A job offer was extended to me, officially, two days ago. And after a ridiculous amount of study and ponderment (new word, commit that one to memory); the wife and I have decided to accept it.
I have accepted the offer to become the Associate Director of Themed Entertainment at Rubicon Holding, a production studio based out of Amman, Jordan. This job will move us to the Los Angeles area and we are now actively seeking a new place to live. Top runners thus far, Valencia, Northridge and Pasadena.
More to come.
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Monday, March 21, 2011
Prophesies of Victor Hugo
This past weekend my wife and I went to see a local production of Les Miserables. It was a high school production, and I thought they did a great job. My wife was seeing it for the first time, and I have seen it a few more than that but it was still nice to watch another great production.
Les Mis is a musical rendition of the book by the same title about a man's road to redemption during the French Revolution. Jean Valjean is the protagonist of Victor Hugo's 1862 novel. The character's nineteen year-long struggle with the law for stealing bread (5 years for the theft, 12 years for four attempted escapes and 2 years for fighting back during one escape attempt) during a time of economic and social depression.
Valjean's character in Les Misérables teaches the reader that redemption is possible for anyone, anywhere. This of course, is an incredibly important ideal to take away from the book as well as the show, however I have been interested with the depiction of Javert; the show's antagonist.
Javert is a policeman and prison guard who devotes his life to the law. Javert was born inside a prison. His mother was a Gypsy fortune-teller, and his father was a galley slave. The text states that this experience convinced Javert that he must choose between attacking society, or defending it; given this belief, he joins the police. After leaving the parole board, Javert spends the latter half of his life pursuing Jean Valjean.
For sake of time, I will sum up what happens; but you all should read the book: Javert pursues Valjean all of his life, with intention to return him to prison for life. Late in the story Vealjean has the opportunity to end Javert's life and finally be free. Instead he lets Javert go. Javert wanders the streets in emotional turmoil: his mind simply cannot reconcile the image he had carried through the years of Valjean as a brutal ex-convict, with Valjean's acts of kindness on the barricades. Now, Javert can be justified neither in letting Valjean go nor in arresting him. For the first time in his life, Javert is faced with the situation where he cannot act lawfully without acting immorally, and vice versa. Unable to find a solution to this dilemma and horrified at the sudden realization that Valjean was simultaneously a criminal and a good person—a conundrum which made mockery of Javert's entire system of moral values—Javert decides to remove the problem by removing himself from the problem. He goes into a police station, leaves on one of the desks a note with some remarks on how to improve police and prison operations in the city, then proceeds to Pont-au-Change and drowns himself in the river Seine.
In the musical, Javert's character is almost the same, with one difference. The musical's depiction of Javert has strong religious motivations which differ from Javert in the novel, who, although respecting the church, answered only to the law and not God. To me, this is an interesting change because it represents a host of religious individuals who attempt to guide their lives by a moral compass. Javert runs his life by the moral code he learned in the church, however - it seems to have run him to the far side of the spectrum; for now he struggles to find the good in life when it is not packaged in the black and white portrait set forth by the church.
And while the church, which represents the various religious institutions all over the world are in no way responsible for the effect, its members seem to have a tendency to "look beyond the mark" (for John). We forget that members outside our various organizations can also believe in God (in whatever form we understand) and are striving to be like him. Or even, we forget that some don't believe in God at all and yet still strive to make the world a better place. We forget that people all over the world, regardless of religious affiliation, are actually good.
I find it interesting; in scripture it speaks of the "End of the World" as a time when "man's heart shall fail him, and wax cold." It speaks of hatred and anger and a battle of good and evil (most believe this to be an issue based argument; Evil fights good based upon the fact that they do not wish to conform to the truth), that will ultimately over run the entire planet. That may be true, and will quite possibly happen, but for different reasons. I think that we as a people are capable of ending the world over nothing more than opinion; we hate each other - and unlike Javert, we'd kill each other. Look at the major polarizing ideals in society (Abortion, Homosexuality, Death Penalty, etc); no matter what people think or believe about these ideals, which usually have religious roots, end up in fight...and results in genuine hatred.
