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Ikiru, Take 2

I did finally watch Ikiru last night. It’s an amazing film, of course. I somehow never realized that “Parks and Rec” borrowed it’s opening premise from this film, with Leslie Knope finding purpose in becoming the irresistible force pushing the creation of an Indiana park through the unmovable object of city hall bureaucracy.

The soulful Takashi Shimura is impossible not to feel with as he absorbs the news of his terminal diagnosis and reacts first by abandoning himself to all the pleasures of distraction he had faithfully avoided and then, finally, by deciding to use himself up in “making something” meaningful as his way of emulating the irrepressible, glittering energy of young Miki Odagiri’s character. I loved the extended scene toward the end where all his fellow paper-pushers slowly realize what a truly heroic thing Watanabe accomplished as they gradually get more and more drunk at his wake.

Most poignant of all, for me, are Watanabe’s unrequited feelings of longing to connect with is grown son before his death, something he abandons as hopeless, thinking his son cares only about his retirement bonus and savings. Kurosawa does not attempt to solve the questions of the meaning life, but he does suggest that a bit of redemption can be found in overcoming the inertia of existence to serve others before we go.

The brave men of Fort Cody remain ever vigilant in North Platte, Nebraska.

Had our annual fondu Christmas extravaganza with the entire fam. It’s fun over function but always memorable.

Opting Out of Feelings

I’ve been meaning to see the classic Japanese film Ikuru for a long time. It’s about a man, a faithful government bureaucrat, who learns he is going to die and begins thinking back over how he has spent his life. One of the first things he recalls is the death of his wife when their only son was young.

The man and his son and her parents, perhaps, are riding in a car. The boy is staring ahead at the hearse they are following and panics when it turns a corner and he thinks they are going to lose track of it.

I turned it off shortly after that. I will finish it soon, maybe after Christmas. I’m actually assuming that it will be very life affirming in the end. In that moment, though, I knew I just didn’t want to feel all the closely observed feelings that make a powerful film so effective. I didn’t want to cry for all the vulnerabilities of my own only son or my own aging father. I decided I wanted to watch something blow up while nobody’s father walked away from the explosion without looking back. Weakness or self-care? Failed or functional masculinity? Yes, probably.

Cyrus Made Great by God

I’ve been loving a newsletter called Areopagus by a man named Sheehan, who calls himself the Cultural Tutor. Each issue includes seven short-ish cultural lessons about music, art, a historical figure, and much more.

The most recent issue included a short biography of Cyrus the Great (600-530 BC), who conquered much of the world, forming “the largest empire ever seen until then, and the first in the world to be truly intercontinental, multiethnic, and multicultural.” Cyrus, king of Persia, is the one who finally defeated the Babylonians and insisted on sending the Jewish people back to their own homeland from their season of exile.

Cyrus did not worship the Lord God of Israel, but he did give Israel’s God credit for his success in building his own vast empire:

“This is what Cyrus king of Persia says: ‘The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he has appointed me to build a temple for him at Jerusalem in Judah. Any of his people among you may go up, and may the Lord their God be with them’” (2 Chronicles 36:23).

And this is what the Lord God of Israel said about Cyrus, who did not worship Him in spite of knowing that God is the one who made him great (Isaiah 45:1-7):

This is what the Lord says to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I take hold of to subdue nations before him and to strip kings of their armor, to open doors before him so that gates will not be shut:

I will go before you and will level the mountains; I will break down gates of bronze and cut through bars of iron.

I will give you hidden treasures, riches stored in secret places, so that you may know that I am the Lord, the God of Israel, who summons you by name.

For the sake of Jacob my servant, of Israel my chosen, I summon you by name and bestow on you a title of honor, though you do not acknowledge me.

I am the Lord, and there is no other; apart from me there is no God. I will strengthen you, though you have not acknowledged me,

so that from the rising of the sun to the place of its setting people may know there is none besides me. I am the Lord, and there is no other.

I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the Lord, do all these things.

Who else has God made great for a season in order to fulfill His own purposes for the world? Who among them knew it was God that did it and still refused to bow before Him?