Gadfly's Muse

Reflections

(click for larger image, JAVanDevender -2008)

If you look closely you will see the reflection / refraction of other flowers in the droplet.

There is a poignancy in the image that touches me at some level I really can't describe.  Perhaps it represents the manner in which the world can be comprehended and distilled into little bite size chunks so that we can understand little by little.  The rest of the garden is all around and yet at the same time it is there, within the droplet, not so much smashed together so as to lose its richness, but altered, arranged, fitted.  There is distortion... the flower does not appear in the drop as it is in direct sight - but it is recognizable, knowable.  Maybe all our comprehension of the world around us is something like this.  We see through a glass darkly, we know in part... one day we will know truly... face to face.  In the meantime though, it is still a beautiful world.  Even when it is only seen through a droplet.

No Escape From Evil

This is one disturbing movie.

However, as a movie, it "works" on several levels. Do not, under any circumstances, think of it as a thriller. It is, but it is as far removed from the "thriller" category as "Unforgiven" was removed from the "Cowboy Western".

Essentially it is a reversion to the form of Great Tragedy. It aspires to the ranks of a modern Hamlet or Macbeth or something from Aeschylus. At the heart is the question of Evil and the possibility of Justice. Evil's prevalence and especially its persistence is the dominant theme.  The heart of man yearns for justice to prevail but the common man who fights against it (in the person of the sheriff, played by Jones) is ultimately torn and defeated by it.  Jones ponder his heritage, the long line of evil-fighters (Sheriffs) from whom he descends and whom he represents.  He reflects on those who have been wounded and killed in the fight but his despair is that they never win. Evil returns, it isn't defeated, and God doesn't answer. That's a lot to chew on but it is the only way to profit from the ending.

I think it is clear why this movie is not a "thriller." The personification of Evil (played exquisitely by Javier Bardem) is unstoppable and omniscient. He knows where his prey is at all times, he knows who has been sent against him (Harrelson), he is unstoppable and unflappable. He is not Satan... Satan has personality... he is the inexorable Presence of Evil itself.

I think the cinematography is over done. The director makes it too choppy. It is the right technique but it is over used and actually works against the main purpose.  There are points in the movement where the viewer falls behind in the development because he is too busy trying to figure out what just happened.  Overall though the direction is excellent. 

This whole idea of "evil" is vitally important however and one that is not often addressed head on in today's ostrich like culture.  We prefer to seek "explanations" for behavior, hoping thereby to move motivations from the realm of the moral to the realm of the objective, fixable, quantifiable, statistically verifiable analysis.  Evil resists all such movement and only voluntary blindness persists in attempting it.

 Essentially, without all the caveats that have to be made in precise argumentation, I tend to believe that the concept of "evil" only has meaning with reference to (and in opposition to) the Person of God. As such it shows up in human beings in deviation from the image of God in which they were created and which continues at some level to distinguish them from other creatures. Sharks and wolves, etc. cannot be "evil" because they do not bear the image of God as man does. Man is evil in any manner in which he diminishes or subverts or mis-characterizes God in his actions, thoughts, conversation or other such "stuff." Thus, fundamentally, since the essence of humanity is to reflect accurately the image of God, any deviation from the accuracy of that reflection is a slur or caricature of God and as such, constitutes slander.

Implicit in this idea is that a truly "human" person is one in whom there is no evil. As a Christian I confess only one such Person has ever lived. The rest of us struggle, with varying levels of attainment, to do the best we can. Chigurgh seems to portray the end toward which the tendency to evil in our humanity inclines. He is devoid of all truly "human" moral traits and is therefore a thoroughly slanderous representation of the image of God.

OK - back to the review - it's a good movie... Adults only... do not subject young and impressionable minds or especially kids at risk to this movie until they are mature enough to discuss it and learn from it.

Strange Beauty

This is one of my favorite "weeds."  A morning bloomer, I often encounter them en masse alongside the road as I drive to work in the morning.  The bluish purple flowers stand in arrogant defiance against the encroaching highway and declare that beauty can grow anywhere.

As a plant it is not all that attractive, gangly and stemmy and stalky, but the flower is all elegance and simplicity.  Pristine petals surround crisp stamen rising out of a bed of virgin white.

There's a story here, perhaps even a moral or two.  Beauty insists on existing.  It cannot be eternally suppressed.  And no matter how cumbersome or ungainly the bearer, yet beauty is not absent. Perhaps we ought to learn a few lessons from the chicory plant.

(Click for larger version, 2008 JAVanDevender)

Offense To Reason - The Consequences of Sin

 I am rereading Bernard Ramm’s “Offense To Reason: A Theology of Sin” and therefore have been thinking along the lines of his development in it.  He’s a good writer and I think may very well have had a pastoral heart.   I can learn from such a man even if we differ on some significant things (historicity of scriptural narratives for example).

Last night what struck me was his opening paragraph in the chapter called “The Consequences of Sin.”  He lists two “effects” of sin - (1) that effect on the sinner himself & (2) the consequences of sin in life.  Without going into his extended development, he takes off from the Galatians passage above and in effect says “Think about it... sowing to the flesh reaps.... just as sowing to the Spirit reaps...  The difference is in what is reaped!”

If we sow the seed of sin it never just stands by itself.  It has an effect on us and it brings additional consequences in our lives.  Our moral & spiritual life is not separate from the other aspects of our lives.  Our lives, both internally and externally, are an integrated whole.  If we sow bad things, hard feelings, ill treatment of others, disreputable attitudes toward ourselves or others, lusts, envy, etc.  those things work on us... they change us... we become more and more like them.  We are changed to conform more and more to the tone of our actions.

Further, the sin we commit enters into the external fabric of our lives.  It rips and tears things, alters things, influences things, corrupts things and thereby brings “ruin” or “corruption.”  Small or great, it is still there.  We try to ignore this aspect, put it out of our minds, acts as if it is no big deal.  But, ultimately, it is.  Sin is an alien force, a power which pulls and bends and twists the fabric of life wherein we dwell.  It is at every point to be despised.

The Gospel, though, is that reaping to the Spirit also has its effects and they are greater and more powerful than the effects of sin.  Eternal life is entered into now.  By turning to the Spirit, submitting to Him through God’s Word, we can be changed in our person and we can change the fabric of our lives.  Sin will not have dominion over us but the Spirit will.   It is not only possible to see these changes take place, they are to be earnestly expected.  How can we refuse to choose life instead of corruption?  All we have to lose is our misery.  All we have to gain .... is everything!