More unexpected gems

Hugh Jackman is the unlikely star of a new musical movie The Greatest Showman.  It is a bio of  Phineas Taylor Barnum, founder of the famous circus that travelled the USA from 1841 until it closed in May 2017.

From the beginning Barnum's troupe was criticised as a "freak show", featuring an assortment of unusual folk such as General Tom Thumb.  Justifying his actions, Barnum responded to criticism: "Everyone is special, and nobody is like anyone else. That’s the point of my show."  on another occasion he offered this gem: "No one ever made a difference by being like everyone else."

Maybe these were somewhat glib self-justifications, but when one stops to reflect they are profound truths. The limitless creativity of our God is reflected in the fact that every single person of the many billions who have lived is unique.  Even identical twins have their distinguishing characteristics. So much so that for even one of us not to have lived would diminish the richness of humanity.  Not so easy to grasp as we see almost faceless thousands fleeing their homes and facing starvation and oppression!

I suspect most of us would like to feel that in some way we could make a difference to the current state of our world.  But the the overwhelming enormity of the problems we encounter can easily trap us into being "like everyone else" -- powerless, helpless, uninvolved.  To make a difference we have to dare to be different, even if only in the smallest way.  A challenge that PT Barnum clearly saw!

LUCKY not so ...

Harry Dean Stanton featured in over 200 films and TV movies, but only had the lead role in two.  "Lucky" is his final contribution, released just weeks after his death at 91.  Famous for his hangdog looks, Stanton was an avowed atheist, and Lucky is unashamedly autobiographical.

Sitting through the 88 minutes of this fine movie is a bitter-sweet experience. Lucky quickly captures your sympathy and interest.  A ninety-year-old heavy smoker, his world has been reduced to an unchanging daily routine:  yoga, coffee and crossword at the diner, buying milk and cigarettes at the convenience store, TV shows back home, and tomato juice at the bar at night. The proximity and inevitability of his death press upon him, and there is no escaping the hopelessness of his atheism.  It pains one to see such a lovable character surrendering to a view of life as meaningless and death as nothingness.

Stanton's first significant role was in Cool Hand Luke, Paul Newman's death and resurrection themed story set in the horrors of Alabama's prison system.  Stanton's character sang the haunting gospel song "Just a Closer Walk With Thee" in a central scene of the movie.  Its message of faith and hope stands in stark contrast to the gospel of nihilism that Harry preaches to all he meets:
          When my feeble life is o'er,
          Time for me will be no more,
           Guide me gently, safely o'er
           To Thy kingdom's shore, to Thy shore.

But maybe all is not lost for Lucky.  In a touching scene as he shares a joint with a kindly social worker, he confesses "I am scared."  Then in a bar argument with a friend whose tortoise has gone walkabout, he is pulled up short by his friend's passionate retort "There are some things in this life
that are bigger than all of us, and a tortoise is one of them!"  At the end, Lucky ponders a large old cactus, scarred by long life -- but surrounded by healthy young bushes springing up from the roots of the past.  And the tortoise slowly creeps across the desert landscape as Lucky walks away into the future.  Not sure what to make of all the symbolism there, but one can only hope that at the end for Lucky and others like him, hope and faith break through.

Of gods and men

The latest action/comedy from Marvel Studios, THOR RAGNAROK, draws inspiration from Norse mythology.  Thor, God of Thunder, is child of Odin - most powerful of the Norse gods. The movie centres around conflict with his siblings Loki and Angela.  Strangely Odin is only a third-generation god, yet far more popular than Ymir, the first and creator god.

As with the Greek and Roman pantheons, the Norse gods have been fashioned in the image and likeness of humans.  The mythology is full of stories of family strife, sibling rivalry, personal power struggles, incestuous marriages, jealousy, and wars, wars, wars...  It is as though, by creating gods in our own likeness, we validate our human failings as much as our strengths and achievements.  Quite different from the monotheism of our Judaeo-Christian-Islamic traditions.

Yet for all that, I cannot help but ponder that the temptation to turn our God into a superhuman version of ourselves is ever present. In so doing we seek to give divine approval to our failure to live in the image and likeness of our God.  Rather we prefer to see God as in our image and likeness!