Undertaker's Daughter

Warning: Don't leave your blog too long

I forgot my signin and almost lost, well, access to my own life.

Granted I'm my usual paranoid, hyperbolic self. Aren't you glad I haven't changed? well, aren't you? Hmmm, maybe not. But still, the effect of looking at Undertaker's Daughter from the outside, battering my hands on the glass of the monitor, unable to get in and say anything. . .

Well, I repeat-- don't leave your blog too long unattended. This is your life, you know, maybe not your only one, but the only one you've got right now.

I've had my wake up call, here's yours.

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And here's why I got off my duff and started babbling in digital print again. There's this rather toothsome review of Batman Begins by Thomas More, that luvely Irish Soul-Keeper-- not the obvious reviewer of such a summer thrill-fest, and not the obvious review either.

Here's the "almost" opening line that grabbed me.

Almost six hundred years ago, the brilliant theologian Nicolas of Cusa said that we should be like bats to see in the darkness of our ignorance and in our world of mysteries. TM: see Review

Yes!! Darkness and mystery as a blessed expansion of Humanity rather than a morbid excess of evil shadow. It goes on to expound on the values inherent in The Fall-- reminiscent to me of Julian of Norwich's teaching on the values of-- of all things-- sin-- the secret road to Grace. Without it, without descent into those places we thought we thought we would never go, but always do, the hand of God would have no reason to reach out, to show the love inherent in creation and not only lift us up but increase our understanding and compassion in doing so. Falling deepens us in more ways than one.

Shamans-to-be are sometimes recognized as spiritual leaders when they fall from a tree or some other high place. We fall into awareness of ourselves and into the complexities of our lives. So, the fall into the well is a wonderful start to the movie about Batman’s beginnings. TM: see Review

CONTINUED

Ultimately, More is dissillusioned with the movie, which like so many other blockbusters, backs off from the deeper meanings of its imagery for one more cliche-ridden violent special effect. It's an illuminating review though, for once, a Christian writer has seen the real deficiency in these flawed fantasies. It is not that they are too dark-- though I admit some truly are and irredeemably so. More sees the greater flaw-- that they do not appreciate the vitality and power of the darkness to transform and illuminate our souls-- yes, darkness brings light, always has, as Midnight brings Dawn, as Death and the Fear of Death brings a New and Richer Life.

A mantra is repeated throughout the film: "You fall so you can learn to pick yourself up." Maybe that’s true, but in light of Bruce Wayne’s fall into the well, I would think you fall to become acquainted with your deeper nature, to enter the realm of the bat, which is mysteriously a part of your interior, the dreamworld that has great impact on your emotions and sense of meaning. TM: see the review

I did not-- I hope-- like a bad preview, give up all the best lines in the teaser. Read the review, and, do like me, see the film with all its potential and flaws and edit it on your internal all-powerful imagination to reflect how you would add more to it, deeper, wiser, more magically wonderful. It's a gift we have over any faulty entertainment--the ability to revise reality-- or fantasy, is there ultimately a difference once they hit the convolutions of our brain?-- and make it truer to ourselves.

Bye for now, it's good to be back. Hope you feel the same. I won't leave it so long again. I've missed my invisible audience.

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