I haven't written in over a month. Since Christmas I have been overtaken with several projects. I've also been absorbed in watching something that I received as a Christmas present and last night I finished the final episode.
I happened to hear the interview over a year ago about the final episode of Battlestar Galactica and it sounded intriguing. I purchased the first few episodes on itunes and then got hooked. For Christmas I received the entire series in a box set. 26 discs in total.
As I have watched these episodes unfold it was like reading a book. Each episode was a continuing chapter in the story of the human race and its struggle to survive and understand what it means to be human. You need to forget all about the old 1970's series that this one used as a basis. This is also nothing like the old Star Trek series or others like it with a weekly episode that wrapped up neatly. This series is about the nature of God, man and machine. This series also came along at a time when I wasn't directing a show so that was how I spent most of my evenings the past month and a half.
I am so appreciative of the creative team that put the series together. Their writing and their probing really touched a nerve in me. So as I move on beyond this series that has absorbed my life in approximately the same time that it takes to rehearse and perform a play I find myself asking the question of what to take with me as a part of who I am. Each play that I work on always enriches my life. Not just the collaboration that happens with the people but the story of the play itself becomes incorporated in my consciousness. I often think about how much of our life is made up of the stories that we read or that we view that were created by a writer or storyteller. I know that parables, plays, movies, books, all can transport me to a place where I can look not only at the culture and the world but at myself.
The final episode of the series talks about how things keep repeating themselves over and over and yet there is hope that at some point there is the chance that things will turn out differently. We as humans won't continue down the path of self destruction. Our science and our technology far outpace our heart and our ability to make sense of it all. But even with incredible technological feats what we all reduce down to is the need to be loved and the need to connect with others. The series didn't answer all the questions it raised. Some characters never reveal to us who they are or what they are. We are left with only small glimpses of what is the truth and if we are honest with ourselves what we have told ourselves is the truth.
This past several weeks I've watched as friends have passes away, long time friends health slowly slips away, a new year begins and all the challenges it brings with it. I've watched as people in the series and in my life have seen all of their hopes and dreams turn out to be a false illusion and have to turn around and pick themselves back up again and set out again on a new path. Family members have come home to care for others and then had to leave to begin life again on their own. I've seen people who refused to give up and others who refuse to get up. I've seen people who have carried the burden of so many for so long fall down and only want to have peace, yet when duty called they stood back up, picked up the load again and set out a new course.
I used to scour every book I could get my hands on hoping to find the ultimate answer that would make sense of it all and I would live happily ever after. Lately it is the stories of others and not the philosophy or the theology books that seem to carry the most meaning. Each moment, each story of our life and the lives of others seems to hold that ultimate answer if only we can puzzle it out.
We get so caught up in the demands and the distractions of our lives that we forget the story that we are a part of unfolding with our every breath. That life is a constant discovery and a journey to an unknown place.
One of the characters in final episode said that after a lifetime of fighting and struggling and pain and heartache all he wanted told himself that he wanted to do was to find a quiet place and do as little as he possibly could and just enjoy the life. Yet as he looked around, after all he had been through, he found that his heart was calling him to climb mountains and to explore the oceans. The final episode is always the beginning of a new chapter in another story. A new story of creation that is as old as the beginning of time and continues for eternity.
Monday, February 8, 2010
Saturday, January 2, 2010
Year of Stories
I got up this morning and flipped on the news. They were discussing New Years Resolutions. I flipped the channel over to HBO and they had the Bucket List on. Okay two things that are trying to tell me to make a resolution on what I want to change or things I would like to accomplish in the new year. That's a tough question. There are lots of little things that I can always name easily that I would like. Lose weight. More time to write. More time period for the things that I love to do. Spending time with family and friends. But after watching the Bucket List I took a moment to try to figure out some bigger goals. That's a tough one.
I know that during Spring Break we will go to Disney World for Jade's first time ever. She is really looking forward to that. I had one of my biggest goals two years ago when I went to New York and saw shows on Broadway for the first time ever. When I was in school I always thought I would travel the world. Adopting my daughter allowed me to see China including Beijing, Hong Kong, and a layover in Tokyo. Traveling doesn't' seem to be a realistic goal at the moment. Financially everything is pretty tight. One of my goals I've had for several years now is to end the year with less debt than I started it. I was able to achieve some of that but life didn't really cooperate towards the end of the year with having to repair and replace a couple of big ticket items like plumbing systems, appliances and automobiles.
