 |
| 
Wislawa
Registered Member
Date Joined Jun 2001
Total Posts : 83
| Posted 7/1/2001 6:26 PM (GMT -6) |   | Wislawa’s final question:
Can an open theist still believe in fate?
Personally I don’t know how it would be done but I definitely believe in fate. (When I first became an open theist, before I realized my life was being scripted, I lamented the fact that fate was impossible. All of my favorite myths deal with fate, and a number of my favorite stories do too.)
I’ve known for a while now that my life is being scripted (I realize this sounds rather narcissistic but I can’t come to any other conclusion than that it’s true. I’m banking on not being crazy here—I think the rest of you would agree too if you knew all the unbelievable $#%@ that’s been going on around me.) It’s absolutely uncanny. I don’t mean that it violates LFW or anything—my theology won’t allow for that. It’s more a matter of choreography. Everything is choreographed around here. I think an all wise infinite intelligent God can choreograph things without omnicontrolling things right? After all history is a story and even open theists believe that God is somehow in control of history. I just have to believe that some of God’s considerations in sculpting history are aesthetic, symmetry, harmony, tragedy, drama, etc. Well I think God choreographs smaller things too, maybe just for kicks, I don’t really know, like my life.
Is a coincidence that Mother Teresa died just after Princess Diana? Diana who had wealth, royalty, fame, and never found love in her life and whose death largely obscured from media attention her friend Mother Teresa’s death. Mother who had nothing, never sought fame, and yet people would travel the globe just to be loved by her and to express their love for her. Was not God doing Mother a favor by timing this just so?
Delacroix died during Manet’s debacle in the Salon des Refuses. Kieslowski finished “Red” and then announced his retirement and then very appropriately proceeded to die.
I think some people call this poetic justice. Does God ever look for justice this way? And what did I do that deserves such justice? (Never mind, I remember now.)
Anyway, has anyone seen Krzysztof Kieœlowski’s movie “Red”? My life has been like that for about five years. Things just fly all around the place and then BLAM!!!They (apparently) randomly fall into place and make sense. I’m not looking for signs or anything. I’m not looking for guidance or God’s will or a message from God. It’s not like that at all. It’s more like coming up against something that looks random but has meaning so it can’t be random after all. It would be like taking a photograph of a crowded street without thinking about it and then a month later when you get the film developed you realize that everyone is in exactly the same place as a Degas painting you just COINCIDENTALLY saw that very day. It’s not something you have to try to see. Rather it’s something that surprises you.
“But the essential question the film [Three Colors: Red] asks is: is it possible to repair a mistake which was committed somewhere high above? Somebody brought someone to life at the wrong moment.”
-Krzysztof Kieœlowski Kieœlowski on Kieœlowski. Ed. Dausia Stok (London: Faber and Faber Limited, 1993), 220.
In a musical people are just walking down the street and then all of a sudden they start dancing and singing as if they had practiced, or been coached. You may think this doesn’t happen in real life but I’m telling you it does. It happens to me all the time.
Doc uses this example in his apologetics class about rocks that spell, to prove I think something about meaning and chance. Well this is what it’s like. If you don’t get the picture by now just rent “Red” or better yet rent the whole Three Colors trilogy “Blue,” “White,” and “Red” and you’ll see what I mean.
So anyway it’s been about six months since the last mega-unexplainable-uncanny-coincidental-couldn’tExplainThisAnyOtherWay stuff came to my attention and I’ve been wondering what the next chapter was going to be. I was hoping (and praying) for some sort of theophany to come at a particularly meaningful time but I was sorely disappointed. In fact so little happened that I wondered if this whole choreography thing was over. Maybe it was centered on someone else and I was only being effected because of proximity to that center, I didn’t know.
Remember that whole “novelty” kick I was on. Well this is exactly what I’m talking about. Because I am finite I could never have dreamed up all the possibilities this choreography could take. And I was totally caught of guard yesterday when it hit. It was totally novel yet in retrospect I don’t know how I could have been so blind to it. It makes so much sense now (after I’ve made a fool of myself). It had been going on all along and I didn’t see it until yesterday. In fact the way it came about “never even entered into my mind.”
It happened yesterday going through all the old threads and trying to archive them. I finally realized who one of you is. I don’t know why I wasn’t even cautious about it. I never even suspected. I wasn’t even looking, just like the first time. And I’m almost positive that you’ve known who I am for a long time now. You could have stopped me from making a fool of myself once you knew. (Thanks.) No worries. From my perspective a few things look really uncanny but I don’t think you would be able to see any of them from yours.