Let us not become like Javert, who found it so hard to believe that another man who had such obvious faults could actually be good. Perhaps we can remember that regardless of background, faith and ideals; we can look in the eyes of another man and see a life and remember "to love another person is to see the face of God."
Les Mis is a musical rendition of the book by the same title about a man's road to redemption during the French Revolution. Jean Valjean is the protagonist of Victor Hugo's 1862 novel. The character's nineteen year-long struggle with the law for stealing bread (5 years for the theft, 12 years for four attempted escapes and 2 years for fighting back during one escape attempt) during a time of economic and social depression.
Valjean's character in Les Misérables teaches the reader that redemption is possible for anyone, anywhere. This of course, is an incredibly important ideal to take away from the book as well as the show, however I have been interested with the depiction of Javert; the show's antagonist.
Javert is a policeman and prison guard who devotes his life to the law. Javert was born inside a prison. His mother was a Gypsy fortune-teller, and his father was a galley slave. The text states that this experience convinced Javert that he must choose between attacking society, or defending it; given this belief, he joins the police. After leaving the parole board, Javert spends the latter half of his life pursuing Jean Valjean.
For sake of time, I will sum up what happens; but you all should read the book: Javert pursues Valjean all of his life, with intention to return him to prison for life. Late in the story Vealjean has the opportunity to end Javert's life and finally be free. Instead he lets Javert go. Javert wanders the streets in emotional turmoil: his mind simply cannot reconcile the image he had carried through the years of Valjean as a brutal ex-convict, with Valjean's acts of kindness on the barricades. Now, Javert can be justified neither in letting Valjean go nor in arresting him. For the first time in his life, Javert is faced with the situation where he cannot act lawfully without acting immorally, and vice versa. Unable to find a solution to this dilemma and horrified at the sudden realization that Valjean was simultaneously a criminal and a good person—a conundrum which made mockery of Javert's entire system of moral values—Javert decides to remove the problem by removing himself from the problem. He goes into a police station, leaves on one of the desks a note with some remarks on how to improve police and prison operations in the city, then proceeds to Pont-au-Change and drowns himself in the river Seine.
In the musical, Javert's character is almost the same, with one difference. The musical's depiction of Javert has strong religious motivations which differ from Javert in the novel, who, although respecting the church, answered only to the law and not God. To me, this is an interesting change because it represents a host of religious individuals who attempt to guide their lives by a moral compass. Javert runs his life by the moral code he learned in the church, however - it seems to have run him to the far side of the spectrum; for now he struggles to find the good in life when it is not packaged in the black and white portrait set forth by the church.
And while the church, which represents the various religious institutions all over the world are in no way responsible for the effect, its members seem to have a tendency to "look beyond the mark" (for John). We forget that members outside our various organizations can also believe in God (in whatever form we understand) and are striving to be like him. Or even, we forget that some don't believe in God at all and yet still strive to make the world a better place. We forget that people all over the world, regardless of religious affiliation, are actually good.
I find it interesting; in scripture it speaks of the "End of the World" as a time when "man's heart shall fail him, and wax cold." It speaks of hatred and anger and a battle of good and evil (most believe this to be an issue based argument; Evil fights good based upon the fact that they do not wish to conform to the truth), that will ultimately over run the entire planet. That may be true, and will quite possibly happen, but for different reasons. I think that we as a people are capable of ending the world over nothing more than opinion; we hate each other - and unlike Javert, we'd kill each other. Look at the major polarizing ideals in society (Abortion, Homosexuality, Death Penalty, etc); no matter what people think or believe about these ideals, which usually have religious roots, end up in fight...and results in genuine hatred.
Let us not become like Javert, who found it so hard to believe that another man who had such obvious faults could actually be good. Perhaps we can remember that regardless of background, faith and ideals; we can look in the eyes of another man and see a life and remember "to love another person is to see the face of God."
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