is quoted in Ed Catmull’s book, Creativity
Inc. Stanton has written and directed Finding
Nemo and Wall-E (among many
others) and knows the incredible amount of work that goes into assembling a
team and then creating an animated movie. He has this to say about life’s
difficulties.
sailing across the ocean and your goal is to avoid weather and waves, then why
the hell are you sailing?” he says. “You have to embrace that sailing means
that you can’t control the elements and that there will be good days and bad
days and that, whatever comes, you will deal with it because your goal is to
eventually get to the other side. You will not be able to control exactly how
you get across. That’s the game you’ve decided to be in. If your goal is to
make it easier and simpler, then don’t get in the boat.[1]
rather than a significant life? Why do I find myself in a sailboat wondering
why I am experiencing all of this weather? I should be grabbing the rigging and
setting the sails to take advantage of the wind. I should be delighted that the
wind and the waves are driving me on. Yet, most of the time, that is not my
first reaction. I want smooth seas and gentle breezes. I want to meander down
the river rather than brave the ocean waves.
control: the world price of crude oil; the value of the stock-market in New
York, Toronto, or Beijing; the risk of cancer in the general population; or political
corruption in Alberta, Ottawa, Washington, or Greece. These are the rough seas
and winds of life. They happen with or without my consent. My confidence cannot
be in the investments I own, or in the people who guide the country in which I
live. I will put my confidence in the Maker of the wind and the sea. I will
trust the One who knows the beginning, middle, and end of the story. I will
trust that the One who made the wind and the waves will deliver me safely to
the other shore. I will set my sails to catch the wind He sends upon my boat.
Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces that Stand in the Way of True Inspiration.
Kindle. Toronto: Random House of Canada Limited, 2014; Location 3469.
service in making stories come to life on the big screen. One of his greatest
accomplishments has been his ability to make The Hobbit (also known as The
Hobbit, Or There and Back Again) by John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (J.R.R. Tolkien) accessible
to all. He has created a trilogy of movies that are visually stunning; and, in
doing so, he has opened the door to a world of wonder, adventure, battle, and
the triumph of courage over despair. Yet, I can’t help but notice that some believe
that because they have seen these movies, there is no longer a need to read the
books. I have begun to ask people if they have ever read any of Tolkien’s
books. Several, jokingly reply, “No, I don’t need to, I have seen the movies.”
to read nearly 300 pages of intricate prose in The Hobbit and over 1200 pages in The Lord
of The Rings; yet, I do hope that people will continue to read these two books. For all of the
hours of amazing film footage found in the 6 movies, there is still much that
cannot be covered and much descriptive language that cannot possibly be brought
to life in a movie of this nature.
daughters as bedtime stories; and with them I relived the wonder as they
pictured this world in their minds. We read many other books together including
The Chronicles of Narnia (C.S. Lewis).
Recently, a friend told me that he was reading The Hobbit to his daughter and I felt a sense of nostalgia at this
simple joy. Reading aloud to another person is an experience in itself and
allows both people to enjoy the book at another level. I suspect that my
daughters still remember the voices of various characters and the tunes we made
up for the songs and chants. Tolkien’s prose is some of the most poetic and
evocative in the English language and speaks to deeper realities than the
simple world of hobbits, dwarves, trolls, and elves.
reading The Hobbit aloud to each
other. Tolkien continues to speak to us of simple pleasures, profound fears,
and great joys. Last night, as we were ending our day with the author’s description
of “The Last Homely House” in Rivendell, these words describing Elrond’s house captured
our attention. We had to go back and read them multiple times.
“His house was perfect, whether you
liked food, or sleep, or work, or story-telling, or singing, or just sitting
and thinking best, or a pleasant mixture of them all. Evil things did not come
into that valley.”[1]
glorious picture of a location and may even make us want to go and experience “The
Last Homely House.” But as Maureen and I read those two sentences, we were
aware that these sentences meant more. They made us want to make our own home a
place that was perfect for food, sleep, work, story-telling, singing, sitting
and thinking, and a pleasant mixture of them all. We desired to create a place
where “evil things” do not enter.
“. . . it is a strange
thing, but things that are good to have and days that are good to spend are
soon told about, and not much to listen to; while things that are
uncomfortable, palpitating, and even gruesome, may make a good tale, and take a
deal of telling anyway.”[2]
be true of movies. The “days that are good to spend are soon told about” and
painted in the scenery of the movie. The battles, that are “uncomfortable,
palpitating, and even gruesome, may make a good tale” and fill the content of many
a scene in the movie. I wonder, when we think of the movies, do we think of the
scenes in Rivendell, or the scenes on the battle-field? What does one remember
from reading the books?
made a living reading, writing, and giving lectures, had this to say about his emotions
when it came to tea and books. “You can never get a cup of tea large enough or
a book long enough to suit me.”[3]
Perhaps we would do well to recover this feeling. On this rainy day in Calgary,
I think I will go and put on the kettle!
