"Eye of the Beholder" - The Twilight Zone

The Twilight Zone is a TV series that aired in the 1960s. The episode entitled "Eye of the Beholder" is episode six of season two. The scenarios of each episode are said to take place in the 'Twilight Zone' meaning it is some kind of alternate reality or possibly a look into the future. In this episode, a woman is in a hospital receiving treatment in order to fix the condition of her face. You don't see the faces of the doctors, nurses, and the woman until her bandages are removed at the end of the episode. The woman, Miss Tyler, is constantly exclaiming and pleading, "I want to be like everybody else!" or "All I've ever wanted is to be normal." It is finally revealed that Miss Tyler is a beautiful young woman, but 'normal' people have distorted pig-like faces.
The audience is to understand that the origin of evil is forced conformity (conforming everyone to have pig-like faces). The Leader is heard proclaiming, "It is essential for society not only that we have a norm, but that we conform to that norm!" The empire established by the Leader and government ensnares people to think that conformity is needed to have an ideal world. The seeds of redemption can be seen in some of the comments by the doctors. They question the conformist rules of the government and express that they see the true human underneath Miss Tyler's appearance. Miss Tyler herself had a captured imagination. She did not want to accept any alternative to the empire; she wanted to be the 'normal' that was chosen by the empire.

Questions:
How could the doctors have responded subversively to Miss Tyler's appearance?
Miss Tyler was sent to live in a community with others "of her kind." Could this be considered as an act of grace by the government? Or is it only suppression?

The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret

I just finished re-watching the first season of “The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret,” which is a show starring two of the stars from “Arrested Development,” David Cross (creator and writer of “The Increasingly Poor Decisions”) and Will Arnett. This show is about a socially clueless compulsive liar who is unwittingly transferred to the UK to sell a mysterious Korean energy drink called “Thunder Muscle.” Needless to say, as the plot progresses, Todd Margaret completely ruins his own life with his lies and touristy ignorance.

“The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret” is a comedy, but there are many serious messages in it. One is the issue of honesty—Todd’s failures can all be traced back to the web of lies he spun about his past and present conditions. According to “The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret,” dishonesty is an evil that leads to the sin of lying, which only makes things worse. Todd arrives in some wildly chaotic situations because of the lies he tells, and, true to form, his attempts to weasel his way out of them involve even more lies.

Another issue is greed. Todd’s new boss Brent Wilts (Will Arnett) is just as foolish and naive as Todd, but his character is much more aggressive. That’s because Wilts is a gambler who is obsessed with money & power. Once he mysteriously gets promoted from his telemarketing position, he has an extremely profane field day lording his power over the office where Todd works. This says a lot about our world’s idea of human purpose. Arnett’s character is sort of a caricature, but he embodies many of the evils that affect people everywhere: greed, perversion, and carelessness. These evils are deceptive and blinding. 

We eventually learn that Todd’s only employee, Dave, is really the deluded son of a British millionaire, and has been playing Todd and Brent all along. This is another perversion of power: manipulation. This doesn’t make power a bad thing, it only calls out the misuse of it. Dave’s reasons for messing with Todd and Brent are completely personal, and his massive masterplan for revenge is a gross misuse of power.

1. If dishonesty and greed are Todd’s and Brent’s weakness, respectively, then how could they redeem themselves and solve all their problems?

2. How can a person see a show like “The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret” as apocalyptic? That is, how can somebody glimpse the kingdom vision through it?

Arrested Development

Ask anyone with half a brain and a netflix account, and they'll tell you that Arrested Development is by far the most well-written TV comedy to ever grace our eyes and ears. A telling of one family and their issues that stem from the family's deep-seeded and inherent greed. What Arrested Development teaches us is that evil comes from greed, and greed from a lack of both intelligence and family-based priorities. Redemption is found in actions that stem from honesty, integrity, and selflessness. The idea of redemption is one of the most key themes within Arrested Development, as Michael Bluth, the middle son and protagonist of the series seeks to undo his fathers actions that brought the family company and the family itself. After watching any episode of this genius comedy, I can't help but wonder, what one of the seven deadly sins would bring my family to ruin, and am I doing anything to prevent that from happening?

