faith-hope-love ... also Star Wars musings

[asakiyume]

But first, an apology and some excuse making. I've had a crushing amount of work, so I haven't been here much, either to read and comment or to write my own entries (and reply to commenters). I think of my friends here pretty much all the time, and I try, gradually, to make my way to people's journals, but I do miss things--please accept my apology. Things should ease up soon.

So, what are you in the mood for? Theological questions?



We heard this on Sunday:

So faith, hope, love remain, these three;
but the greatest of these is love.

I was thinking, if you pick those three things for comparison, it must be because they're somehow similar and, hence, comparable (you don't assess things against each other if there's no logical way to do it--you can compare apples and oranges, in spite of the saying, because they're both fruits, and you can compare apples and potato chips, since they're both food and snackable, and you can compare apples and beach balls since they're both spheres, but you can't compare apples and pajamas in any very meaningful way unless you want to? challenge accepted?) So how are faith, hope, and love similar? ... But if love is greatest, it must also be different from the other two, too, in some qualitative ways--the ways that make it greatest. What are those ways?

Thoughts?

Or thoughts on plotting?


I haven't seen the recent Star Wars movie, but since I don't mind spoilers and like following along with current enthusiasms, I've let myself find out certain plot and character details (actually, surprisingly few...). I very much enjoyed theferrett's musings on what heroine Rey's (grand)parentage might be. What I liked most of all was how he pointed out that no matter who you choose, you'd be able to find justification for it in the current movie--that's the power of imagination and looking selectively.

He said the question he's asking is, “If I had to choose her father/grandfather, what decision would create the most interesting set of character reactions?”

And that struck me as such a fruitful way to decide things in a story. What do you think? And if you've seen the most recent Star Wars, do you have opinions on Rey's parentage?

Comments

[heliopausa.livejournal.com]

Faith - sticking with a commitment, keeping faith with whoever/whatever you've pledged to is hugely important. Do you know Kipling's story of the Jutish man and Bishop Wilfrid, huddled together, marooned on a rocky islet in the middle of a storm and, as they believed, perishing?
Excerpt:
'I heard Meon whisper, "If this keeps up we shall go to our Gods. I wonder what Wotan will say to me. He must know I don't believe in him. On the other hand, I can't do what Ethelwalch finds so easy--curry favour with your God at the last minute, in the hope of being saved--as you call it. How do you advise, Bishop?"

'"My dear man," I said, "if that is your honest belief, I take it upon myself to say you had far better not curry favour with any God. But if it's only your Jutish pride that holds you back, lift me up, and I'll baptize you even now."

'"Lie still," said Meon. "I could judge better if I were in my own hall. But to desert one's fathers' Gods--even if one doesn't believe in them--in the middle of a gale, isn't quite--What would you do yourself?"

'I was lying in his arms, kept alive by the warmth of his big, steady heart. It did not seem to me the time or the place for subtle arguments, so I answered, "No, I certainly should not desert my God." I don't see even now what else I could have said.

***

and hope. Oh heavens yes, hugely important, to keep hope in goodness existing, being possible in the face of all the relentless battering against it. Keeping faith without hope could be (I haven't though this through to say if it's 'would necessarily be' - I hope not) a negative, joyless thing, and if it got to that state, which in the end would be (proviso as before) destructive.

***

and love. It's ... I'm almost out of words to say how utterly fundamental love is. We (humans, taken overall) literally must "love one another or die", I think. Individually we can stay alive, thoug...oh heavens I'd better stop. Besides, so many people have said it better than I can, including Paul. anyway, I've just checked back on your questions, and I haven't answered them at all!

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

That's all right about not answering the questions! I was just wondering things out loud. I asked for your thoughts, and these are great thoughts! I like the quote from Kipling (I didn't know the story).

My feeling when i was thinking about it on Sunday was that faith and hope were more dependent--you have to have faith in something, or keep the faith with something, and you have to hope for something, or have hope because of something. Whereas love--well, I guess people may say you have to have an object for your love, so it's dependent too--but there are times when you can experience an upwelling of love that doesn't seem to have a particular object. So because of that, love feels more independent. But then again, most often, love does have an object... so maybe my reasoning here isn't very sound.

[heliopausa.livejournal.com]

The story:
http://www.telelib.com/authors/K/KiplingRudyard/prose/RewardsFaries/stwilfrid.html

It's one of a book'sworth - Dan and Una, brother and sister, meet the spirit Puck, through whose agency they meet various people from England's history (more specifically, their own region's history) - but always being magicked to forget the meeting afterwards.

(Kipling's a great story-teller, and this is a really good one!)

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Looking forward to reading it (arghh, but when time allows).