Again; John Ronald Reuel
Tolkien; Random House, New York, 1982 Revised Edition;
p. 51.
Again; John Ronald Reuel
Tolkien; Random House, New York, 1982 Revised Edition;
p. 50.
against mere men makes you tired,
how will you race against horses?
If you stumble and fall on open ground,
what will you do in the thickets near the
Jordan? – Jeremiah 12:5 (NLT)
Jeremiah, an Old Testament prophet, is a challenge statement. He called out the
people of Judah and forced them to face their circumstances. God was calling
them to be leaders among all the people of the earth. He wanted them to run
races against horses; but they were struggling to run against mere men. God
wanted them to blaze a trail through the bush; but they had stumbled and fallen
in the open fields. The people of Judah wanted the benefits of being the people
of God; but they did not want to face up to the leadership challenges of being
trailblazers, pioneers, and ones who set records for great leadership. God had
spoken to Abraham long before this and had said to him that his descendants
would be a great people. They would be God’s special people and they would be
greatly blessed by the God who created the universe (Genesis 12:1-3). God told
them that they were to be a people after God’s own heart (1Samuel 13:14). Then
as God blessed them, they were to be a blessing to the people of the earth (Genesis
12:3). He told them he would send them a Messiah, a Saviour, a Christ, to
empower God’s people and rescue them from their enemies. He made it clear that just
as God was sending a Messiah to save them, the Messiah would send the people
into the world to continue the mission of God and bless all the people of the
earth and not just Judah (John 20:20-23).
the nexus point that describes the intersection of these statements. God has
blessed, God has sent and been sent, God has rescued, God has pioneered, and
God has set the course. He now calls on his people everywhere to bless others,
to be sent and to send, to rescue, to pioneer, and to run the course marked out
for horses. We are not to settle for running with men. We are not to wish for
smooth fields and clear paths. Life is hard; it requires some bush-whacking. We
must run the race set out before us and look for new goals to achieve. Eugene
Peterson, a man who was not afraid to set high standards for himself, has this
to say about the people who have inherited the blessing.
why so many people live so badly. Not so wickedly, but so inanely. Not so
cruelly, but so stupidly. There is little to admire and less to imitate in the
people who are prominent in our culture. We have celebrities but not saints.
Famous entertainers amuse a nation of bored insomniacs. Infamous criminals act
out the aggressions of timid conformists. Petulant and spoiled athletes play
games vicariously for lazy and apathetic spectators. People, aimless and bored,
amuse themselves with trivia and trash. Neither the adventure of goodness nor
the pursuit of righteousness gets headlines.”[1]
is easier to go along with the conformists and the lazy. No one will notice if
you stay in the middle of the herd. You can be a spectator all of your life and
still have the blessings of this world. It is easier; but not more significant.
So what do we want? A life of ease or a life of significance? Will we settle
for running in the middle, or even toward the front, of the apathetic crowd;
or, will we run with the horses?
with the Horses: The Quest for Life at Its Best, By Eugene H.
Peterson, Page 11.
Agency has had no new news on the Philae Lander since July 20th. It
seems safe to say that we should bid Philae a fond farewell. The Rosetta
mission to Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko has accomplished many of its aims; but, the lander achieved only a small portion of its goals due to a bouncy
landing on the comet. The comet has very weak gravity and so it was difficult, to
say the least, to achieve a landing. The landing could be compared to dropping
a Wham O Superball off of a skyscraper and predicting where it would land. Philae was able to send back 57 hours of data
and photos from three locations on the comet as it bounced, rocked, and rolled
its way to an unstable resting place and then “collected its thoughts”
regarding its unexpected position.
ESA had expected that they would have much more time to collect data sent from
Philae. The “little lander that could” was supposed to rest comfortably in a
place where the sun would shine on its solar panels and provide it with plenty
of power. But a troublesome cliff that blocked the activity of the solar cells
proved too difficult to overcome.
the Comet orbiter and companion vehicle to Philae has
sent back a wealth of data and photos. (See the links here and here as well.) Rosetta is relaying information that shows how a comet responds to solar winds
as it gets closer to our sun.
