The Unexpected Guest: Water from the Moon, By Whitney Farmer – Un Pop Culture

December 9, 2009 Whitney Farmer 19 Comments

Before Mel Gibson got strange (now) after doing something important (The Passion), he was gorgeous.  During his hotness, he made a movie that I will always watch whenever I find it. It was called “The Year of Living Dangerously.”  It is one of those films that you see intending to be entertained and end up becoming transformed.   Now when I watch it, Mel’s cuteness registers more like background white noise in the presence of dialogue and scenes that make me a willing hostage.

In one scene of the movie, a doomed rebel shares a cigarette with the injured Mel – “Guy” in the story – while they wait for military assassins to arrive and add their deaths to the hundred thousand plus that occurred that day in that country during an attempted coup.  The noble rebel, Kumar, asks the flawed hero Guy why he should be poor when he is intelligent, and stupid men live in luxury in Guy’s homeland.  Guy says that he doesn’t have the answer.  Kumar says that he is almost being unfair to Guy by asking him an impossible question. There is no hope of an answer. It is “…water from the moon, wishing for something you can never have.”

Last month, NASA found water on the moon.

The impossible hope just became real.  Perfect timing.

A few years ago, I was studying an ancient language for kicks. During my research, the translation for the word ‘hope’ fascinated me.  English, like many modern languages, is abstract.  Say the word “love” and no one understands what you mean, but everyone thinks they know what you are talking about. In another language, the communication can be more direct.  As an example – in one language – one of the words for love when spoken actually sounds like an animal panting when it is dying of thirst. Use that in a sentence and people will know exactly what you mean.

In my studying, I learned that this particular word for “hope” invoked a specific mental picture.  It was that of a lifeline that is thrown to someone who has gone overboard on a ship.

A lifeline is a pretty simple and yet ingenious invention.  You fall into the deep end of a mess. Someone sees it, knows you are in trouble, and decides to help you get out of it.  He or she takes a rope that is long enough to reach you and heaves it in your general direction.  He or she hangs on, anticipating the moment you will grab it so that you can be pulled to safety.

That last part is the clincher: You have to reach for it. You have to grab it. And you have to hang on until you have pulled or been pulled out of the muck and back into life.

In “The Inferno”, Dante wrote that the gates of Hell have an inscription: “Abandon hope all ye who enter here”. Notice that it doesn’t say “Abandon all hope”. It says “… all ye who enter here.”  Everyone going through the hell of this world is going to feel the heat.  Everyone is going to lose some hope on the journey. Everyone will be depleted.  But if we hang on, not loosening our grip on a lifeline, we can come through it. If we hang on one second after we think we will fail and be scorched beyond recognition, we have the opportunity of having our thirst quenched by a tall cool one tapped from the heavens.

Now is the time to tighten your grip on a lost dream. Have hope. Make sure you put an extra plate for it at your table during this darkest time of the year. You know, for the unexpected guest.

Quote of the Blog:

Overheard from Ed, Dude of Light and Fog and resident sage – “Post-Its! Cool! I have a stack of those. I figured I might need to remember something some day.”