7 - 21 - 19 Spiderman (not really) (3 minutes)


I just saw Spiderman: Far from Home and it was pretty entertaining. I thoroughly enjoyed it except for some instances of terrible cliché ridden writing.
But it got tugging at my heart. This desire for greatness. These delusions of grandeur. I recently wrote in my prayer journal about coming to terms with their fizzling away as I mature. But the movie got me wondering, how can I be a superhero?
Why does this appeal so strongly to us? Why does it appeal so strongly to me? Is it a mere egotistic desire to rise above? To be different, especially if that different is better? To be one of Nietzche’s gods? To have people know my name whose name I don’t know. To have power, glory, and honor.
There’s a scene where Peter Parker wants a different suit so people don’t know Spiderman is in Europe. But that’s ridiculous. People don’t know Spiderman is Spiderman because he’s wearing a red suit. They know it’s him because of what he does, his abilities. The man’s talents and strengths define him much more strongly and uniquely than any suit ever could.
And so his value to the public is likewise in the ways that he is of service. Nobody cares about Peter Parker, but they love Spiderman. A superhero isn’t a man, it’s just an image. Just a mask to hide a person who could never handle the life such fame would entail.
This call to greatness, will to power, the desire to be the kid who wins king of the hill, it is primal, and it is powerful. It may be the cause of more evil than good in the world, given how misaligned it is with humility.
One method of prayer is letting Christ gaze upon us, in all our iniquity and beauty. To be fully known by Him, to allow ourselves to be more fully known by those in our lives. We allow ourselves to be seen, because unless we are known we cannot be loved.
This call to greatness comes from the same place. We want to be seen and loved. But the order is different, the reasoning is different. The thinking is not, my lover is merciful and will forgive my flaws and appreciate my strengths. The thinking is, I will be good enough, and then they will all love the good they see in me. This is not love, this is just admiration.
I’ve had admiration, and I’ve had love. They are not to be compared.
The call to greatness, fame, and power says: “Look at me.” See the beautiful parts of me and admire. See the powerful parts of me and quiver. See the desirable parts of me and throw yourself at me.
This other thing, this acceptance of ourselves. This radical self-acceptance that allows a person to do what they can, even when it is very little and poor, without shame. This says: “See me.” See my wounds and let me tell you how to heal them in yourself. See my strength and let me show you the challenges that cultivated it. See that I am broken, see that I am beautiful, a complete mess that could not be more beautiful than I am.
Vanity of vanities. Seventy are our years, or eighty if we are strong. And most of these, struggle and toil.
I will be what I can, to whom I can, when I can. Never forgetting, I am just a man.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

8 - 11 - 17 Dogs are Better than People? (5 minutes)

“Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.” We are not asked to deny our cravings. Neither are we asked to deny our vices. We are not asked to gain further resolve in the pursuit of holiness in order to deny any of our own weaknesses. We are asked to deny the totality of our current selves in preference for the new self Christ will fashion within us. I’ve written before about how Christ’s call is not just a new moral standard. If it were it would be an impossible one. It seems to me that the Christian vision of discipleship is actually quite different than that of the Jewish, though this is only in my perception and I am quite ignorant of Judaism as it extends beyond the Old Testament. It is less about behaving a certain way than it is about having a certain state of being. All our righteous actions garner some of their value in that they have a tendency to move us closer to the type of being God desires us to be. I’m not saying t
Read more

6 - 23 - 17 Jesus is Smarter than Drake

6 – 23 – 17 Link to Daily Readings This passage contains Jesus proclaiming that He is the only path to the Father, that He is the only method of salvation for all human souls. There probably couldn’t be a more important thing in the universe. In this passage He also says, “I am meek and humble of heart.” Which seems like quite the contradiction when we consider these two ideas together, but we are thinking of our human experience. Jesus does not need to boast, firstly it would not be in his nature, secondly there is nothing he would desire to lay claim to being that He is not. In this passage He is simply telling his disciples about the nature of His ministry, expressing to them the importance of not only Himself, but his teachings. I think this distinction is what makes these statements feel contradictory to each other when they in fact are not. Most other times we have heard someone boast on that level, of being all-powerful or the very, very best at something it is eit
Read more

9 – 29 – 17 “Love for life did not deter them from death.” (4 minutes)

Rv 12 “They conquered him by the Blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; love for life did not deter them from death. Therefore, rejoice, you heavens, and you who dwell in them." “Love for life did not deter them from death.” What, after all, is life without death? Well I suppose in the sense of eternal life it is an entirely different matter, but man born upon the earth is born to die. We all arrive there, assuredly, at the rate of sixty minutes an hour. We will die young or old, but what does old mean except to be near death (in our human experience)? One retort might be that old just means it’s been around a while, but for humans every year to have been is reducing the likelihood of being in future years. It’s a bit of a tragic comedy watching mortal people attempt to immortalize themselves through their own actions. Even those who were most successful, consider Napoleon or Julius Caesar, are known by a smaller proportion of the population with
Read more