I guess if there's anything I could say...anything that would mean anything...it would be...
Use sunscreen. Don't smoke. Eat your vegetables. Protect your friends.
And savor it. Savor it all. The good times and the bad. Because even with the bad times, people love you, and you're alive.
And being alive...is amazing.
- Peter Parker (actually former Jesus People leader and current sci-fi/comics writer J. Michael Straczynski), giving advice to his 16-year-old former self, in The Amazing Spider-Man #536
I kind of liked that. My friend
John Bozeman and I have discussed JMS's former faith and how his journey has affected his fiction. As a big fan of his work (
Babylon 5 is his most well-known TV project), I find those topics fascinating. There's definitely a wise and true and spiritual message in much of his fiction, but is it missing something? Who am I to judge? Interesting to ponder, though.
1 comment:
Seminarians and people on the ordination track can go nuts on the central conflict in Peter Parker's life: do you follow what you are called to do, if it means being less than present with the people who love you? That whole duty vs. love thing. I'd like to think that for everyone except for superheroes and spies, there's a way to make it work. A key element may be stepping back and realizing that ordination does not, um, make us superheroes; the world will go on turning without our help just fine.
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