The movie is about cancer, but it is also about self-destruction, among other things. It parallels the cancerous behavior with our own propensity for destructive behavior within relationships, and even just the subtle ways we destroy a good healthy thing. In one of the scenes, Natalie (Lena) is trying to figure out why her husband would go into something that meant he would not return. Her own betrayal by affair, damaging her relationship that was otherwise healthy, my be the root for his decision.
In this scene, Portman is discussing this with Jennifer Jason Leigh's character, the leader of the group, Dr. Ventress.
Lena:
Why did my husband volunteer for a suicide mission?
Dr Ventress:
Is that what you think we're doing? Committing suicide?
Lena:
You must have profiled him. You must have assessed him. He must have said
something.
Dr Ventress:
So you're asking me as a psychologist?
Lena:
Yeah.
Dr Ventress:
Then, as a psychologist, I think you're confusing suicide with
self-destruction. Almost none of us commit suicide, and almost all of us
self-destruct. In some way, in some part of our lives. We drink, or we smoke,
we destabilize the good job... and a happy marriage. But these aren't
decisions, they're... they're impulses. In fact, you're probably better
equipped to explain this than I am.
Lena:
What does that mean?
Dr Ventress:
You're a biologist. Isn't the self-destruction coded into us? Programmed into
each cell?
This scene, this perspective and the correlation between unthinking biology and presumably intelligent human behavior stuck with me. I've had my own streaks of massive and subtle self-destruction. Most of the time I had no idea why. Why would I take something relatively healthy and stable and put strain on it? I certainly had justifications, real and imagined, but logically I had no reasons for the things I would do. I suppose I'm not out of the woods yet, I still create tension where it need not exist, it's just not the big ugly gestures I used to make.
"Isn't the self-destruction coded into us?" She's talking about the cancer and our own actions. I think she's right. Given my worldview, it's easy to make this parallel with "The Fall". And the term The Fall contains a lot as well. It is the actual event in which God's apex of creation, man and woman, chose their own sovereignty over God's. What resulted was the corruption of perfection, the infection and decay of that which was meant to be good. What came was Death. This event echos in every living thing and in the very fiber of our being. Things that were meant to be good, cannot be. Things that are beautiful, have a cost. Birth is pain, Life is death.There is something unavoidably destructive about the present state of creation. Furthermore, it speaks to the condition of our own heart, our own state of being. A quick google search on depravity yields these scriptures that speak of this truth: Depravity
The reality in the movie and in our lives is this: We are bent towards destruction. And while we are a part of the problem, yet we still feel that it ought not to be this way. In the movie and for many people, the answer is that it is up to us to save creation, to save our bodies and to save our relationships. Human Kind, in it's wisdom and power can save the environment, can cure cancer and can save their marriages. In reality, this seems an impossible task. Personally, if it's going to be you and I to save the world, well that leads me to Despair (which I plan on talking about in another movie post). The conclusion I have come to is that we cannot do it ourselves. We absolutely need someone to rescue us. We are not absolved of action and responsibility. We SHOULD be taking care of our earth, our bodies and our relationships. However, it is this tension between aching for perfection and yet sabotaging our own efforts that declares that we need a savior. But because we are so infected with Death and destruction, despite our best intentions and efforts, we are not enough to overcome. We require a supernatural force. We require an external, yet familiar force to enter our "shimmer" and undo the destruction we have caused. We need someone/something pure and perfect to make us whole, to restore us to how we were intended. Again and again in so many ways, this is the story of Christ. Christ has entered our world, from beyond our world, out of perfection and into the mess. He is restoring now and in the life to come. But he requires and invitation and then submission to enter into our mess and to go to work. Surrender to Christ is not easy, it is often painful, but for me it has led to the most glorious revelations: I am loved, I have worth, I am more, there is more, we can be more, I am forgiven, I can forgive, I can love, I am a part of God's will to make things new.
It is hard to be a human. It is hard to see so much pain and still hope. But there is also so much beauty and tenderness. And though I cannot see what God is doing, I can still feel that I am a part of it and in a very real way, he is with me and within me. Though at times hopeless, what is giving me comfort is the realization that God's Imagination is bigger and better than mine. This should be obvious, but it isn't. I simply lack the imagination to imagine another's imagination. But whatever fear I can concoct is no match for the solution he has already offered. And even though I participate in my own destruction, he has already rescued me from the greatest possible disaster.
This scene, this perspective and the correlation between unthinking biology and presumably intelligent human behavior stuck with me. I've had my own streaks of massive and subtle self-destruction. Most of the time I had no idea why. Why would I take something relatively healthy and stable and put strain on it? I certainly had justifications, real and imagined, but logically I had no reasons for the things I would do. I suppose I'm not out of the woods yet, I still create tension where it need not exist, it's just not the big ugly gestures I used to make.
"Isn't the self-destruction coded into us?" She's talking about the cancer and our own actions. I think she's right. Given my worldview, it's easy to make this parallel with "The Fall". And the term The Fall contains a lot as well. It is the actual event in which God's apex of creation, man and woman, chose their own sovereignty over God's. What resulted was the corruption of perfection, the infection and decay of that which was meant to be good. What came was Death. This event echos in every living thing and in the very fiber of our being. Things that were meant to be good, cannot be. Things that are beautiful, have a cost. Birth is pain, Life is death.There is something unavoidably destructive about the present state of creation. Furthermore, it speaks to the condition of our own heart, our own state of being. A quick google search on depravity yields these scriptures that speak of this truth: Depravity
The reality in the movie and in our lives is this: We are bent towards destruction. And while we are a part of the problem, yet we still feel that it ought not to be this way. In the movie and for many people, the answer is that it is up to us to save creation, to save our bodies and to save our relationships. Human Kind, in it's wisdom and power can save the environment, can cure cancer and can save their marriages. In reality, this seems an impossible task. Personally, if it's going to be you and I to save the world, well that leads me to Despair (which I plan on talking about in another movie post). The conclusion I have come to is that we cannot do it ourselves. We absolutely need someone to rescue us. We are not absolved of action and responsibility. We SHOULD be taking care of our earth, our bodies and our relationships. However, it is this tension between aching for perfection and yet sabotaging our own efforts that declares that we need a savior. But because we are so infected with Death and destruction, despite our best intentions and efforts, we are not enough to overcome. We require a supernatural force. We require an external, yet familiar force to enter our "shimmer" and undo the destruction we have caused. We need someone/something pure and perfect to make us whole, to restore us to how we were intended. Again and again in so many ways, this is the story of Christ. Christ has entered our world, from beyond our world, out of perfection and into the mess. He is restoring now and in the life to come. But he requires and invitation and then submission to enter into our mess and to go to work. Surrender to Christ is not easy, it is often painful, but for me it has led to the most glorious revelations: I am loved, I have worth, I am more, there is more, we can be more, I am forgiven, I can forgive, I can love, I am a part of God's will to make things new.
It is hard to be a human. It is hard to see so much pain and still hope. But there is also so much beauty and tenderness. And though I cannot see what God is doing, I can still feel that I am a part of it and in a very real way, he is with me and within me. Though at times hopeless, what is giving me comfort is the realization that God's Imagination is bigger and better than mine. This should be obvious, but it isn't. I simply lack the imagination to imagine another's imagination. But whatever fear I can concoct is no match for the solution he has already offered. And even though I participate in my own destruction, he has already rescued me from the greatest possible disaster.
Lena:
It's not destroying. It's making something new.
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