i am not a television watcher, but i just watched all four seasons of battlestar galactica over a span of two months earlier this year, and I’ve got to say the series rocked. There’s so much in there, I wish I blogged about it throughout each season.
I don’t want to give away too much if you haven’t watched it, but it’s a sci-fi oriented post-apocalyptic drama – a bit like the explorations of noah’s ark in space. It sounds kooky but the characters and the questions it provokes are phenomenal.
What I loved about the show:
How humans have an incredible capacity to survive the toughest conditions
Questions of why we of all species deserve to survive?
How humans were either atheists or polytheists, while the ‘evil’ robots were monotheists
What it’s like to become that which you hate
pressing the limits of what it means to love and value – regardless of beliefs and even origins
How they managed to mix themes of technology and progress with mythical stuff like angels
The cyclon robots seemed to have a type of militant evangelicalism.
Themes of Islamic jihad and even Buddhist reincarnation were explored (ie. the downloading to new bodies)
Questions of who your creator is, why he made us, and what good is he?
I didn’t like Baltar’s christ-like evolution, but I loved the subtle bits of him despising his farm boy childhood and re-embracing it.
Whether we truly value the soul, or the shell it’s encased in?
I could go on and on. Anyone else love Battlestar? See incredible themes that tie in issues of faith and humanity?
Did everyone catch the live streaming U2 rose bowl concert? They should be rebroadcasting it here soon. I got a ton of hits from people searching for song lyrics and meanings. There’s so much great stuff in One, but did you ever notice the lyrics in this verse?
It’s too late tonight to drag the past out into the lights
Besides being profound and rhyming, every line here starts with a different variant of the sound 2… yet the song is called One… intriguing eh?
I’m fairly blown away by this video below from Ukraine’s got talent. No it’s not one of those funny ones, the artist Kseniya Simonova retells the story of Russia’s ‘Great Patriotic War’ against the Nazis in the 1940’s. Definitely check it out.
My thoughts were, wow. How do we get her to do something for our church? And this is just another example that goes in the face of people who always mutter “it’s all been done before”. There is talent, creativity, and beauty, yet to be seen…
I’m such a jerk. I’ve been sponsoring a child for the past couple years and after several handwritten letters to me, only today have I finally got around to emailing her back.
It’s absolutely ridiculous. It’s easier for someone of my piddly income to fork over cash each month, than simply write a personal letter of compassion.
The problem with financial support is when it ends there. Sure, a child gets needed funding and I feel slightly absolved of my guilt. But when child sponsorship organizations like world vision get reduced to a distribution center, we get the illusion that everyone connects and gets what they need… but is anyone truly transformed?
Anyhow, here’s my open letter to this child I ought to be loving on…
Dear Uwayisaba,
Thank you so much for your past letters! I need to start by sincerely apologizing for taking so long to write back to you. We have a photo of you up on our wall and think about you often. However, it’s silly how busy our lives can get here in Toronto. It is so easy for us to get caught up in things that aren’t meaningful and forget what’s truly meaningful.
Your life is meaningful. We believe your struggles and your hopes are meaningful to this world we share as well. We have a daughter who’s a bit younger than you, and she reminds us everyday how every single life is precious and sacred. Once she learns to write we really hope that she can write to you herself as well.
I know that God is working in your life and ours, and we look forward to hearing more about you, your school, and your family.
With love
Anyhow, I know every one of you can do better than I have. I’m currently partnered with Food for the Hungry, I hear great things about Compassion as well.
Below is a recent video from the Catalyst conference of a child meeting their sponsor after 19 years. The sharing starts around the 3 minute mark.
This must be one of the top five most overplayed U2 songs ever. But it’s still worth mentioning.
I have climbed the highest mountains I have run through the fields Only to be with you Only to be with you
I have run I have crawled I have scaled these city walls Only to be with you But I still haven’t found What I’m looking for But I still haven’t found What I’m looking for
I have kissed honey lips Felt the healing in her fingertips It burned like fire This burning desire I have spoke with the tongue of angels I have held the hand of a devil It was warm in the night I was cold as a stone But I still haven’t found What I’m looking for But I still haven’t found What I’m looking for
I believe in the Kingdom Come Then all the colours will bleed into one But yes I’m still running You broke the bounds You loosed the chains You carried the cross And my shame And my shame You know I believe it But I still haven’t found What I’m looking for But I still haven’t found What I’m looking for
This song still resonates today because it connects with the struggle of the human spirit.
No matter how much you’ve steeped yourself in routine and the mundane, there’s something inside of us all that remains unsettled, longing for more.
We try everything we can to satisfy that craving. Relationships, children, love, significance, unique experiences, and yet something still gnaws at our souls.
Some of us even discover God. The last section of the lyrics speak of Christ, and not what we can accomplish, but what God has already done. Taking the chains and our shame away. Replacing it with freedom.
Yet we’re still running, searching. At least I am.
Because with all that freedom and grace, I still find myself rejecting it. If it’s true what the Scriptures say, that belief must lead to actions, then the truth is, I spend my days not really believing.
And so, I still haven’t found what I’m looking for. Though I sure hope to someday.
* btw, that lyric “I believe in the Kingdom Come, Then all the colours will bleed into one” I’ve got to say is sheer brilliance. But how much blood must first be shed? Or has it already been shed, but then why aren’t we ‘one’?
Continuing the series of posts on U2 songs, “City of Blinding Lights” is also a favorite. It’s musically reminiscent of “Where the streets have no name” with a brilliant intro.
I think I heard Barack Obama use it as his entrance music a number of times during the campaign.
As with many u2 songs there are a number of conflicting images in the song.
A couple of simple repeated lines throughout the song, make me go hrm…
Oh you look so beautiful tonight In the city of blinding lights
Can you see the beauty inside of me? What happened to the beauty I had inside of me?
For some reason it makes me think of an old story I heard originally by H.G. Wells called Country of the Blind. (Doing some research on it, I realize there’s several renditions of it, below is a summary strictly from my own twisted memory).
There once was a remote city struck with a disease that caused complete blindness of all it’s inhabitants and it’s descendants.
The people eventually adapted to life being blind. It became so normal that the very concept of sight was all but forgotten after several generations had passed.
A man with perfect vision stumbles into the city. His heart breaks because he realizes an entire people group have no idea of the colors and beauty that surround them as they feel their way through the dark.
He commits himself to sharing this wonderful gift of vision he has with the people of the city.
He befriends the people and begins describing to them textures, and tints, and things in the distance. He points out beautiful features on their faces, the blues across the skies, and the yellowness of the sun.
But the people of the city think he’s gone mad as they are unable to comprehend what the man is passionately illustrating.
Having compassion, the people of the city take hold of the man, to help cure him of his illness.
And they gouge out his eyes.
I wonder if this man would be singing “Can you see the beauty inside of me? What happened to the beauty I had inside of me? ”
Ever been there? Had a spark of hope that no one understood? Saw something that was so overwhelmingly beautiful that you couldn’t put words to it, but you tried to share it anyways? Only to then have them crush it and rip it from your soul?
I just finished reading the book “Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters“, and had to share it with more people.
