Tuesday, October 06, 2009

Life Lessons from Situation Comedies.

I'm not sure the term 'sit-com' is actually short for 'situation comedy' I just guessed it one day and now I say it a lot. One day I will look that up. Or now.


I watched 'Friends' with the roommates today and one episode in particular had some cool lines that made me think. I love that.



>>>cool line #1:

When Ross is fighting with everything he has to convince Pheobe that Evolution is the only theory that exists:

Phoebe: Uh-oh. It's Scary Scientist Man.
Ross: What? Okay, Phoebe, this is it. In this briefcase, I carry actual scientific facts. A
briefcase of facts, if you will. Some of these fossils are over 200 million years old.
Phoebe: Okay, look, before you even start, I'm not denying evolution, okay? I'm just saying
that it's one of the possibilities.
Ross: What? It's the only possibility, Phoebe.
Phoebe: Okay, Ross, could you just open your mind like this much, okay? Wasn't there a time
when the brightest minds in the world believed that the world was flat? And up until,
like, what, 50 years ago, you all thought the atom was the smallest thing, until you split
it open, and this, like, whole mess of crap came out. Now, are you telling me that you
are so unbelievably arrogant that you can't admit that there's a teeny tiny possibility
that you could be wrong about this?

>This made me think about fixed reference points. And how empirical 'evidence' can be so encompassingly convincing that good, smart people will take 'evidence' and create their own reference points. Until, 50 years later, when something else happens and it changes the entire frame of reference. 'The philosophies of men have no fixed reference points' (a quote from 'The Enoch Letters' by Neal A. Maxwell).

Knowledge of absolute truth, things as they really are, brings power. The [absolute] kind. And, as a child of God, I've inherited that power. His power. It takes work to learn to use it though because with great power comes great responsibility.

Oh, did I forget to mention? You've inherited it too. So, you and I, we can continue to let people tell us that we're not pretty or handsome or smart enough. We can let people tell us it's not socially acceptable to disagree with now widely accepted immoral lifestyles and situations. Or, we can choose to discern what sounds right from what is right. We can choose to accept the power that we have. We can decide to be in charge of ourselves, rise above empirical limits, and do and become what according to now is impossible, but according to God is kind of the point of our lives here on the earth. The time to take control of your own frame of reference and accept your birthright and all that comes with it, is yesterday.

>>>cool line #2:

Chandler: I reject anyone who's crazy enough to actually go out with me, and then I complain
about the fact that there aren't any great women out there.

>Umm, all I have to say about this is amen. Both genders are guilty. If you think about how perfectly everything must be timed and said and done, it's a miracle that any of us ever wind up falling in the kind of love that happens every day. Scratch miracle. replace it with blessing.

So, no one told you life was going to be this way? I'll be there for you. [He'll be there for you too].

Shalom!

[disclaimer: I believe in evolution as much as the next guy]
[in fact, I love evolution and the study therein]
[so, that's good]

[also, I don't condone the watching of 'Friends' as a particularly good use of one's time]

2 comments:

amanda said...

do you remember how much i love you?

jewels said...

Chae-

deep, delightful,

insightful--always

and forever:

You