Monday, June 17, 2013
The Universe Will Blow Your Mind
Hi, folks! No deep thoughts here today, just a guided tour that I plan to take a few more times today. Want a windshield view of deep space? Here is an amazing one for you. Make sure to click for the guided tour!
Tuesday, June 4, 2013
The Others
Yep - I've been watching Lost. I realize that I'm a few years late to the party, but better late than never, right? Ever since a friend of mine forwarded me the TED Talk video of JJ Abrams and I realized that this was the man to whom I owe the just-plain-freaking-awesome reboot of Star Trek, I've loved him. Hence the late-night, Hulu-plus foray into Lost. I'm in the middle of season three, and Dharma has Jack. There is a lot of confusion about the Hostiles and the Others and Dharma and who they all are, but the crash survivors are pretty sure about one thing: anyone who isn't them is bad.
I have a feeling that JJ Abrams is just messing with me, though. After seeing all of the back stories so far and how nearly everyone has a complicated, very gray past, I'm pretty sure that even the Others have a reason for what they're doing. I mean, look at Juliette. And as much as I dislike Benjamin Linus, I'm suspending judgement. That seems lately like the best thing for me to do in fiction and in life.
After all, following the loudest voices in my religious circles left me looking at the world full of ordinary people around me as if they were all the Others: crazed wack jobs with no other aim in life than to destroy the country and the family and everything sane and normal and decent as fast as they could. It took stepping off my particular stretch of beach and meeting them face to face for me to realize that they were just like me and that the crazy ones were the loud, religious voices.
In fact, though I've removed those influences from my life, I had to calm my son down last night after he accidentally watched an ignorant, sensationalist piece of religious propaganda on YouTube. Seeing his frightened tears and working to undo the damage to his world brought me back to a lot of Sunday and Wednesday night church services dedicated to explaining the end of time. I wished I could go back and tell the scared little girl I was that things would be okay - that no scary monsters and demons were coming for her. I wish I could tell her that she would get to live in the world well into adulthood and get married and have kids. I wish I could tell her that the people she passed in stores and libraries and museums were okay, that they wanted the same things she did, and that she could find friends among them.
My revelation from Lost so far? Everyone has a back story. Everyone has both darkness and light in them. And no matter who they follow, where they camp, or what they know, everyone is on the same island.
I have a feeling that JJ Abrams is just messing with me, though. After seeing all of the back stories so far and how nearly everyone has a complicated, very gray past, I'm pretty sure that even the Others have a reason for what they're doing. I mean, look at Juliette. And as much as I dislike Benjamin Linus, I'm suspending judgement. That seems lately like the best thing for me to do in fiction and in life.
After all, following the loudest voices in my religious circles left me looking at the world full of ordinary people around me as if they were all the Others: crazed wack jobs with no other aim in life than to destroy the country and the family and everything sane and normal and decent as fast as they could. It took stepping off my particular stretch of beach and meeting them face to face for me to realize that they were just like me and that the crazy ones were the loud, religious voices.
In fact, though I've removed those influences from my life, I had to calm my son down last night after he accidentally watched an ignorant, sensationalist piece of religious propaganda on YouTube. Seeing his frightened tears and working to undo the damage to his world brought me back to a lot of Sunday and Wednesday night church services dedicated to explaining the end of time. I wished I could go back and tell the scared little girl I was that things would be okay - that no scary monsters and demons were coming for her. I wish I could tell her that she would get to live in the world well into adulthood and get married and have kids. I wish I could tell her that the people she passed in stores and libraries and museums were okay, that they wanted the same things she did, and that she could find friends among them.
My revelation from Lost so far? Everyone has a back story. Everyone has both darkness and light in them. And no matter who they follow, where they camp, or what they know, everyone is on the same island.
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