Wanderlust

There are times when certain ideas seem to collide simultaneously... And suddenly they all become the same idea.

If you haven't seen Wall-E yet, you are doing yourself an incredible disservice. It is literally the best film of the year thus far. Sorry, Kung Fu Panda... :-)

The movie brings to the big screen an old idea, but applies it futuristically. What's surprising is that it has been this long since we went into space and it that this movie seems to be the first to have done so. The idea is this: why do we go into space?

There seem to be two responsibilities that tug at us as a species: responsibility and wanderlust. I would choose a better word than 'responsibility' but one does not immediately come to mind. It is an old metaphor; namely, the parable of the Prodigal Son. The incorrect impulse would be to immediately criticize the son for shirking his responsibilities and leaving his family's estate and legacy. The father does not criticize him. There is a certain necessity in the son's leaving.

Heck, the argument goes even farther back. Was it a good or bad thing that Adam and Eve left the Garden of Eden? Some religions would say no, some would say yes.

If man were to enter space, would doing so be a sort of destiny... Or is he abandoning the responsibility associated with Earth. Or can leaving Earth be, in itself, its own responsibility?

I thought entered my head while I was reflecting on a dream... If it were possible for a man to see every corner of space, every galaxy, every solar system... would he be satisfied? The answer to that question is: if a man saw every inch of every corner of the known world, would he be satisfied? If he saw everything there was to see in his own country, would he be satisfied? The answer is absolutely "no".

Yet we chase after some inescapable wanderlust. Is it truth that we seek? This, to me, seems folly, to search, like Fox Mulder, for the unfindable "truth" that is out there. It seems, to me, as stoic and ridiculous as a man who stares at a rock endlessly, attempting to find meaning in it. There is no more meaning in a solitary rock than there is in a million rocks. It is a rock. And there are different rocks, each with their own uniqueness, beauty, and perhaps even purpose.

If there is no preference then, no advantage in whether or not to live standing still or a rolling stone, what should we ask from life then?

Living is not defined by our circumstances. I will continue to say that.

Malachi wrote, "I the Lord do not change. So that you, O descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed."

What does Wall-E teach us? The robot finds unspeakable beauty in the universe, including the marvels of human ambition. The robot teaches us that there are things that are valuable, that should be cherished instead of used to meet an end. There are things that we throw away in order to go on a journey, that should not have been left behind in the first place (namely, Planet Earth itself).

Perhaps our wanderlust is not calling us to any particular place... but to life.