She's The Man

Adapted from William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, She's The Man is one of my personal favorite films. A teen romantic-comedy, She's The Man is the story about a girl named Viola, played by Amanda Bynes, who's girl soccer team got cut at her high school. Therefore she pretends to be her twin brother, at the rival high school he attends and joins the soccer team. Throughout the film with the complications of almost blowing her cover, cat-fights in the bathroom, to falling for her roomate, She's The Man is a funny movie.

However as She's The Man is not a 'Christian' film, this artifact talks about evil in the empire about the sexual hierarchy. The film may not address the issue directly but it is implied. As mentioned before Viola becomes upset at the fact that her high school cut her soccer team. When Viola finds out she adresses the issue to the men's soccer coach and comes up with the idea of allowing the girls to try out for the soccer team. Hearing the idea, the soccer coach laughs and mocks the girls and saying that girls can't do anything boys can and that boys are just better than females. This scene then goes with what  Walsh and Keesmaat were trying to explain in chapter 11. Even though it says in the bible that women should be 'under' her husband, the woman is also to be set free of the hierarchy of the empire. Even though I may sound like a feminist by this point, even though I am not, I believe that there should be an equality treatment to both sexes. Some may be upset at the fact that a woman can throw a football better than a guy or that a guy can knit a scarf better than a girl, but despite the 'abnormal' examples, that doesn't mean that we should treat each other poorly. Instead we should be happy and encourage one another.



Even though women may or may not be able to do everything a male can, why do you think that women should or should not be limited to what they can do?

How important is communication?

Friends

       For my second cultural artifact, I chose to watch an hour of Friends. This is a show in which six friends all live together or close to each other and hang out all the time. They each go through their ups and downs, along with lots of comical moments thrown in there.
       This artifact doesn't tell very much about human purpose. From what I watched, the main thing it said was that humans are meant to live in community. They are supposed to be with and love people. All the characters show this very well and continue to live with each other, even if they are mad at each other. I think that watching this show makes me realize few things about evil. I realized how often sex is referred to and actually happens in a lot of tv shows and movies. Not only is it Joey, the friend who "dates" lots of women, but every single of the friends in the show have had sex before they are married. I also noticed how all the women in the show that Joey "dates" are beautiful, but very skinny. Actually, almost all the women in the show are skinny. The redemption comes when they are in community. They give each other support and try to help each other do the right things, not only in the episodes that I watched, but in all of them.
        Why are there no people of color in the friend group shown? Why is it socially accepted that sex before marriage is okay and can be shown to the younger generations of the world?

Melancholia

Melancholia is an independent film starring Kristen Dunst as Justine and Charlotte Gainsbourg as Claire. It tells the story of two sisters whose relationship is stained from Justine’s struggle with depression and inability to take care of herself. Claire and her husband pay for Justine’s extravagant wedding but then are disappointed at Justine’s continued unhappiness. At the wedding Claire and her husband struggle to keep things running smoothly. Justine cannot pretend to be happy. She looses her new husband and her new job promotion to her depression. The sister’s relationship is further stressed when news that the planet Melancholia that is headed towards earth is announced. Claire is overcome with anxiety upon hearing the news; while Justine calmly accepts death.

The reason I choose this movie was because I had heard very good reviews of this film. Some of my friends even claimed that its one of their favorite movies. Watching this film with that in mind, I have to admit that I was very disappointed with Melancholia. Yes, it was beautifully put together and the cinematography was perfect. But my main problem with the film is that the story was boring and overall intellectually dry. There were many interesting themes that the film could have explored but didn’t. It portrayed depression is a moving, interesting way but didn’t really address the issue of depression or ask meaningful questions about depression.

Another thing that seemed unresolved but not in a good way was the strained relationship between Justine and Claire. I think the relationship dynamic between them was very interesting but the filmmakers didn’t fully explore their relationship or make the audience ask questions about what it means to be a good sister. Since my younger sister has some audio processing difficulties, I was very intrigued by this mother-like older sister character. I also identify with Claire’s struggle with anxiety. This film could have been very personal and spoke to my real life relationships. But it didn’t. It didn’t fully explore or resolve the sister’s relationship so I was very disappointed by that aspect of the film as well. 

