Adventures in Being

We all have our Sodom & Gomorrah's. Our places of pain. Of fear. Of occasional temporary pleasure.

Some choose to leave, but most seem to turn back. I'm not sure why. I think it could be uncertainty. For some, that's all they've ever known...and to leave would be so strange and uncertain. "At least here we know what will happen."

In that way it's comforting. And they get stuck there - in that backwards movement. Always looking back.

Papai and I went to the video store the other night. I voted for comedy, he chose 'Gone Baby Gone'. I expected the typical shoot-em-up/cheap ending combination so prevalent in a lot of movies. It was so different from expectations.

I should really stop expecting.

Partway into the movie, I thought I had it all figured out. The characters. I knew who was good and who was just pretending to be. Then I found out I didn't know. I realized something was wrong in my perceptions and proceeded to mentally sort through and begin again. I'm finding evidence to change these people. People who were good, now must be bad. Sort. Find. Pin that gesture on the evidence board. That phrase. That expression.

I thought so and so was good.

But look! He's really a lie.

But what if he isn't? I mean, I found evidence once to prove my perceptions wrong. Why can't I do it again? I could go round and round in this-- Casting my own ideas onto people until they're no longer themselves. They are whatever I think them to be.

I'm realising, "This is what we're doing. We aren't really seeing people for who they are. We're seeing what we want to see. And not only seeing. We marry them, work for them, become best friends with them. And when something goes wrong. It's their problem. We blame them.

But we did this to ourselves."

And then there's something else: Rules

As if following rules created certainty. And just what is certainty, anyway? It it still keeps coming back to rules.

Sometimes you just have to throw them out and live. I'm not condoning behaving in a negative manner or robbing banks or anything.

Live. Not destroy. Not getting so freaking attached to words with distorted meanings. Let them go. Just be a person. Be human.

Jesus was.

Some of you are saying that to be human would be a degradation. It's not! That's what we're supposed to be! We're not called to be angels or superheros.

Why is being human considered so worthless and sinful?

To be human, in it's very essence, is to be holy.

What have we turned ourselves into then?

It's like we tell ourselves we're worthless and start to become those thoughts. What if we told ourselves that we are beautiful, that we have so much potential, so much good to give, so much love?

What if we became those thoughts? Would life not begin to be heaven on earth rather than the hell we have chosen to put ourselves through?

We seem to always be waiting for Heaven. Hoping. Wishing.

Why are we waiting? The Kingdom is now.

signed Ashley.

Warning: This is not a film to be taken lightly. If you indeed watch it with open eyes and heart it will change your life.
It is not your standard "family" movie, it is rated R for violence, drug content and language.

Quotes to live by from GONE BABY GONE:

10929 Everyone wants to know the truth...until they find it.

dcs0812 I always believed it was the things you don't choose that makes you who you are....