Rosetta, along with Philae, has also shown that the comet itself is not magnetised,
answering one of the great questions about comets and their activity.
Agency has truly sparked our collective imagination regarding comets in our
solar system. They have faithfully exhibited the pioneering and exploratory spirit that shows humanity at its best. We thank them for their work and their expansion
of our knowledge regarding science and the dynamics of comets.
CBC news online featured a video of Madame
Tussaud’s Wax Museum, New York, presenting a new statue to the public.
I am sure it is quite an honour to have a wax figure made in your likeness but
it does bring to mind a number of questions. How do they decide who to
immortalize? What do they do when they run out of room for current statues?
Where do they put the ones they no longer want to display? How long does fame
last at Madame Tussaud’s?
quintessential song that makes all of the questions irrelevant and causes us to
consider concepts of fame, infamy, the fleeting nature of celebrity, and
genuine significance. Read through the following lyrics and see if you can even
recognize the names of 1984 celebrities. How many of these would still have
significance in our current culture?
Meltdown
at Madame Tussaud’s(Words and music by Steve Taylor; 1984)
Meltdown at Madame Tussaud’s
The queen is losing face
Meltdown at Madame Tussaud’s
A national disgrace
It’s the middle of the night at the London
shrine
Could have been the janitor, could have been divine
Someone said the thermostat never did work
Now we’ve got the temperature going berserk
Meltdown at Madame Tussaud’s
The queen is losing face
Meltdown at Madame Tussaud’s
A national disgrace
Celebrities, statesmen, history’s elite
They’re dripping in the hallways, they’re starting to secrete
They’re pouring out the pores, they’re shrinking on the spot
Someone take a photograph–get ’em while they’re hot
Meltdown at Madame Tussaud’s
The president looks alarmed
Meltdown at Madame Tussaud’s
A general’s been disarmed
Feverish at Fleet Street–story of the
year
“Get the Facts–House of Wax Photo Souvenir”
“Shameful” Says the Times, “Maybe Done By Vandals”
Panic on Wall Street–put your stock in candles
I thought I heard a ghost say
“Had my hands in my pockets on the Judgment Day
Nobody told me there’s fire in the hole
Had the world by the tail but I lost my soul”
Meltdown at Madame Tussaud’s
A rock and roll hotel
Meltdown at Madame Tussaud’s
They’re blending very well
Elvis and the Beatles have seen a better
day Better off to burn out than to melt away
Dylan may be fillin’ the puddle they designed
Is it gonna take a miracle to make up his mind?
Athletes on the floor; Meltdown, They’re running out the door
Bad boy McEnroe couldn’t keep his cool
Now he’s with the rest of ’em, wading in the pool
“Howard Hughes–Billionaire” says the written guide
Pity that his assets have all been liquefied
“Celebrity status only got in the way
Had my hands in my pockets on the Judgment Day
You can’t take it with you–there’s fire in the hole
Had the world by the tail but I lost my soul”
Meltdown at Madame Tussaud’s
The queen is losing face
Meltdown at Madame Tussaud’s
A national disgrace
Down in the dungeon–the Chamber of
Horrors
Look at all the criminals soften to the cores
They’re mixing with the head of state floating down the lane
Good, bad, there they go down the same drain
Meltdown at Madame Tussaud’s
(It really is a pity you know)
Meltdown at Madame Tussaud’s
(A lot of bees gave their all for this)
Meltdown at Madame Tussaud’s
Meltdown at Madame Tussaud’s
Meltdown at Madame Tussaud’s
Meltdown at Madame Tussaud’s
Remember all of those things that you do “once in a blue
moon?” Well get ready for a flurry of activity. Friday, July 31, marks the
appearance of a blue moon. No, you will not see a change in hue; the moon will
still look the same colour. A blue moon is “an additional full moon that
appears in a subdivision of a year, either the third of four full moons in a
season or, a second full moon in a month of the common calendar.”[1]
The first full moon of July, 2015 occurred on July 2 at 02:19 UTC; thus, the full moon that occurs on July 31 at 10:43 UTC will be the blue moon.
on where we place the days on our contemporary calendar. It is a bit like
“the tail wagging the dog,” (another folk saying that warrants its
own explanation at some other time). Before the standardization of the
calendar, the moon was the physical constant that signaled the change of a
month. Ancient people groups would not experience the concept of a blue moon for they would simply allow the next full moon to announce a new month.
blue moon, you can give them a list; or, you can tell them it is only a human
invention that has no bearing on how you see the world. Then, you can explain
the whole concept to them.
years. Here is but one example.
