Which drink do you choose?
I have a blog about Miles Davis’s album Kind of Blue coming through me. I was set to write about it two weeks ago but then the impending loss of my friend Bruce Kramer to ALS became juxtaposed with my non-profit’s launching party for our major month-long fundraising yogathon Kiss My Asana. This seeming paradox compelled me to write a different blog. As late as midnight last night, I was reading online about the making of Kind of Blue. This morning there was sunshine and I remembered that tomorrow was Easter. A tribute to a revolutionary blues album felt misplaced. I have to write that one either on a rainy day or a quiet night.
I did something yesterday that I rarely do. I went to a horror movie, but it was much more than that. It Follows is a lower budget indie film, getting rave reviews, and suddenly enjoying much wider distribution. One critic said it was the best American horror film of the 21st century. It was slow-paced and relentlessly suspenseful (the pace is part of the suspense). More than that, the horror motif functioned as a metaphor for much deeper existential themes. It Follows also functions as a metaphor for young people losing their innocence (and their souls) as they enter the world of relatively meaningless sex and the modern dangers that ensue, i.e. AIDS, herpes, STD’s, Hepatitis C, and the like. The main plot line is that a supernatural, evil force is transmitted between teenagers through sexual contact. Once afflicted, the person is relentlessly followed by an invisible ghoul (visible only to the infected person) that can take the form of anyone and is bringing a painful death. Ironically, the only hope of ridding oneself of this affliction is to have sex with someone else and pass the problem on to them. Throughout the movie this evil force is both subtly and overtly connected to the notion that death is inevitably and relentlessly following us all.
What does all this have to do with Easter? The presence of death is an ongoing feature of the human condition. How one relates to such truth ultimately defines the quality with which one lives. I believe there is both invisible and visible splendor inherent to the fabric of existence. I believe that such splendor cannot be fully accessed by reason and the rational mind. The true depth of the Universe is sometimes forced to reveal itself through paradox. One of the transcendent Easter themes is that the apparent hopelessness of death is in fact the promise of everlasting life. In other words, death is life. This seemingly impossible paradox is actually the cause for great hope and joy. In fact, it is fabulous reason to hug each other and notice the coming of spring.
So when facing the choice between an evil, supernatural STD or the Easter paradox, I choose the jelly beans.