“When I was film school I wrote a thesis called ‘Reality and the Documentary Film’ where I put forward the argument that in everybody’s life there are stories and plots. So why invent plots if they exist in real life? You only have to film them. That’s the subject I invented for myself. Then I tried to make films like that but I didn’t make any—except for First Love. I don’t think it’s a bad film.”
-Krzysztof Kieœlowski, 63.
So I take back all that stuff about God and novelty. Why would She want to experience this? It would put Her at real risk; it would threaten Her for real, not just Her plans for us. She could get caught with Her pants down. She could get “caught holding one end of a…when…” like St. Anne said.
God would be at stake. As it stands now She is not really at stake, only we are.“With this certitude anxiety can be mastered, for anxiety is invariably the result of a certain mode of being implicated in the game, of being caught by the game, of being as it were from the very beginning at sake in the game. (“…qui nait toujours d’une certaine maniere d’etre implique dans le jeu, d’etre pris au jeu, d’etre comme etre d’entrée de jeu dans le jeu.”)” Structure, Sign, and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences
I don’t know quite what to do with this choreography. A lot of times its really exiting. It keeps me wondering, “What’s next?” It at least makes me feel a little special, as if I actually showed up on Her radar screen. But it can also be quite embarrassing (like now) and I don’t think I want to play anymore. I quit.
Kieœlowski: “I believe everybody’s life is worthy of scrutiny, has its secrets and dramas. People don’t talk about their lives because they’re embarrassed. They don’t want to open old wounds, or are afraid of appearing old-fashioned and sentimental” (146). Kieœlowski: “…Every day we’re always faced with a choice which could end our entire life yet of which we’re completely unaware” (113). Kieœlowski: “All my films, from the first to the most recent ones, are about individuals who can’t quite find their bearings, who don’t quite know how to live, who don’t really know what’s right or wrong and are desperately looking. Looking for answers to such basic questions as: What’s all this for? Why get up in the morning? Why go to bed in at night? Why get up again? How to spend the time between one awakening and another? How to spend it in order to be able to shave or make yourself up peacefully in the morning?” (75).
So with this I say goodbye. Wislawa has learned a valuable lesson about the internet and humility/humiliation all at the same time.
Doc: Keep on doing what you’re doing. Your ministry has been a rather sizable influence on my theology and a whole bunch of other people’s too. Thanks. Blessings.
Mephi: I’ll keep my eyes pealed for your name in the future and look forward to reading you once you’re published. By the way, is there any relation to Sigmar?
Modes: Good luck on the Disser. Keep defending SK against all those wacky fundie types. I found two very short (about three pages each) essays by Levinas about SK. Their both in a collection of his titled “Proper Names.” I just found them yesterday and haven’t picked up the book yet but I will soon. I think it would be cool for someone to research how SK has influenced religious traditions other than Christianity.
Lion-Lamb: I think you’re still reading. You should try out the new site at least once because you get to make all sorts of fun faces.
Writerdad: love your kids. (I mean keep loving them not that I love them, not that I don’t I just don’t know them that’s all. What I mean is I can tell you love them so good job.)
Pia: Cool name. What happened to G-D-G? Did you get a real dog to replace your ghost dog?
TGB: Cool job. I have a friend who wants to study in Brussels.
Dave: High quality job. If you ever need a reference or testimonial for your website e-mail me (or the other folks if they’re willing.)
Adiaphora: I’m surprised you’ve never censored any of my posts. Thanks  and thanks for your work.
GODesteem: I checked out your website. A friendly (and very mild) critical question: Don’t those who have the most realistic view of God and themselves have the poorest self-esteem? Our self-esteem seems to be partly about the discrepancy between who we perceive ourselves to be and who our ideal self is. For Christians our ideal self is Christlikeness (or lust plan Christ)—hence our options seem to be poor self-esteem or some form of a Lucifer complex. No worries though. I may not be God’s gift to the world but maybe I could qualify for God’s gift to hell? Who knows? Keep the counter perspectives coming.
Shine150: I think I’ll miss you the most.  .
To the rest of you, God Bless you and keep you and maybe I’ll see you in heaven if I make the list, as that one guy once sang.
-Wislawa
Edited by - Wislawa on 07/02/2001 12:08:16 AM | | Back to Top | | |
 | Forum Information | Currently it is Monday, November 09, 2026 12:58 PM (GMT -6)
There are a total of 97,718 posts in 6,040 threads.
In the last 3 days there were 0 new threads and 0 reply posts. View Active Threads
|
Forum powered by dotNetBB v2.42EC SP3
dotNetBB © 2000-2026 |
|
|