But that sad look on your face was a challenge to my faith
Made me wanna chase the dark out of your room
So she smiled and said hello; little did she know
He would take hold of her soul and never never never let go
Eyes like faded jeans, soft and blue and he had seen
Everything, and he had been everywhere
Til he turned his gaze her way, longed to see it every day
Heard a voice inside him say you’ll never never never be the same
Once in a blue moon
There comes somebody like you
He was more than fine; she was more than young
And the orange setting sun was beautiful
Ever so at ease, in the summer evening breeze
They would talk and they would tease
And never never never want to leave
Once in a blue moon
There comes somebody
There comes somebody like you
“Liquid” is a brilliant song by the band known as Jars of Clay. They blend an ancient 11th century chant with contemporary music and lyrics that flow together with creativity and beauty. They remind us that in the midst of the many questions and perplexities of this world, there is at least one constant. They state that there is “one thing that I know” and challenge us to find the “one thing” about which they speak. The “arms nailed down,” what do they tell me? The “eyes turned out,” for whom are they looking? The chant gives an answer: “The Lamb has redeemed the sheep; The innocent Christ has reconciled sinners to the Father.”
LiquidChant:Agnus redemit oves
Christus innocens Patri(reconciliavit peccatores) – this part is not sung in the chant but completes the thought[1][Translation: The Lamb has redeemed the sheep; The innocent Christ (has reconciled sinners) to the Father.]Arms nailed down
Are you telling me something?
Eyes turned out
Are you looking for someone?This is the one thing
The one thing that I knowBlood-stained brow
Are you dying for nothing?
Flesh and blood
Is it so elemental?This is the one thing
The one thing that I know
This is the one thing
The one thing that I knowBlood stained brow
He wasn’t broken for nothing
Arms nailed down
He didn’t die for nothingThis is the one thing
The one thing that I know
This is the one thing
The one thing that I knowThis is the one thing
The one thing that I know
This is the one thing
The one thing that I know
COUGLE, JOSHUA MICHAEL / BRONLEEWE, MATTHEW RYAN / DE JESUS, MIGUEL A. JR. /
LOWELL, CHARLIE / MASON, STEPHEN DANIEL
Suddenly, we know for a fact, that there are entire mountains of water ice on Pluto. After four years of drought, wouldn’t Californians love to bring one of those mountains home to replenish their reservoirs? The photos sent back by the New Horizons spacecraft have been widely spread across many news services and, by now, we have all seen some of them. New Horizons took 9 years to travel from earth to the Kuiper Belt, within which Pluto resides. The exploration and the amazing series of photos sent back to earth has reopened the debate on whether or not Pluto should be considered a planet. For now, astronomers will leave Pluto in the official classification of “dwarf planet.” The bigger question is, “Why do we explore the far reaches of our solar system?” Some would try to put a pragmatic spin on the things we can learn from such an expedition, and certainly there is value in what we learn about the propulsion of vehicles through 5 billion miles of space and the things we learn about the Kuiper Belt itself. Yet, the more sincere answer to the question is that it satisfies our curiosity. Humans simply want to know as much as we can know about what is out there.
Edwin Hubble (after whom the Hubble Space Telescope is named) once said, “Equipped with his five senses, man explores the universe around him and calls the adventure Science.” Whether it is by telescope, by robotic spacecraft, or simply by experimentation and our own observations of the universe, humans continue to explore. As a people, and as individuals, we must never lose such curiosity; for curiosity is at the root of true education. As Eleanor Roosevelt said, “. . . at a child’s birth, if a mother could ask a fairy godmother to endow it with the most useful gift, that gift would be curiosity.”
So let us continue to praise the technicians, astronomers, researchers, and propulsion experts who gave us these amazing pictures of a dwarf planet billions of miles away. Let us never stop being curious. Let us never stop exploring.
“We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.” – T. S. Eliot
J.R.R. Tolkien reminds us that we must not be hasty in judgment in this line from The Lord of the Rings trilogy. It is a good reminder to all of us.
“Deserves it! I daresay he does. Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends.”
