Two Things: In Appreciation

Appreciation I

I watched portions of the season opener of HBO's original series, Rome, last night between scripts, promos, and mic checks. Assuming I'm still drawing breath, and capable of doing so, I'll watch it in its entirety tomorrow evening.

This is where the story picks up... Julius Gaius Caesar has just been murdered by Brutus and other members of the Senate. His body is lying in repose at his home. His wife, dutiful pagan that she is, calls in everyone that should perform those tasks needed to honor his mortal remains and speed him off to Elysium or some such. A nurse maid is brought in, and with his widows assent, bares her breast and lowers it to Caesar's mouth and squeezes milk onto his dead lips. The milk rolls down and over his jaw and to the back of his neck...

Next up, Lucius Vorenus, one of two soldiers around whom the entire story revolves, is mourning the loss of his wife who killed herself because of her husbands great anger over her illegitimate child. In the process of their great argument Vorenus has cursed the child and his daughters. They are currently off to be sold as slaves by another man who hates Vorenus. Vorenus, naturally, is horrified at what he's done, and seeks to find his family to take the curse back. His friend, Titus Pullo, asks him,

"Did you kill something over the curse?"

Vorenus says 'No'

"Well then," Pullo says with a smile. "It's not done! The curse can be taken back!"

The customs of these people! It's easy to look at the great Hollywood epics, even recent ones like Ridley Scott's Gladiator, and see fine linens, relatively clean streets, brightly lit interior rooms. But the cut of cloth you see in HBO's Rome is a far coarser weave, both literally and figuratively.

The timeline is such that Christ is still some 45 years from the cradle. Joseph likely, and Mary certainly, haven't yet been born either. Anna the prophetess and Simeon are likely only children. Leap ahead another 30 or so years. Caesar Augustus has been dead for 16-18 years-- Tiberius is now Emperor. And at some point beyond this a tent maker named Saul is making his way toward Damascus to detain, persecute, perhaps even condemn to death members of a heretical sect calling themselves Christians.

We know that Saul became Paul, and in time ended his journey in Rome. Now, I don't know how accurately HBO's 'Rome' depicts life in the pre-dawn hours of Christ's birth, but I do know that what Paul witnessed in the Gentile nations must have been hurtful to his eyes and heart. What wickedness in the world of men! What superstition! This is the world Paul and the rest of Christ's disciples were sent to reach... And reaching, plead... And pleading, convince... And convincing, convict... And convicting, wrest their souls from Satan's grasp.

For all this show is unfit for Godly eyes and ears, it nonetheless gives me new appreciation for the job these humble yet bold men of Christ were given, and following through, established the name of Jesus Christ in the hearts of untold millions throughout a long fortnight of centuries.


Appreciation II

I got to the theater this afternoon; through the popcorn line and in my seat less than a minute before Children of Men began. Needless to say, this pleased me... I was ten minutes late, but thank the Lord for previews!

The year is 2027, and it's been some 18 years since ANY woman has given birth, let alone gotten pregnant. The new celebrity is an eighteen year old, affectionately called-- world-wide --Baby Diego. Diego, spitting upon a fan seeking only his autograph is stabbed to death. The youngest person alive, and a symbol of hope to a quite literally dying world, is now dead.

But that's simply subtext; what's really happening is the collapse of civilization. Terrorists are seeking to force England-- the only relatively sane country left in the world --to stop rounding up and deporting illegal aliens... and many who are merely 'undesireable'. It is the cold, stark reality in which the film's characters live.

Another stark reality is a popular product being sold to millions around the globe-- A euthanasia drug; for those who cannot continue living with the despair that comes with knowing mankind will soon cease to exist. A despair that is both as tangible and livid as any fresh scar... The pain for some is simply too great. And the world has, quite literally descended into chaos. Man's true nature, now that all pretense and sense of continuity is gone, has risen up from the heart and spilled out like fresh gobbits of vomit.

But in the midst of this burgeoning war... This effort to hasten man's final day... A woman finds herself pregnant, and a political target because of it. Who will take her where grasping fingers and political machinations cannot reach? Who will help this new mother keep the first child born in eighteen years, safe?

One extremely poignant scene toward the end is a siege between terrorists and the British Army at a hotel that has been all but reduced to rubble. With guns aimed and ready, and shouts to stand back, hands up! A day old child begins to cry... At first it doesn't seem to register on anyones radar, but slowly recognition dawns on everyone. One officer shouts for everyone to stand down, lower weapons, and they all stare in wonder as mother and child, guided by her protector, make their way out of the ruined hotel, and everyone outside-- soldiers all --kneeling, crossing themselves.... it is so utterly quiet except for the crying of a child. But man's baser nature takes over and terrorists and the military apparatus begin fighting once more.

It is often hard to appreciate what is always before us-- Children are everywhere. It's no big deal to walk into a grocery store and see a mother with her baby cradled in a shopping carts basket. We take for granted women we see, obviously with child, and take for granted the premise and promise of Continuity... No matter what, life WILL go on. And it is this attitude that allows men and women to carelessly throw children away-- Ripping them from the womb --and think nothing of it; Life will go on, after all.

Many in this world-- far TOO many --have no sense of gratefulness, and appreciation is therefore lost to them.

Having said all this, I submit that it is all but impossible to appreciate anything without first experiencing a genuine sense of gratefulness.

And the movie was quite good, too.