Finishing A Book
Change brings fear. Fear brings sameness. Sameness is something I'm afraid of.
Today I finished The Time Traveler's Wife. It came recommended by [proud new papa] Matt a long time ago. It took me a while, for no other reason that I don't have the time to even set aside the time to read.
I can't recommend the book enough. Audrey Niffenegger did a remarkable job of fashioning a true love story out of science-fiction-y material. In fact, there's absolutely no nerdy quality to the time-travel (and I know from nerdy!). There's no Jesus-y quality to the faith, either. In a real sense, Niffenegger acknowledges that the only thing faith and science have in common: futility.
People have it in common as well. Science informs us of so many wonders and yet our lives proceed incredulously. Faith will pigeonhole the wonders and post guards around that birdhouse, and people still proceed apace, taking in bigger-picture stride both the stygian and the splendid. Let's face it. Fact doesn't depend on science. And faith doesn't depend on fact.
I'm always affected by temporal distance in movies (such as Somewhere In Time), or in theater, when in Sunday in the Park with George, 1880s-Dot returns to visit modern-day George. The frustration of two people who should be together but who are not. Who must be together but can not. Who are together, even though they are not.
Futility is what they're facing...that same sense of futility that neither science nor faith can subvert, but which people find a way to render inert.
So yeah, these things get to me.
But then there's Sam, who throws himself into change, believing in himself and in me, and in us. Who depends on the science of pattern. And who won't let a little futility get in his way.
And if fear gets in his way, it will only be for a little while, and he knows I'm there to help him if he needs it.