounds like one I might have to go out and rent. Lust. Intellect. Love? That has been going through my head for years. It can be very confusing. Then there was Nate's presentation. This reminded me of an email I got from a friend in high school. (I think it was a forward, like the kind you send to eight friends and then you win the lottery, but it actually said something) The email told the story of a father who wished his daughter "enough" when she was boarding a plan. A man asked him why he wished her enough and not all the best. He said: I wish her enough bad days so that she truly understands and appreciates the good ones. I wish her enough money to eat but not so much as to be wasteful. I wish her heartbreak so that she will not take someone special for granted. (and a few more that were along the same lines but I can't remember an email from 2001) And this reappeared to me in Nate's words: that without one we don't know the other.
PS: Tuesday night I was watching Craig Ferguson and his guest was Salman Rushdie, who I remembered as the writer of Haroun and the Sea of Stories. Among other things, he spoke of his newest book Luka and the Fire of Life. Might be a good one since I did enjoy Haroun.
Yesterday when we brought up dreams again it reminded me of a dream I had last week. I do not remember many of the details, but I still want to post what I can. I was at some kind of court hearing. I believe it was to decide the interpretation of the Bible and how it would guide the laws from here on out. Sounds fairly normal since many of our western laws (such as don't kill anybody) come from the Bible (don't kill anybody.) However, this was some kind of outer space alien hearing. (I apologize for going here again, but the closest thing I can compare it to is Star Wars, like in the Phantom Menace when all of the aliens in the senate are arguing... it was like that.) NOBODY in the "court room" was human. But here we were, trying to determine which of the Bible's rules we were going to follow and spread across the galaxy. (I think it was the Bible because one of the aliens had my little green copy of The New Testament that I bring to class.) Unfortunately, some of the pages had been ripped out of it. This really upset the leader of the gathering. He demanded to know who tore out pages of the sacred text. Of course, it was the same person who interrupted the proceedings the entire time by making frequent outbursts of nonsense and pointless sounds. Everyone was upset at this person. So who did the leader punish? The guy sitting next to the obnoxious asshole!
This man accepted his punishment (which was pretty severe, something like cutting his hands off or being put to death on the spot.) I was confused and even angry that he was going to be punished and the actual culprit was walking away with out even a slap on the wrist! He was the one who tore up the Bible, why don't we cut his hands off and leave the other guy alone? I asked the leader and he said, "Because he stood by and did nothing to stop him."
Talk about unexpected. Somebody being punished not because he tore up the sacred text or because he interrupted a crucial conference, but because he failed to stop another from doing so when he had the chance. (Kinda like a Spider-Man guilt trip... oh no, Uncle Ben... sorry, again.)
I woke up soon afterwards and every time I think of the dream it reminds me more and more of the parables that just attack your expectations and make you question... well... right and wrong.
