final episode

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.