last night, i sat with Liz, Coaster and Joe in the lobby until 5 a.m. talking about everything under the sun. at first it was movies (another Penthouse guy was apart of this conversation in the beginning...around 1:30 a.m. but left later on once the conversation got really intense). he brought up the movie "lost in translation" and said it was the most boring movie ever and how bored it made him, etc....then continued on how "starsky and hutch" was such a funny, entertaining movie. so i got asked, bluntly, 'what did you like about this movie 'lost in translation'?' i went on to explain why it meant so much to me personally and how I felt like I connected a lot with the two characters....to which he proceeded to say something like, "I understand this movie might change people's lives and I can see people coming up with this deep meaning from it...but that's just boring. I like movies like 'starsky and hutch' because they're funny and stupid and b/c they aren't deep and don't have all these hidden meanings everywhere to change your life...(paraphrased of course, to save space)." Now, when I heard this, I honestly thought my ears were hallucinating. maybe i exaggerate a little too much but after he said this, i did everything in power to control my jaw from dropping and saying, "you're crazy!"

i get a little scared when people say things life, "i know this is life-changing for my friend here, but I just think it's way to serious or personal or intimate and 'life-changing.' i realize there's a time and a place to escape into movies and just have fun and enjoy them. but there's also a point where that (i believe) isn't enough. when we as christians (who, as joe pointed out last night, are able to interpret life and culture with a much richer bent b/c we know truth...b/c we know God) have no desire to find meaning in the world we live in, what makes us go on? why do we keep doing what we're doing? we desire to discover meaning to our lives b/c we want to live truth and find truth and experience truth. when we no longer care about truth (at all) then what kind of gospel are we preaching to others? i guess the biggest thing that frustrates me or I think on when i think of this is...'if we're this shallow in our approach to films (or art---and this goes for so many things in culture) then how shallow will we be in relating to people and seeing beyond what their surface has to offer?

i don't want to go on and on about christians (myself included) and where we go wrong (but I probably will b/c i'm really good at complaining when it comes to this), but listening to this fellow senior taylor student, i just felt very sad for our generation. i don't mind diverse opinions, but when our opinions are stripping away truth and meaning in our lives, something needs to be re-evaluated or something. just a thought.