Where Heaven Lies

"Be without fear in the face of your enemies.
Be brave and upright that God may love thee.
Speak the truth always even if it leads to your death.
Safeguard the helpless and do no wrong.

That is your oath."

Just got back from watching Kingdom of Heaven, quite a movie I have to say. It is a bit draggy in some parts, and seems a bit decapitated at certain portions, but overall the package comes across largely as a success. And I guess part of the success comes from the fact that is has only a simple message to bring across, the danger of religious fervour but more importantly, where heaven lies.

It's so blindingly obvious I guess people tend to miss it nowadays. The whole movie revolves around the Christians and Muslims fighting over stones and walls in the desert, their "Kingdom of Heaven", Jerusalem. But I guess we forget, that heaven lies within us, and as pointed out in the movie, "What God desires" is but our mind and heart. Nothing depicted this endless war between religions than the scene where both armies clash in a narrow breach in the walls of Jerusalem, both sides unable to gain any ground but still losing men by the hundreds. Do we love God by hating each other? Do we find peace and solace by waging war? Do we get our own "Kingdom of Heaven", only by wracking hell on Earth?

Everyone who loves God should take the time to consider, do we need religion to tell us how to love God?

"Holiness is in right action, and courage on behalf of those who cannot defend themselves."

One of the quotes from the movie which I find thought-provoking. Perhaps if we opened ourselves more, and let in the light, we will truly find where heaven lies. Within each and everyone of us.

Don

Serenity

Take my love.
Take my land.
Take me where I cannot stand.
I don’t care, I’m still free.
You can’t take the sky from me.

Take me out
to the black.
Tell ‘em I ain’t comin’ back.
Burn the land and boil the sea.
You can’t take the sky from me.

Have no place
I can be
Since I found Serenity.
But you can’t take the sky from me.

"Ballad of Serenity" - Theme from TV series, Firefly

Ok, so this may seem like I'm promoting the movie shamelessly. I am. It's one of those witty shows with humour that requires some grey matter so you can actually catch the plot, and I hope anyone with half a functioning brain will take the time to catch Serenity when it comes out really much later in the year, and rescue a dying genre of movies, sci fi-western ( yeah you heard me right, Joss Whedon actually managed to put two different genres together ).

It's a pretty twisted sort of future that the writer creates, but I'll try and string it as best as I can. Earth depleted, we colonize many planets, some want to remain independent, but a core group decide to form the Alliance and stamp out the independents. Think American Civil War, and the Union wins again, and our main character is a Confederate ( called Indepedents in the movie ) soldier who moves on from the defeat in his own ship, the Serenity, to do odd jobs and simply stay alive. He's a rebel who has seen his cause shot to pieces, but decides to live on.

Looking at life from the losing side, I guess that's what the show manages to present. History is written by the winners, so therefore history tramples on those who lose. The Confederates were slave-owners who wanted to keep their black men and women under their chains of subjugation, and the Union freed these slaves. That's the version we are taught, but what happens if the USA was the CSA instead? I guess the Confederate states would look more kindly on the benefits of slave ownership, and the rest of the world would have agreed. Case in point, history is all about interpretation, and should be never taken as truth. History contains many facts, but they support different truths, and politicising history (hint hint China and Japan), will only lead to the one thing which history loves to do. Repeat itself.

Then there's another lesson which I derive. No matter how deep you are in shit, finding no way to climb out of a seemingly bottomless pit of lost hope, or simply wandering and trying to find purpose in life, don't give yourself a discount and find the tallest building around to jump off. Climb that tallest building, seek serenity, and you will find direction. I think I have met with several dead ends in my life, whether it was during my Sec 3 life or post A-Levels, I had moments to simply sit down and think things through quietly, either in a chalet up in Malaysia or on an army bunk somewhere in Singapore, and found myself again. The key component is serenity, that peace of mind so you can re-evaluate what has meant a lot in your life, and what will keep you breathing past that low point in your existence.

Live for something rather than die for nothing.
- George S. Patton

We all have our dreams, but let us not follow them into oblivion. If they die, then so be it, let life give us another path to follow. After all, many paths still lead to the same end. We all die, just let us find the longest, most fulfilling path to walk.

Don