As I thought back over what I went through in 2009 I thought about how the year began with my father in the hospital as 2008 ended and my worries about his health. The ice storm took most of my focus for two months in January and February. I was pretty stressed both mentally and physically and in February ended up spending a night in the hospital because of a pain in my chest. Then I helped judge the local competition for America's Got Talent and helped select Kevin Skinner. I went right from that into The Wizard of Oz and that kept me busy until the July. We had Jade do some testing to see if we could help her with her school work and that took sometime to work through and we are just now able to make a plan to help her. A short summer vacation back to see my family and then back to work on Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming and Tom Dick and Harry. Through all that my shoulder has been keeping me in and out of the doctors office and I finally got a procedure scheduled for next Monday. In the meantime I strained my left shoulder and elbow trying to compensate for my right injured shoulder. I didn't start out with any new years resolutions in 2009 and lots of things happened.
Maybe it's best if I don't start out with any resolutions in 2010. What I think about is that most of life takes place in the stories about what happens to us while we are doing the everyday things. For me last years stories were about family, weather, work, money and trying to stay healthy. I have a feeling that many of the stories that will come in 2010 will be about the very same things. I feel very fortunate that I get to work in a career that tells stories. Many of my personal stories last year and the stories that I helped bring to life in the theatre helped to give a way to appreciate what life means. After 4 years of Education for Ministry class the one thing I learned was that we are still experiencing the same basic stories that were written thousands of years ago. While the details may be different the themes are the same. The search for love, for respect, for meaning are still just as consuming now as they were then. As we take in a story about someone else we realize, how much more alike we are than how different. The stories that inspire me are how we pick ourselves up and start again after we get knocked down. How we learn how to smile and sometimes even to share a laugh in the midst of pain. How we learn how to find love by giving it away when it hurts to give it with no expectation that it will be returned. And how we learned what it meant to be a friend, a father, a husband, a brother and a son and not talk but listen to the stories that someone else needs to tell.
A year from now I hope that when and if I'm able to sit down and think about resolutions for 2011 that I will have lots of new stories to tell.
I know that during Spring Break we will go to Disney World for Jade's first time ever. She is really looking forward to that. I had one of my biggest goals two years ago when I went to New York and saw shows on Broadway for the first time ever. When I was in school I always thought I would travel the world. Adopting my daughter allowed me to see China including Beijing, Hong Kong, and a layover in Tokyo. Traveling doesn't' seem to be a realistic goal at the moment. Financially everything is pretty tight. One of my goals I've had for several years now is to end the year with less debt than I started it. I was able to achieve some of that but life didn't really cooperate towards the end of the year with having to repair and replace a couple of big ticket items like plumbing systems, appliances and automobiles.
As I thought back over what I went through in 2009 I thought about how the year began with my father in the hospital as 2008 ended and my worries about his health. The ice storm took most of my focus for two months in January and February. I was pretty stressed both mentally and physically and in February ended up spending a night in the hospital because of a pain in my chest. Then I helped judge the local competition for America's Got Talent and helped select Kevin Skinner. I went right from that into The Wizard of Oz and that kept me busy until the July. We had Jade do some testing to see if we could help her with her school work and that took sometime to work through and we are just now able to make a plan to help her. A short summer vacation back to see my family and then back to work on Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming and Tom Dick and Harry. Through all that my shoulder has been keeping me in and out of the doctors office and I finally got a procedure scheduled for next Monday. In the meantime I strained my left shoulder and elbow trying to compensate for my right injured shoulder. I didn't start out with any new years resolutions in 2009 and lots of things happened.
Maybe it's best if I don't start out with any resolutions in 2010. What I think about is that most of life takes place in the stories about what happens to us while we are doing the everyday things. For me last years stories were about family, weather, work, money and trying to stay healthy. I have a feeling that many of the stories that will come in 2010 will be about the very same things. I feel very fortunate that I get to work in a career that tells stories. Many of my personal stories last year and the stories that I helped bring to life in the theatre helped to give a way to appreciate what life means. After 4 years of Education for Ministry class the one thing I learned was that we are still experiencing the same basic stories that were written thousands of years ago. While the details may be different the themes are the same. The search for love, for respect, for meaning are still just as consuming now as they were then. As we take in a story about someone else we realize, how much more alike we are than how different. The stories that inspire me are how we pick ourselves up and start again after we get knocked down. How we learn how to smile and sometimes even to share a laugh in the midst of pain. How we learn how to find love by giving it away when it hurts to give it with no expectation that it will be returned. And how we learned what it meant to be a friend, a father, a husband, a brother and a son and not talk but listen to the stories that someone else needs to tell.
A year from now I hope that when and if I'm able to sit down and think about resolutions for 2011 that I will have lots of new stories to tell.
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