The miracle of Christ’s resurrection has overturned the idolization of death that rules among us. Where death is final, fear of it combines with defiance. Where death is final, earthly life is all or nothing. Defiant striving for earthly eternities goes together with a careless playing with life, anxious affirmation of life with an indifferent contempt for life. Nothing betrays the idolization of death more clearly than when an era’ claims to build for eternity, and yet life in that era is worth nothing, when big words are spoken about a new humanity, a new world, a new society that will be created, and all this newness consists only in the annihilation of existing life. The radicality of this Yes and No to earthly life reveals that only death counts. To take in everything or to throw away everything, this is the attitude of one who believes fanatically in death.

~Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Ethics

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  Ethics (Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works, Vol. 6)
  Author: Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Categories: Resurrection, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Ethics
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I like movies again. I can say that after watching this film. It’s been a while since I have experienced the uncomfortable power of cinematic story telling that grabs me, makes me squirm under a transcendent weight, and then allows me to relish in the revelation of knowing that only a film can bring.

As a hopeful and aspiring independent film maker, I have spent a lot of time watching films from across a wide gamut of film making prowess and intent. I used to watch films simply because I enjoyed them, but now it is hard to enter into that naive bliss without the learning and critique engine running to see what others have done and how they have done it.

When a film comes along and punches you in the gut hard enough to forget about the craft and just soak in the story, it is truly a beautiful moment. I believe “Blindness” is one of those films. Not that “Blindness” is shot in a mediocre fashion, to the contrary its story is wrapped in a steady stream of well crafted and beautiful shot composition, but calling it entertaining feels like a slur. It does that impossible work of forcing you to survey from end to end the scope of human depravity and sanctity through the lens of a single question…

What would happen if there was a sudden epidemic of human blindness?

• 
  Blindness
  Director: Fernando Meirelles

Often times the movies that I appreciate most, come with a certain sadness that makes them meaningful and powerful, I believe “Blindness” is just such a movie. I am reminded of the scene from Schindler’s List where Oskar realizes the life saving project he had been caught up in and that human lives were somehow connected to his meager sacrifice of money and things as he hugs the fender of his car and contemplates the number of lives it represents. Somehow his humanity and bravery are only complete in this sad moment of knowing the worst of mankind and each individual’s struggle against flippancy, capriciousness, and apathy in order to be truly human.

In an odd sort of way this film seems to be the redemption of everything that is missing from the obsession with modern zombie films. I will refrain from a full lamenting of this genre only to say that it is almost always built upon the removal of whatever sentient faculties make us human and then forcing those “uninfected” humans to destroy the leftover physical flesh of this new inhuman species with an almost gleeful vengeance. As a Christian still trying to work out my theology in practice, this joy of killing the flesh has the allure of a worthy metaphor… but in the end it always seems to engender a gnostic hatred for humanity. I believe that “Blindness” presents the same “zombie” like depths of human depravity, but I also believe it is more honest in keeping the horror rooted in the wickedness of selfishness and demonstrated in the violent control brought about by fear and pain.

From this place I had to identify the worst that I am capable of as being on par with the atrocities I witnessed being trespassed in “Blindness”. In a horrific moment of rape and violence the person committed to walking the most painful path of love and sacrifice stands out as the only hope for mankind. That is a vision and a story that all of my theology ultimately rests upon in the theophany of Christ. “Blindness” presents many layers of allegorical consideration and commentary on the human condition and if the book is near as good as the movie I do believe its garnering of the Nobel Prize was very apt.

• http://www.blindness-themovie.com/
• http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0861689/

I am also looking forward to reading the original novel by Jose Saramago which won him the Nobel Prize for literature in 1998, every great film still starts with a great story right?

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Saramago

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  Blindness (Movie Tie-In)
  Author: Jose Saramago

Categories: Humanity, Ethics, Books, Movies
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“It’s all bulls- -t,” he said.
“A logo on a can of soda? Please.
My life is bulls- -t.”

~Peter Arnell, Modern Marketing Genius

Marketing has become an inescapable culture forming, life shaping, contextual force in America; not to mention every developed and developing nation in the world. I think we all take for granted just how much the efforts of marketing folks have shaped the context of our modern lives.

I was reminded of this reality recently when I stopped in at my old office and casually informed people about my plans to travel to Finland this summer with my father. At least half of my former office comrades mentioned with gleeful exuberance that Visa commercial where father and son travel to the homeland only to discover they arrived in the wrong heritage. Powered by their mistake conquering credit card, the family duo whimsically switches plans and heads to the proper destination… problem solved, humor enjoyed, and a new context for relating to family heritage formed.

Visa, it’s everywhere you want to be!

I don’t think I was done any injustice here, and I am not upset by my friends relating to me in this manner… it’s a fun and humorous commercial and it is perfectly germane to my possible trip (I will double check my heritage before leaving).

The point is this; successful marketing campaigns do become a part of our daily context overtly and subconsciously.

Could it be that this motto has something to do with our current economic maelstrom? I will table that rhetorical question for latter…

After reading the following two articles in the April 2009 issue of Newsweek, I did get a bit upset…

• MadMan, The Crazy Genius of Brand Guru Peter Arnell
• Generation Diva, Are we Turning our Tweens into ‘Generation Diva’?

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Categories: Marketing, Ethics, Books
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I believe many Christians have a difficult time striking a reasonable balance between business ambition and motivating first principles. I am one of them. I want to make a lot of money someday, although I would settle with paying the bills for now. In light of that, most of the time, an Ecclesiastical aphorism will do…

Ecclesiastes 2:24
A man can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work. This too, I see, is from the hand of God

There are a lot of sayings and inspirational quotes about how adversity reveals character… but I think the spotlight of success, especially in today’s culture of celebrity, is a much better litmus test…

Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value.
~Albert Einstein

The goal of working more hours to make more money can suffice for a few years, but before long, the suspicion that there has to be something better as a foundational work ethic creeps into view. As a new business owner, I find myself with the real responsibility of asking questions like; “Why am I doing this?”


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Categories: Ethics, Business, Work, Bible Study
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