It’s been a Lord of the Rings weekend here, as the Cannery has been playing the extended versions of the trilogy one per day. And while I have thoughts on watching the series again, I think the timing of the screenings match up nicely with this piece by Sam Bush over at Mockingbird about the life-as-journey metaphor (since it name-checks the story).
Metaphors are, of course, a big deal. There’s a nice chunk of How to Think by Alan Jacobs that speaks to the significance of unacknowledged metaphors and their power over us (just as they also give us power to make sense of life). Bush’s concern is that we have bought too much stock from the “life is a journey” metaphor, Christians as much as anyone else. After mentioning John Bunyan as “the progenitor of the Christian faith narrative,” Bush writes:
For instance, many Christians today view their own sanctification as a long process in which, over time, virtues are cultivated through the work of the Spirit. Call it a “journey of justification,” if you will. As you traverse through the perilous Valley of Adolescence and through the wicked city of College, you are expected to come out unscathed or at least find your way back to the trail. Just pray that you don’t get lost in the Desert of Doubt, where many people don’t make it out alive.
Christians, therefore, have fallen prey to the pitfalls of the journey story as much as the rest of the world. If the task, as pilgrims, is to read the road signs and make the right choices, we are no different than the weight loss gurus and influencers offering to guide you through their journey of spa vacations.
Warning acknowledged, though I do think those considering themselves “pilgrims” are looking out for something other than gurus and spa vacations.
One of the best bits of the essay is given in the title and then not mentioned again until the end of the piece. After mentioning the changing metaphors used when describing cancer, Bush notes:
In the words of Paul Zahl, life is not a journey, but a train wreck. We may buy ourselves a ticket, climb aboard, and imagine the distant places of our dreams, but we are almost always derailed.
Definitely a true statement, an apt metaphor. He then debriefs the assertion with the reminder of our need for rescue in the Christian story. It’s a good reminder of where we started and the landscape of where we have to go in our mortal lives.
While I appreciate the piece, I’m not totally sold on ditching the journey metaphor. If anything, perhaps, it needs rehabilitation. My least favorite take on life-as-journey is when someone says “it’s about the journey, not the destination.” That’s pure hogswallop. That’s wilderness without Promised Land and a mark of rebellion. I think, in the long run, we are all of us looking for a guiding metaphor that takes in both the train wreck and whatever forward motion we get after the rescue. Rescue is there, for sure, but there is also the drudge, trudge, and even joy of the road before us.
(image from mavnewspaper.com)
I will, of course, hold off on judgment until the show actually airs (and I hope those boots end up being a little more yellow, for sure). It’s a gutsy move, bringing in a character that has never made it to screen before. Bombadil’s appearance in the early part of Fellowship of the Ring is both entrancing and distracting. But he’s also a fascinating foil for all of the ring-lust that happens in the story. I don’t remember seeing much of “the Stranger” in the recently posted teaser trailer, which I was actually glad about; I’d much rather spend time with the dwarves, elves, and people of Numenor. Either way, this looks to be an interesting (and somewhat unpredictable) season that we have ahead of us (and dropping at the end of August).
Space Enough, and Time 