4/16/2008

Jesus, Brandon and Joseph

Posted by Brandon |

Last night we rented and watched The Last Temptation of Christ. What an incredible film. Willem Dafoe makes for the creepiest Jesus ever. How in the world that movie didn't get nominated for more Academy Awards is beyond me. Martin Scorsese was nominated for Best Director, and that's it. No Best Actor for Dafoe, no Best Supporting Actor for Harvey Keitel as Judas, no art or costume design...nothing. And David Bowie is in it for God's sake. He plays Pontius Pilate. Bowie steals any movie that he's in. Ever seen him play Andy Warhol in Basquiat?

Now, I'm not a Christian nor am I really religious. I guess you could call me agnostic. I don't totally know what I believe. I'd like to believe that there is a God and an afterlife and this isn't all just a big random happening that ends when we die, but either way, it doesn't matter to me that much. Is there a word for someone that just doesn't have any need or really care about religion or spirituality in there lives?

I do believe in our interconnectedness and that how I conduct myself does somehow have an effect on others. I believe that being a good person, living a clean and good life and raising a family that shares those values and conducts themselves in the same manner is what it's all about. And I don't feel like I need anybody or scripture to tell me what is a good, clean life. I just know. It's programmed in me already. Death? calls me a Humanist. That's a pretty fair description. I'd take it a step further and call myself a Secular Humanist, if anything.

But the film did get me thinking, in a weird way, about hope and despair and it made me think about my own plight in recent months. I basically had lost all hope, all faith. Despair had started to set in. And just last night, I really thought that all was lost and I'd have to resign myself to a life without one particular light in it. Would I survive without it? Probably. Well, definitely. But would life be worth living without it? Ok, yes, very much so. But mornings wouldn't be quite as sweet.

And then I saw the light and the despair was gone and hope sprang anew...


I have searched high and low through the supermarkets of Ventura to find my favorite cereal ever - Chocolate Lucky Charms - and for months have been depressingly disappointed. What happened to it? Why is it gone?

But Ralph's has resurrected it, at least the recipe. Whatever, I'll take Chocolate Marshmallow Cosmos. Joseph Smith gave hope to a lot of people as a knockoff Jesus, Chocolate Marshmallow Cosmos are just Joseph Smith.

So I guess you can just call me Mormon from now on.

1 comments:

Kevin Charnas said...

DAMN IT!! DAMN IT TO HELL!!! (if there is one, but I don't believe that there is, so...) DAMN IT TO...NICARAGUA!!

I can't have chocolate.

Everything you said sounds extremely familiar...even down to the Willem Dafoe part in the film.

And thanks for the back-up the other day. I couldn't agree with you more about the campaign. I think that only when there's election reform in this country will be begin to feel true hope.

I think that Jeff Vadar would make things a whole lot betta!

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