As Christians how should we approach the issue of depression? How should we treat and deal with it?

How do our relationships with our siblings reflect how we view ourselves? What would kingdom-like sibling relationships look like?

The Majestic Mountains

The television show Planet Earth, made by Discovery Channel, may as well be the best made educational and entertaining show on the features of this earth we are living on. I just recently saw an episode that focused on the mountains. It explained how it formed, showed the inhabitants of different mountains and how they adapt to the harsh living conditions of the place. The narrator, David Attenborough, mentioned that people often talk of conquering a mountain, and yet in truth they have not. “We are only visitors,” David said.

At first, if you’ve never seen Planet Earth before, it may sound boring but it is quite the opposite. This show teaches us to admire the nature that God has created. It is telling us about His creativity and His power and His attention to detail. It shows all the variety of mountains, plants and creatures that God has given us. But at the same time, this show demonstrates how all of creation has fallen; Pumas are trying to maim other animals for food and even male bighorn sheep fighting against each other as a proof of who’s stronger and a competition to decide who gets the female. Climate change has been changing the life of the different animals residing in the mountains. These mountains sometimes hold our violence and other people’s riches since drug trades often take place in mountains, where there are no eyes that spy. Even our attempts to conquer the highest of mountains, Mount Everest, show our fellness, in that these attempts highlight our desire for personal glory. We long for the recognition that comes with being able to scale that treacherous mountain.

With all the majesty of the mountains and the adorableness of the different creatures, it makes you wonder what it will be like in the new earth and heaven. If the natural landscapes we have now are already breathtaking, how much more when Jesus comes again?

But until then questions arise:

What are we personally doing to care for nature?

How can we prevent the extinction of endangered species?

Perks of Being a Wallflower

Cultural Artifact #2-Perks of Being a Wallflower

by Karis Kim

                This coming of age movie tells the story of a boy named Charlie who struggles to find normalcy in his life. Charlie wants to be like any other teenage hoping to find friends that accept and understand him. This is an important part in Charlie’s life because he is finally recovering from mental issues and deaths that he has come to cope with. A group of friends ‘adopts’ Charlie as they introduce him to a whole new world outside of anything he could imagine. There is a lot to take away from the movie and how it can relate to a lot of things that high schoolers are going through. Grades, social pressure, partying, and what the future will hold for each of these characters. Everyone is created differently and goes through different situations that shape how they become. For Charlie, he struggled a lot because seemingly the suicide death of his best friend and car accident that happened to his aunt. These events took a huge toll on Charlie’s introverted nature. The constant clashing of his love for his aunt and the fact that she had abused him really left Charlie unstable and uncertain about why he was living. There are so many things that we don’t know people are struggling with and this movie just brought that idea to life. People are always hiding their real story and everyone should be aware of this fact. Evil and sin just emanates through all the things that have happened in Charlie’s life. He is extremely strong for being able to handle all the different pressures and evil that he has been inflicted with. By the end of the film, Charlie is able to find a peace and purpose for his life. He doesn’t have everything figured out, but he does have a better handle on coping and helping himself be healthy. I really enjoyed the film and felt that it made me aware of a lot of stuff I never would have thought about. So many people struggle with their own problems and it made me think about how strong people are to be going through whatever their story has entailed. How can we as Christians help talk to these kinds of introverted people? Is there any way for us to help prevent even more of these evils from occurring?

Seeing the Light Through The Lumineers

          The Lumineers are a folk alternative band that was formed in Denver, Colorado in 2005.  It was not until recetly, however that The Lumineers exploded in popularity, receiving two Grammy nominations and achieving double platinum status on their most popular single  "Ho Hey" in December of 2012.  The band is comprised of Wesley Schultz on guitar, Jeremiah Fraites on drums and Neyla Pakarek.  Fraites describes the bands style as "super simple" stating that the emphasis of the band is not on the complexity of the compositions but instead on the cinematic aspect of the band's performances.

