Truth and Purpose

Last weekend, I saw a movie called Down in the Valley. Go rent it, tonight. It stars Edward Norton, who could pretty much vomit in a box and I would think it genius, as a dillusional young cowboy. There are two points in this movie that I want to talk about.

1. In a scene where everlasting supporting actor tough guy David Morse is talking with his possible adopted son, Rory Culkin, the discussion comes to rest on the sister's "gumption".
The gruff father figure said the gumption, spirit, vigor, was necessary to get through this life.
Macully's little brother said, "The meek shall inherit the earth," meekly. Dad: "Where'd you get that b***s***?" The kid's answer? Not what you might think.

He studies the bottoms of his shoes and says, "On TV."

This is a startling reminder to me, and most of those who surround my life, that not everybody knows that Mark was written first, and not by a guy named Mark, that Luke and Acts were written by the same guy, also not named Luke, that Revelation was written on an island of Greece called Patmos.

But, what I really want to talk about is the question, where does our truth come from? Where do we get our truth these days? I think little brother was right. Television, magazines, newspapers....the media. think about it. How do we know what's going on in the world, what to buy, who to vote for? We know because the TV tells us to know. And like John Mayer says, "When you trust your television, what you get is what you got...'cause when they own the information...they can bend it all they want."

There is truth in this world and doesn't come from TV. It doesn't come from the Bible, either. Or the Quran, or the Vedas. It's in those books BECAUSE it's truth, not the other way around.
It's when we think of it the other way around, that are true BECAUSE they're in the Bible, or we get our truth from TV, it's then that all Arab people become Islamofascists and all Americans become Neocon-Fundy-Bill O'riely watching fatcats. The truth is out there, trust it.

2. The second (Lindsey just gave me a third, so bare with me) part of this movie I want to talk about is purpose. Sitting under an oak tree, watching his girl swing on an old rope swing, Ed Norton says, "Do you think everything has a purpose? I been sitting here thinking about the purpose of that branch. It might be cut down and give some family a nice piece of furniture...it might be there to have a swing tied to it...it might just be there to balance the tree so it don't fall over. I lean towards the swing. Sitting here, watching you up in it, I think I'm right."

I've been thinking a lot about purpose lately and I think the answer to Ed's unintentional riddle is all of the above. I think purpose can change. I think someone's purpose at 16 is not his purpose at 24, 35, 50, 80. Just like the branch's purpose right now is to be a swing and balance the tree, it CAN AND WILL change, it will be a chair or firewood or a guitar or simply turn back into dirt so more trees can grow. Purpose is ever evolving, ever changing. Maybe our purpose is to change. To not stay dormant for too long.

3. The thing Lynz reminded me of, and that I have not reflected on yet, is one line. Ed Norton, "You know you're speaking in your true voice, from your true heart, is that you don't hear any other voices in your head when you're talking." Imagine. I can't right now. It's too loud in there.

Asalam Aleykum, Peace,
B