Ramblings of a Wayward Code Slave

I recently celebrated my 39th birthday on July 29 (born in 1967) and on a whim I decided to look up my birthday in Wikipedia to see what events occured on it. I found out that the most notable event isn't a terribly good one. It seems that on my actual birthday in 1967, the U.S.S. Forrestal -- the lead ship of her class of carriers (Forrestal class) -- caught on fire, leaving 134 men dead and 62 injured. It started with a rocket from an F-4 Phantom that fired on-deck due to an electrical surge. This rocket hit an A-4 Skyhawk about to launch, knocking off the aircraft's fuel tank and starting a fire. The A-4 pilot, Lt. Cmdr. John McCain (a member of the U.S. Senate from 1987 to the present), escaped the aircraft shortly before the fire caused the ordinance under the wings to explode. This caused other aircraft on the deck to catch fire and explode, almost sinking the ship.

On a more positive note, on my birthday in 1947 the ENIAC computer was turned on and remained in continuous operation until 1955. On that date in 1954 The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien was first published in Britain, and in 1957 the International Atomic Energy Agency was established.

It's a little creepy to know that as I was actually being born in Texas there were people dying en masse on an aircraft carrier over in the Bay of Tonkin by Vietnam. One could construe it as evidence of the circle of life, but it still is a bit unsettling to feel this connection to all of these people half a world away who died so tragically and needlessly. An electrical power surge, of all things...

Some may recall my earlier post on Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ. Well, this evening thanks to countless reruns and other assorted nonsense on television I watched it despite my reservations about it. It made me sick...sick not just because all of this happened to Christ but also because someone actually made a film about it. In my original post I mentioned that I had this feeling that Christ would most want us to remember the things he said about peace, love, and how to treat each other and not focus so much on the anguish of his death. After seeing this film, I'm even more certain that my feeling is right.

This film is very graphic, showing excessive violence, torture, and blood. It's ironic that the main demographic who claims this film as being spiritually transcendental are the same ones who gripe about the violence on TV and film. Jim Caviezel, the actor who played Christ, is basically flogged by Roman soldiers until he looks like a piece of raw meat. He then is crucified, the director making certain that we don't miss a single lash, hammer fall, cry of pain, or spurt of blood. There isn't that much dialog, the majority of the film being taken up with cries from the crowd and gasps of pain and exhaustion from Caviezel. I truly haven't seen anything this disgusting and offensive since I saw a documentary on the German death camps in WWII.

I've heard many people give testimonials about this film -- about how it made them understand what Christ went through to save us and how it brought them closer to God spiritually. Well, whatever works for them to deepen their spirituality is a good thing, but I can't think of a more gruesome and horrific way to do it.

Another issue I have with the film is the money associated with it. According to IMDB, this film grossed over $600 million U.S. dollars in ticket sales. That's a lot of profit nailed to the cross, if you'll pardon the expression. While capitalism is a viable economic policy for the secular side of life, I've never been of the opinion that capitalism and religion go well together. Capitalism is exploitative and puts the needs of the individual over the needs of the group; this is the antithesis of what Christianity teaches us. It's interesting how the U.S. is predominantly capitalist and predominantly Christian (myself included on both) yet these two are at odds with each other; this, however, is another topic and should be authored by someone more knowledgeable on economics and religion than myself. Nevertheless, the idea that this film put a load of money into Mel Gibson's already-stuffed wallet (and the wallets of a number of other wealthy Hollywood types) doesn't sit well with me.

Did I watch the whole thing? No, I just couldn't do it. I know the story from Sunday School and from reading Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John (comprising the vast majority of the Bible I've actually read, regrettably) so I don't need Mel Gibson's pseudo-snuff film to clue me in. I respect the opinions of the people who have high praise for this film and who credit it with a spiritual reawakening in themselves, but I can't disagree more with them if humanly possible. Of course, I'm just one more opinion and hardly an expert on religion, but I don't think that's required in this case. Perhaps it all boils down to what the individual finds more important: Christ's life or Christ's death. His death is what saves us as Christians, but His life is what defines us as Christians.

What exactly does God want us to get out of watching The Passion of the Christ? I have no idea, but I certainly got something out of it despite that something being the exact opposite of what Gibson intended. Does that mean that the film serves a purpose other than horrifying people and making Gibson richer? Perhaps so. I'll leave that decision to the reader...

You may not have known this but I'm Spiderman. Yep, it's me, not that Tobey McGuire wannabe on the TV. But did I get the ability to walk up walls, throw webs, and become insanely strong? Did I get a cool outfit? Naw. I just got a staph infection and a 3-week stay at the hospital for IV antibiotics.

The weather down here has been very hot and it's driven a lot of the outside pests to looking for more pleasant weather conditions -- like the cool and dark areas of buildings, including my apartment. One little bugger decided to make lunch out of my leg and that cost me 3 weeks of work and probably about $3,000 given my insurance deductible. That's quite a gift considering that I was bitten just a few days after my birthday.

The hospital I was in had excellent health care -- the nurses, aides, and assistants were all really nice and took good care of me. My only complaint is with the Dietary department. It seems that they were solely interested in giving me the runs. I was able to foil what I could only describe as a heroically valiant attempt on their part, but I still haven't felt so regular since my almost fatal overdose of red beans and rice back in 1983. I've also learned to dislike the taste of food thanks to 3 weeks of hospital rations. Worse than MREs, hospital food consists of rubber chicken and mystery meat; they cut it into different shapes and cover it with odd-smelling sauces, but it's still the same old thing.

On a side note, as of July 31 I'm officially divorced and once again a free agent, as if that matters. My ex-wife is teaching down in New Orleans again and seems to be rebuilding her life. She has some unfinished business in Ruston that may wind up being a time of tribulation for her; I wish her the best with her pursuits and hope she finds happiness or whatever she's looking for.