          Most of the songs on The Lumineers' single, self-named album are in the form of short, poetic stories with old-timey small town, country undertones.  This is clearly shown through "Classy Girls", an illustration of an interaction between a young man and a young woman in a bar that is just under three minutes long.  Like the bar in the story created by this song, it almost feels as though this song was written to be listened to after a long day of work, to let loose, and just relax.

          While this album was certainly relaxing and easy to listen to, many of the songs have a hidden meaning behind the simple rhythms.  The song "Submarines" for example hides the possibility of a Japanese submarine invasion behind a joyful, upbeat piano riff.  In this song, a boy runs into town swearing he's seen a Japanese submarine to which the town responds casually unconcerned; the police just laugh, saying he's seen a ghost.  This is an allusion to the empire which preaches that people should be casually unconcerned about anything that could potentially rock the boat.  The final two lines of the song sum up perfectly why no one will listen to the unpopular voice.  "In the end it boils down to credibility; I had none so I will die with the secrets of the sea."  The empire discourages questions just like this small town that refused to even consider whether or not there was a submarine in the water.  

          The setting of the Lumineers' song "Charlie Boy" is the mid 1940's during World War II.  This song tells the story of a time when the government preached patriotism; that if one did not support the war effort, they lacked the traits of a true American.  It is easy to see the position of the family members of Charlie, the hypothetical young man volunteering to go to war, through the lyrics "Kennedy made him believe, we could do much more." Charlie was a victim of the empire telling him that he could be a hero if he went along with America's plan for the world.  But the lyrics go on to show how only pain ensued when the "news was bad on Upland Ave." and "Metuchen mourn our loss."  This song illustrates perfectly how it is so easy to fall under the empire's influence because it's ideals are manufactured to be popular in culture.

          The Lumineers, through their meaningful lyrics, help to bring about the kingdom of God rather than the empire by making us ask questions.  They tell short stories that are trivial at the surface, but incredibly complex once they are listened to the second or third time.  The Lumineers make art through their music because it does not tell anyone to believe any one thing but instead, they are made to encourage questions and alternate interperetations. 

Cultural Artifact 2: The Great Gatsby (Book)

The Great Gatsby is a classic novel written by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The story is about Nick, the narrator, and his neighbor, Jay Gatsby. Gatsby fell in love with Nick's cousin, Daisy, back during their teenage years. Ever since then Gatsby has been trying to find a way to contact Daisy and succeeds once he meets Nick. Daisy and Gatsby's reunion is full of emotion as all the old feelings have been drudged up. At the same time, Daisy's husband, Tom, is having an affair with a gas station attendant's wife named Myrtle. As Daisy and Gatsby's affair becomes more serious, Tom begins to take notice. At a luncheon with Tom, Nick, Daisy, and Gatsby, Tom realizes that Gatsby is deeply in love with Gatsby. After a fuss Daisy realizes her devotion to Tom who makes her drive back to their home with Gatsby as a way to prove that he (Tom) has complete control over Daisy. Daisy is driving the car when she accidentally hits Myrtle. Eventually Myrtle's husband avenges her death by killing Gatsby in his backyard.

The nature of sin in The Great Gatsby is evident in the affairs that Tom and Daisy have; both of them are rich and feel entitled to being able to do whatever they want. The nature of sin is also seen in Gatsby's life. Gatsby has these extravagant stories that no one knows if they're true or not, so some people hate Gatsby while others love him for the lavish parties that he throws. The parties and stories are used to cover his insecurities and to make himself seem better for the Daisy. Within Gatsby and Daisy's affair there is sin on many levels because of the sexual aspect of the relationship, as well as Daisy being interested in Gatsby because of his acquired wealth not because he is a good person. Redemption can be seen in Gatsby because of his only motive for living is to win Daisy's heart. Even though this is a shallow reason for living, it makes the reader pity Gatsby and want him to win because he's the underdog. Nick is redeemed when, at the end of the novel, he returns back West because of the amount of corruption within the socialite life. Nick understands that life is valuable and emotions are not to be trifled with and doesn't want anything to do the life that he was living in the East.

