A month or so ago, I went to the Kentucky Theater to see The Artist. You may recall hearing something about the film—it won Best Picture at the Oscars—but if you haven’t, I’ll give a spoiler-free synopsis. The Artist is a silent film, which makes it a bit different than pretty much every other film playing at the movie theater this year. This silent movie is about George Valentin, a silent film actor, at the peak of his career. He is darling of Hollywood. But they are on the cusp of a new era. Studios are ramping up to produce movies with sound… “talkies.”
One of the many poignant scenes in The Artist shows Valentin at a screening. An actress is singing on a sound stage. Movie executives are sitting in chairs smoking cigarettes as they watch the actress perform. Their faces are rapt with awe. Valentin, on the other hand, begins to laugh. One of the producers—the one played by John Goodman—looks at Valentin and says with stern certainty, “This is the future!”
And, of course, it is. When silent films begin to go the way of the dodo, Valentin’s fortunes begin to suffer. Silent films died, and Valentin not only lost his livelihood, but also his sense of self. Who was he now? And what was this crazy world coming to? Perhaps you have found yourself wondering the same things about yourself, about your world.
The Artist is not just a good film. It’s a good parable. In the twenty-first century our world is always in a state of flux. There is science to support this. From a cosmological perspective, things continue to move faster and faster. Remember the “big bang?” Well, the rate at which the universe is expanding, physicists have discovered, is increasing all the time. Unlike on planet Earth, when a thrown baseball gradually slows and eventually stops, the universe itself is picking up speed as it grows! Of course, Earth is moving quickly as well. We can’t feel it exactly, but at our current latitude, we are spinning anywhere from seven hundred to nine hundred miles per hour! At the equator the speed is over one thousand miles per hour. So if you’re feeling dizzy with exhaustion, it’s no wonder!
Today we may occasionally feel like Valentin. How do we cope? Well, Jesus encouraged his friends not to spend a lot of energy worrying about tomorrow. I don’t think he meant, “Don’t ever make plans.” But I do think that even two thousand years ago, well meaning people could easily become bogged down by things that could not be helped with worry. It’s likely Jesus spoke from personal experience. In the gospels, Jesus frequently goes off to be by himself for awhile. Crowds followed him around Judea and their needs were never-ending. Jesus needed time to recharge, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. One way he did that was to have alone time in the great outdoors. Other ways included eating supper with friends and going to social gatherings.
What do you do when you feel like Valentin? When you feel that the world is passing you by and you can’t keep up? Do you pray? Do you take walks? Do you garden? Watch movies? Write poetry? Listen to your kids play piano? Work on cars? Do we take time to breathe deeply and to focus on the present moment? Do we take even five minutes in a day to just lay our worries aside, and focus on those parts of our lives that feed us and make us smile? There are many ways to pray. And if we each find the way of prayer that works for us, then maybe, even as the world changes around us, we might find ourselves capable of not only surviving, but thriving.
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