When I wrote to you before, I told you not to associate with people who indulge in sexual sin. But I wasn’t talking about unbelievers who indulge in sexual sin, or are greedy, or cheat people, or worship idols. You would have to leave this world to avoid people like that. . . . It isn’t my responsibility to judge outsiders, but it certainly is your responsibility to judge those inside the church who are sinning. God will judge those on the outside; but as the Scriptures say, “You must remove the evil person from among you.”1 Corinthians 5:9, 10, 12, 13
Recently, I watched the science-fiction movie Oblivion (2013; starring Tom Cruise and directed by Joseph Kosinski). It is an entertaining movie with a good mix of action, philosophy, and romance. If anything, the writers and director may have been a little too ambitious, for one can readily see threads from several other movies embedded in the main plot from which they seek to tell multiple stories. Yet, in the midst of all that is going on, there is an important contemporary parable from which we can learn “if we have ears to hear.” This blog will have many spoilers, so you may want to watch the movie before reading any further (it is presently available on Netflix).
In the year 2154, Jack Harper is a patriotic hero of the war against the aliens who invaded earth. Much of the earth is a now a post-apocalyptic disaster zone due to the destruction of earth’s moon and the nuclear explosions that were used to drive off the aliens. Jack is one of the last humans living on the earth and works as Tech 49 to keep the cleanup machinery functioning. Energy from Earth’s oceans is being harvested for the sake of the few remaining humans on an off-earth world called The Tet. The Tet stores this energy and transmits some to a colony on Saturn’s moon, Titan. At least this is what Jack and Victoria think is happening. Victoria is the communications officer who watches over Jack’s dangerous repair expeditions and communicates with Sally, their off-world connection. Victoria and Jack eat, sleep, and work together and appear to have an idyllic life. The work may be dangerous and challenging but they have all the latest technology to help them live well and overcome the obstacles. They have their romantic relationship to give them comfort and connection. Their memories have been wiped in a mandatory procedure designed to erase all harmful memories of the past. When the day’s work is over they retire to their penthouse overlooking the earth and enjoy the best of food, wine, technology, and recreation.
What they don’t know is that they are living a lie. They are oblivious to the fact that the ease with which they live, and even the challenges they face, are a facade of what is really going on behind the scenes. Both Jack and Victoria are clones of their former selves who have been created by the aliens living in The Tet. We are given a brief glimpse of the hundreds of Jack surrogates on The Tet waiting for their opportunity to be Jack. Tech 49 means that this Jack is the 49th clone to be sent out as a technician; and in one scene we see Jack encountering himself as Tech 52 doing the same job he has always done.
Jack 49 lives a largely dutiful life but is haunted by memories of a former existence with his wife before the destruction and cloning. Deep inside his being he longs for a simple way of life where he lives beside a mountain lake and grows crops with a family. For all of its problems, Jack still feels that Earth is his home. Daily he suppresses these thoughts and only occasionally goes to his secret place of solitude where he has set up a primitive cabin filled with artifacts of the past. Victoria shuns such foolishness and stays focused on her work and recreation in the communications tower, only dreaming of the day when she and Jack can retire to the colony on Titan.
Parables and the truth they represent may be hard to understand; but we can agree on some parallels with our contemporary world. Like Jack and Victoria, many live in a routine of work, recreation, and sexuality. As long as life is seen to have appropriate challenges, moments of humour, good food and drink, a comfortable home, and joyful moments of sexuality, we live in happy oblivion to the ultimate questions of life.
George Harrison, in a VH1 Interview, once said, [when]
. . . I think through the Beatle experience that we’d had, we’d grown so many years within a short period of time. I’d experienced so many things and met so many people but I realized there was nothing actually that was giving me a buzz anymore. I wanted something better. . . . You know, I get confused when I look around at the world, and I see everybody’s running around. And you know, as Bob Dylan said, ‘He not busy being born is busy dying,’ and yet nobody’s trying to figure out what’s the cause of death and what happens when you die. I mean, that to me is the only thing really that’s of any importance, the rest is all secondary.
Daily, we live as if this meager existence on this little planet in space is the only thing that matters. Yet, it really is secondary to the question of what happens when we die. Some would say that it doesn’t matter what happens when we die because we can’t do anything about it. But, what if we really can do something to prepare for death? Isn’t it worth a bit of risk to do that which will prepare us for the things that lie beyond this life?
A recurring theme in the movie Oblivion is the concept of a good death. Jack quotes Horatius when he asks, “How can man die better: than facing fearful odds, for the ashes of his fathers, and the temples of his Gods?” Many would say that the odds are stacked against a God who cares and a world that goes beyond this earthly existence; yet, what of “fearful odds?” They may indeed be frightening; but the alternatives are more fearful yet.
This movie has a message for us. The message is that a life of oblivion will not soothe the bigger questions of life; and we cannot mask the higher callings with the pleasures of this life. Perhaps that is a message worth hearing in this present time before we reach the increased complexities of 2154.