This novel reveals many things about the Empire. The main point about the Empire in the Great Gatsby is that the Empire sucks you in and spits you out worse off. The Empire wants you to consume its goods mindlessly like the people that were "friends" with Gatsby did. All of Gatsby's "friends" were there to drink all of his booze and do outlandish things at his parties, they didn't care about the emotions and deeper aspects of Jay Gatsby, just that he had money to spend on things of the Empire. The Kingdom is shown in The Great Gatsby within Nick who is the moral compass of the group of characters. He tries to make things right between everybody, and after failed attempts, leaves West Egg to live a life that he can be proud of in the Western United States.

1. Is Gatsby ever redeemed during the novel?
2. Is Daisy at fault for  Myrtle's death, or it is simply a coincidence that her husband's lover was the people she hit?
3. Does Nick succeed at being a moral character?

Princess Mononoke

   Princess Mononoke is a film about warrior, Ashitaka, that went in search of what created the demon that destroyed his home. He stumbles across a war between Lady Eboshi, who wants to destroy the forest to find iron, and Princess Mononoke, who wants to protect the forest.

    The main message that this film enforces is that people should try to find a balance between their use of nature and the preservation of nature. In this way both the culture that humans create and the nature that it tends with have the opportunity to flourish. An easier way to look at it is to say that this film is advocating for shalom between humans and creation.
    Neither the humans nor the creatures of the forest were shown to be completely good or evil, but were kept morally ambiguous. Even though Lady Eboshi was cruel to the forest, she also took in lepers and gave them a home. The wolves showed loyalty to the boars and kindness to Ashitaka, yet they were willing to let the boars die in battle, or kill Ashitaka if it meant their own preservation. In this way evil is shown to be the violence that each side of the war inflicts on the other and that the only way to reconcile that evil is to find shalom in the balance of the two.
    The captivation of the empire is shown in this film when both creatures and humans believe that there are two options, destroy the forest for iron or protect the forest and live like animals. Ashitaka is the voice of the Kingdom by advocating a new way of thinking because he is not part of the two sided battle, and he deliberately stays separated. However, he does not stay away, instead he jumps into the fray and continues to advocate for shalom.

What can we do to create shalom with our environment?

What are some examples of two sided arguments that the empire creates? 

Redeeming a Sinful World

“Princess Mononoke” is a story of a prince, Ashitaka, who, in a battle with a demon, is cursed and is forced to go find the cure for the curse through the nature god. On his journey to find the nature god, the prince encounters Princess Mononoke, a girl raised by nature, who is at battle with civilization. The civilization is led by Lady Eboshi who is industrializing a town and destroying the nature around it. A man named Jigo then comes into the conflict and enlists the help of Lady Eboshi in finding the nature god and beheading it, so that he may gain the reward set on its head.   

It is very easy to say that this story is opening up the discussion on what humans are doing to nature; that humans are so caught up in creating new weaponry that they completely forget about the gods around them that take care of the nature. I would argue that the story is more a story of redemption. The main civilization shown throughout this film is the village of Iron Town. Iron town does exactly what it sounds like; it creates iron. This town is led by Lady Eboshi who shows the first glance of redemption through her choice in workers. Lady Eboshi does not hire a bunch of men to work her iron mills; she hires women out of whorehouses to create the iron and lepers to create weaponry out of the iron. Redemption also shows its way into the story through the main character, Ashitaka. Ashitaka is on a quest for healing. On this quest he runs into the conflict between Iron Town and nature. When Ashitaka runs into the leader of nature side of the conflict, Princess Mononoke, he immediately falls for her. When Princess Mononoke decides to attack Iron Town, Ashitaka is forced to break up a fight between Lady Eboshi and Princess Mononoke by knocking both of them out. He then proceeds to carry Princess Mononoke out of Iron Town, getting himself shot on the way out. The Princess, in seeing what he has done for her, gets him to the center of the forest where the nature god dwells where Ashitaka finds himself healed by the waters of the nature god. Later in the story, Jigo and his men march on the dwelling of the nature spirit and behead the nature god. The body of the nature god goes on a rampage to find his head, to which Ashitaka and Princess Mononoke go out and take back the nature god’s head from Jigo, restoring order to the world. In returning the nature god’s head, Ashitaka is healed of his curse and the world is filled with new growth. As you can see, redemption is the main premise of this story as Ashitaka redeems himself of his curse and the world is redeemed by the Ashitaka’s sacrifice.

