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Optimism

The Holy Fool of ABC’s The Middle (or: What Would Sue Heck Do?)

February 7, 2018 by Matt Hill Leave a Comment

not sure if you watch
ABC’s The Middle;
if not, you might consider it

it’s just a family sitcom,
but a pretty good one,
especially if you
watch with your kids,
which is how we do it
and how it’s intended, i’d say

it’s in its 9th (and final) season,
so i’ve been thinking
a bit about it,
especially about how
there’s something
particularly significant
about the character of
Sue Heck

over the years,
Sue became my
hands-down fave on the show;
compared to the
frazzled downtroddenness
of Frankie,
or the
practical indifference
of Mike,
or the
charmed nonchalance
of Axl,
or the
odd aloofness
of Brick,
there’s something
unique/
special/
different
about Sue

she’s…
romantic;
quixotic;
a true believer
when it comes to life

where others frown,
she smiles;
where they dismay,
she hopes;
where they doubt,
she trusts;
where they lay fallen,
she gets back up

i mean, seriously:

of course,
this type of
(supposedly)
overnaive/
overgullible/
overhopeful/
overidealistic/
character is oft made
the butt of the joke
by other characters,
and this holds
true for Sue, too

“that Sue,”
we laugh with them,
“always failing,
but never giving up –
she’ll just never get it!

what a fool!”

but that’s just it:
she’s not a fool;
she’s so much not a fool
that, truly understood,
the other characters –
characters not like her,
people not like her –
perhaps need to
consider for themselves
where that moniker might
truly fit best

Sue Heck is,
actually, truly, what’s called
a holy fool:
in the words of a
Russian hymn,
someone whose
“imaginary insanity
[reveals] the insanity of the world”

( i want to say so much more
about holy fools rn –
about Jesus Christ himself,
about Paul (who called himself
“a fool for Christ”),
about the Hebrew prophets,
about the myriad incarnations
of holy fools in art
(Don Quixote, Prince Myshkin,
Solaire of Astora from Dark Souls) –
but time is short;
if you’re interested, Google a bit;
also, check out this great piece:
“The Holy Fool” by theburkean )

in other words,
though her
perpetual smile
seems foolish,
it really only
shows us to be foolish
for smiling less

though her
unstoppable optimism
seems foolish,
it actually shines light
on our too-easy
doubting and despairing

though we want to say
“just stay down,
just give up,”
the fact that
Sue doesn’t
only makes us the fools
for saying so
in the first place

in biblical language,
we might say
Sue’s foolishness
exemplifies love,
for surely she
“bears all things,
believes all things,
hopes all things,
endures all things;”
and, surely,
living like this can seem
pretty silly,
pretty out of place –
pretty foolish –
in the warp and woof
of the day to day
of this world

but, we’re saying:
that doesn’t mean
that it actually is 

in fact,
we’re saying:
it may be
actually the opposite

and,
indeed,
doesn’t this all
seem to fall
pretty well in line
with the God who
goes down a “failure,”
the God who dies “like a fool,”
scoffers and mockers afoot,
but then gets back up
and comes back to life –
because of love –
despite the “insanity,”
despite the ridiculousness,
despite the foolishness 
of the story?

🙂

 

Filed Under: Editorial, Reviews, Television Tagged With: ABC, cervantes, Christ Figure, Christian, comedy, dark souls, dostoyevsky, ending, evil, Faith, finale, holy fool, hope, literary type, literature, Love, meaning, Optimism, quixote, romantic, season 9, sitcom, solaire, spiritual, sue heck, the middle, true believer

Westworld & Trump, Optimism & Hope

November 16, 2016 by Matt Hill Leave a Comment

westworld_2
i’m highly optimistic about
HBO’s new hit show, Westworld
 
(if you’ve not seen it,
imagine a
sort-of sci-fi,
cyberpunk Western,
steeped in
J.J. Abrams style
cerebralism and cliffhangery;
a deliberately paced show
full of sweeping
panoramic shots,
shootouts, sex, robots
(rinse, recombine, repeat),
acting clinics put on
by a superb cast
(Anthony Hopkins
can do no wrong),
and enough intrigue to
[insert your own
cowboy-themed
capper here]
 
of course,
i’ve obviously seen the show,
so it’s not its
continued quality or excellence
i’m expressing optimism about, no
 
i’m optimistic that –
though at present
the plot has the
titular theme park
twisted into a knot
so dense and
so tending towards a
negative, gloomy,
“dark” view of things
(the future,
human nature,
etc.) –
it will
(eventually, ultimately)
take a turn towards a
positive, upbeat,
“bright” view of things,
or at least
use this view
to sweetly temper itself
and give us that
at-least bearable last look
 
i have this
optimistic opinion
for multiple reasons, chiefly:
i’m familiar with people
and with stories
 
i know the
showrunners,
the creators,
the people behind
Westworld
will want that
at-least bearable last look,
because that’s what people want;
so too this is what
watchers of Westworld will want;
so too this is
what stories uniformly give us
(why this is so
is a great question, though
attempting an answer
belongs elsewhere)
 
i have this
optimistic opinion,
in other words,
based on evidence –
previous knowledge,
experience, etc. –
and it seems to me
that it makes sense to be
optimistic in such cases
 
d6d107341a8cb99e2fe6be48fff69ee56898ed8a
on the other (small, orange) hand,
i’m not highly optimistic about the
USA’s new hit show,
Donald Trump, Prez Elect
 
(if you’ve not seen it,
imagine a
post-truth “reality” TV show
so unimaginable,
you’d never be able to
imagine it happening
in actual reality,
and then
imagine it happening
in actual reality)
 
if it makes sense to have an
optimistic opinion
based on evidence –
previous knowledge,
experience, etc. –
then it seems to me
that it doesn’t make sense to be
optimistic in this case
 
quite the opposite, in fact,
unfortunately
 
however
 
though there may not be
reason to be
optimistic about
the prospect of a
President Trump,
there is always
reason to be
hopeful
 
hopeful in that old
Bibley, Christiany, Jesusy
way, where –
despite current
circumstantial evidence,
despite lack of evidence
that might lead to an
optimistic opinion –
you still know that
*it’s going to be okay*
because how things go down
in this world (and beyond)
isn’t ultimately up to us humans
 
hopeful in that old
it’s-Friday-now-but-Sunday’s-coming
kind of way,
that old
“in this world you’ll have trouble,
but i’ve overcome the world”
kind of way,
that old
“God will wipe away every tear”
kind of way
 
hopeful, in other words,
in that old kind of way that
optimism,
for all its
sometimes sensible charms,
can only aspire to
 
are you hopeful like this?
not optimistic, but hopeful?
if not, you can be;
would you like to be?
 
would you like to have
an option beyond
understandable pessimism?
justified fear?
anger?
an option beyond
bemoaning on social media,
assuaging pains with
Obama Biden memes?
 
an option beyond
the current
irrationality of optimism?
an option beyond
just another shot in
just another four years?
 
you can;
would you like to?
 
all it takes,
humbly, hopefully, friend,
is a ride west of
present perspective,
on a horse of a different color,
made just for you,
just for all of us
 
a horse with a new name
for a new world
 
a horse that you don’t have to drive
alone
 
a horse that alone can take
us to a place
where actual action can happen
 
from here
right now

Filed Under: Current Events, Editorial, Reviews, Television Tagged With: Christian, Donald Trump, HBO, hope, Optimism, President, review, spiritual, television, Trump, TV, Westworld

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