We're All Stories, In the End.

I saw this on Facebook and felt it was worth sharing. The quote comes from the season 5 finale of Doctor Who, "The Big Bang". The Doctor's last words to a sleeping Amelia Pond:

"It's funny, I thought, if you could hear me, I could hang on, somehow. Silly me. Silly old Doctor. When you wake up, you'll have a mum and dad, and you won't even remember me. Well, you'll remember me a little. I'll be a story in your head. But that's OK: we're all stories, in the end. Just make it a good one, eh? Because it was, you know, it was the best: a daft old man, who stole a magic box and ran away. Did I ever tell you I stole it? Well, I borrowed it; I was always going to take it back. Oh, that box, Amy, you'll dream about that box. It'll never leave you. Big and little at the same time, brand-new and ancient, and the bluest blue, ever. And the times we had, eh? Would've had. Never had. In your dreams, they'll still be there."

 The line used in the picture has stuck with me because it sums up what I believe. After our bodies return to the Earth our stories continue. These stories connect and define us while also creating new stories. A beautiful example of the interconnectedness of our stories is portrayed in last year's film, Cloud Atlas. The film is based on David Mitchell's 2004 novel which consists of six stories spanning from the 19th century to a post-apocalyptic future. The characters of the six eras are connected to each other through storytelling and are inspired by that connectedness to fight the injustice of their time. The stories stand alone independently but when they are told together they create a beautiful interwoven tapestry of us, a story of being human.

Some people fear that they'll be forgotten after their death, but even the shortest and seemingly insignificant of lives have a part to play in the choir of humanity. One of my favorite Doctor Who scenes happens between Wilfred Mott and the 10th Doctor in "The End of Time":

The Doctor: I'm older than you.
Wilfred: Get away.
The Doctor: I'm nine hundred and six.
Wilfred: Oh really though?
The Doctor: Yeah.
Wilfred: Nine hundred years. We must look like insects to you.
The Doctor: I think you look like giants. 

The beauty of our collective stories is not solely found in the most prominent threads in our tapestry, but in the sea of unique threads interconnected and bound to one another. When we discover that interconnectedness we come to appreciate each others stories that much more. And as we blend we begin to forget where one story ends and another begins.

So what is your story? Have you found your story's place in the tapestry? Are you making it a good one?

Clara Oswald: The Red Shirt

Although I mainly write on religion and spirituality I thought I'd continue my thoughts on Doctor
Who and theories on the identity of Clara Oswin Oswald. One of the common themes I've found reading on theories on Clara's identity is that she wears red, a lot. Combine that with the fact that she keeps dying and you can't help but calling her a red shirt. Others have also noticed roses referenced in several episodes, possible hinting at a connection with Rose Tyler (a popular theory being that Clara is the daughter of Rose and 10-Two). Even though the color red may be a foreshadowing of Clara's death why does she keep coming back only to be killed again? The way the Doctor desperately tries to keep Clara alive after seeing her die twice before reminds me of Desmond's attempts to keep Charlie alive in Lost. Regardless how many times Desmond tried to keep him alive Charlie had to die.

There is a Grand Unified Doctor Who and Clara theory found here which attempts to explain why Clara keeps popping up throughout history. It states that she is in fact a Time Lord who used a Chameleon Arch on herself.  Even though her body dies her Time Lord essence fights its way back into existence constantly being reborn throughout time. It's an interesting theory (although I'm unfamiliar with the Classic Doctor Who series so I'm not sure of the theory's plausibility) but I really like the focus on her essence fighting its way back into existence.  Unlike Charlie in Lost where death was unavoidable, life is unavoidable for Clara. Regardless of her true identity I believe her constant rebirth is tied to the Doctor's identity and acts to remind the Doctor of something incredibly important ("Run, you clever boy. And remember.").

And on a side note, does the promo pic of the new episode, Nightmare in Silver, not remind anyone else of The Last Supper?

The Doctor Who is Named...

So while wrapping up my last post on our thoughts on God a line from the Tao Te Ching and my excitement to watch Doctor Who tomorrow accidentally collided inside my head. I love reading about the intersection between religion and science fiction so I couldn't help myself from creating this meme. The line was "The Tao that can be named (spoken) is not the eternal Tao."Although now that I think of it a better line to use would have been "The Name that can be named is not the eternal name." I don't believe Moffat and friends will actually reveal the name of the Doctor but instead talk about the power in knowing the name and what may befall if that name fell into the wrong hands. My wife and I are banging our heads against the wall trying to figure the identity of Clara Oswald, I suppose, like everyone else. Even though we may not guess her identity we're definitely enjoying trying to solve it. Let me know if you can come up with a better meme. I'd love to hear them.

Time Lord Victorious

Time Lord Victorious

There were a couple of recent articles found here and here, and a Doctor Who episode I recently rewatched on Netflix which all run along the same theme. They all touch upon the theme of a supreme/higher being with absolute power. The Doctor Who episode entitled "The Waters of Mars" displays one of the Doctor's darker moments after rescuing Captain Adelaide Brooke who should have died on Mars and is an important figure to earth's history thus altering, or so he thinks, a fixed point in time. The Doctor proclaims himself the Time Lord Victorious as Captain Adelaide Brooke challenges the monster the Doctor has become.

Captain Adelaide Brooke: "And if my family changes, the whole of history can change. The future of the human race. No one should have that much power."

The Doctor: "Tough."


Not only does the concept of an all powerful deity being in 100% control of everything in the universe reeks of injustice and immorality (at least to me), I can't imagine anyone with that much power over life and death without a broken heart, or in the Doctor's case, two broken hearts. A deity with absolute control over the cosmos may be comforting to many but to others comes across as a complete monster over the slaughter of women and children in the Old Testament and unjust as the giver (and withholder) of "God-given" rights. I acknowledge that this may simply be a difference of opinion in how we view the divine, but a deity which asks of us complete submission and repentance without reciprocating shared suffering and shared forgiveness seems too alienating for my taste. As the brilliant Amelia Pond says in "The Beast Below"

"If you're were that old and that kind, and the very last of your kind, you couldn't just stand there and watch children cry."

I find that the concept of an all-loving God is more comforting than an all-powerful God yet the all-powerful God seems to over shadow the all-loving. A God who suffers,a broken and lonely God, seems more in touch with humanity than one who rules over its creation. The image of the divine I lean more towards is that of God as a verb more than a noun, an action instead of a being.