Question 1: What is our role in taking care of nature?

Question 2: What lessons come out of this film? What did you learn?

Question 3: One of the other themes of this movie is “sin” invading the world. How is “sin” portrayed in the characters of “Princess Mononoke”? What affect does “sin” have on the characters?  

Cultural Artifact 2: PSY's 6th Album (6 甲)

For my second cultural artifact, I chose a Korean album that includes 2012’s hottest song, Gagnamstyle: Psy’s 6甲 (6^th album). In July 2012, Artist Psy introduced the album after two gap years of his previous album. The album brought great expectation as five tracks of the total six tracks were featured by five top Korean singers. The album and artist received its greatest attention, especially when Gangnamstyle became a world famous song. Although all the songs were written in Korean, this link contains translated lyrics of the tracks for your better understanding: http://www.nomorelyrics.net/psy-lyrics.html. I especially have decided to listen to Psy’ 6 album because its worldwide popularity might blind listeners to judge apocalyptic meaning correctly.

All of the Psy’s track included “love” as its components. Songs like “Passionate Goodbye,” “What Would Have Been,” “Never Say Goodbye,” and even “Gangnamstyle” described relationship from various aspects. Listening to the songs and reading the lyrics, I realized that the album is signifying relationship and love as essential purpose of human beings. In the song “Never Say Goodbye,” for example, a relationship is descripted as ongoing process of life that will always coexist with humanity (“Comedies and tragedies are all plays that have an end, life is just an instance of those. Out of my remaining days, I'm the youngest today. So I'm leaving to somewhere again”). While one of the Kingdom’s qualities definitely includes healthy relationship, some of the tracks (such as Gangnamstyle) explicitly encourage the listeners to consider relationship based of appearances, sexual appeals, and shallowness. Ultimately, the album is both depicting and conveying that humans are born to belong to another sex for vacancy in relationship. As this relationship compromises content for most of the album’s songs, it shows how a life can be devoted to follow the empire’s concept of relationship in our secular world.

Secular world, or the Empire, has been explicitly revealed in this album. Gangnamstyle is still being loved by people around the world, reaching over one billion viewers on Youtube. However, the message that lies behind the song implies of standards of cool guys and girls in a glittering city like Gangnam, where all the rich and authoritative Koreans dwell. This sexually appealing song defines “beauty” and “sexiness.” Like the qualities stressed in the Empire, the song values sexuality, wealth, toughness, playfulness, and irrationality of men and women. Unlike the Kingdom where beauty is found just as we are, it is polished through various additional false attachments. “My first cigarette was electrifying, my first kiss was sweet, my first sex was intense,” are few verses from “Seventy Seven 101.” These verses convey that enjoyment in life comes from what the world considers as fun. Immature listeners would absorb the lyrics and take it for themselves. In these songs, God’s Kingdom cannot be found even unfortunately.

In the song of “Blue Frog,” finally there is some appearance of God’s Kingdom. The song basically discusses of being different in the restricted and generalized society: “I’m not wrong, I’m just different. If you say it’s a problem, then it’s a problem.” This verse encourages people to not conform to the society norms but develop ourselves according to what has given to us. In another perspective though, the song also manifest postmodernism that is ruling our generation, as it claims that right and wrong depends on one’s judgment.

The album might have created regarding these concepts to appeal to general social norm, which reflects majority of the empire’s values. Whether the artist’s intention was to discourage or encourage the listeners to pursue the Empire, the album has certainly impacted fragile audience to loose judgment and discernment as it is popular in our world.

sexually appealing, sets the standard that what is beauty and sexually appealing has to be wealthy, talks about beauty quality of men and women.

Gangnamstyle was thrilled all around the world with its secular dance and appeals.

“what is being regarded as ‘popular’ and transforming our lives?”

For audiences that are unable to make certain judgments on a cultural artifact, should this album be available to all people? Or where should the responsibility of guiding immature audience to wrongful thoughts lie to? 

Artifact 2

Splendor In The Glass – Pink Martini

I can see you are thinking baby

I’ve been thinking too

About the way we used to be

And how to start a new

Maybe I’m a hopeless dreamer

Maybe I’ve got it wrong

But I’m going where the grass is green

If you’d like to come along

Back when I was starting out

I always wanted more

But every time I got it

I still felt just like before

Fortune is a fickle friend

I’m tired of chasing fate

And when I look into your eyes

I know you feel the same

All these years of living large

Are starting to do a sin

 I won’t say it wasn’t fun

But now it has to end

Life is moving oh so fast

I think we should take it slow

Rest our heads upon the grass

And listen to it grow

Going where the hills are green

And the cars are few and far

Days are full of splendor

And at night you can see the stars

Life’s been moving oh so fast

I think we should take it slow

Rest our heads upon the grass

And listen to it grow

This is a song which made me think about my life and how it is busy. The lyrics are so good.

This song lyrics are talks about how we live our life so fast so we don’t even know other thing that we don’t care about. In this song, the person wants to go where the grass is growing and where cars are few and slow. So I think that places are redemption for this song writer.

God doesn’t told us to live busy. Where the grass is growing and where the cars are few and slow is God’s kingdom. It doesn’t mean that the place we live is not the kingdom but in those peaceful places, we can more think about God and rest. Like God rested on the seventh day. This song writer wants to go to that place and take a rest.

Questions.

After you read this lyric or listen to the song, what did you thought of?

Is this song made you feel like you are living in too fast life?

What should we do to live our life slowly?

Wall-E

     The movie sets on earth which is piled with trash. We meet a stained robot called Wall-E, who works as a cleaner, picking up trash. It goes through the piles of trash and collects different things and brings it back to his garage where his only friend, a cockroach is waiting. One day he finds a plant and later on meets Eve, a glossy white robot sent by a huge ship to look for any living thing. Wall-E falls in love with Eve but when Wall-E shows Eve the plant, Eve takes it in its body and deactivates. Wall-E follows Eve as the huge ship returns and we find out that human beings had been living in the spaceship. People have become obese and the adventure begins as Wall-E and Eve work to bring the plant to Captain McCrea despite the oppositions of the other robots. The film ends with the people coming back to earth.

     What struck me most was the appearance and life style of the human beings in the Axiom (the spaceship). Everyone was obese and moving around in their hovering chairs which entertained them and fed them. This may be revealing what is to come to our world someday or atleast in the wealthy countries, especially the US where obesity is a rapidly increasing issue. While Wall-E follows Eve as it is being escorted to the captain's chamber, we see a fat guy, John, falling off his hovering chair and unable to come back on it. It was a humorous moment but this inability to physically move becomes a huge problem later on in the movie. Auto, the evil robot, must be prevented and Captin McCrea dramatically shuts it off barely standing up. I felt that this movie had a message or in an extreme sense, a warning, towards what might happen if we do not control ourselves from over consuming.

     The origin of evil in this movie is the trashing of the earth. Since the earth was filled with trash and no longer able to produce and sustain life, human beings were forced to leave. Forced to consume unhealthy foods which require no vegetation and to live on chairs inorder to minimize the ocupation of space, people become obese. This seems to be where our world is heading towards. Life in the empire is full of pollution and destruction of the environment for selfish desires, as we saw in the short 10 minute video on the corporations and their evil acts of damaging not only terrirory in the US but all around the world. Another issue of the film are the evil robots. As the advancement of techonology has been expolsive, people of the empire have idolatized and have placed their reliance on machines. But this film reveals that this lifestyle of the empire is dangerous.

     The saviour figure of the movie is Wall-E. Without its work and findings, humans would have not been able to return to earth. But it is ironic that the plain, old and rusty robot is the heroe figure. This is goes along with the up-side-down Kingdom of God where the weak, small and the unattractive are used.

1. What message is Wall-E trying to communicate to us and what lessons should we learn from it?
2. What can we do about the rising issues related to pollution, consumerism and obesity?