Finding The Place

I'm watching Charlie Rose on the web. He's talking with Angelina Jolie and Mariane Pearl about A Mighty Heart. They talk about Pearls husband Danny, killed by terrorists in Pakistan. I stay put and listen.

Danny Pearl came across as someone with a positive nature, who doesn't see life as a thing that at times has a real mean streak, that, at times, means to hurt you. I'm impressed by people with that kind of character and know my view of life would put a bad taste in their mouth.

I feel that evil, a dark force, the devil, or whatever you want to call it, comes looking for people like Danny. It wants to squeeze their outlook and their nature to see how it holds up. It has to prove itself, like someone dismissed by his or her parents as nothing much. It must express that it is substantial and legitimate, that people like Danny had better be fearful and respecting in an Old Testament kind of way.

Watching the video of Angelina and Mariane, I remembered the pastor of the church I used to go to. The pastor had an unflappable faith in Christ. His message was God's love, a source of joy and a source of strength. This love was the only source that could hold us up when life gave us a hard test. I admired his family. I know they aren't perfect, but I saw two parents who did it right. You could see their kids were going to make a positive impact. It gave me faith.

So one evening the pastor is waiting for his daughter to pick him up on her way home from college. As I recall, she's been up all day. He waits. And he waits. After a while, he's getting concerned. I can just see him standing there all by himself the empty church parking lot, and that little engine of worry is starting up the hill. Where is she at? Ran out of gas? She had a flat? It's nothing serious. Where is she at? It's been too long. Why hasn't she called? Where is she at? What the pastor doesn't know is that his daughter pulled out in front of someone. They can't stop in time, they can't avoid her, and they hit her. She is dead.

He's got to get home on his own while trying to call her, but she doesn't answer. That silence has to be putting the screws to him. When he gets home, he and his wife probably say a prayer. God keep her safe. We lift it up to you, oh Lord. Then, I suppose at some point, they get the word from the sheriff or some authority, and right then, that force, that thing, has realized all of its cruelness.

Alongside the shock and the grief, the pastor has all the morbid painful business to take care of: telling the relatives, telling the church, the funeral ceremony, picking a casket, telling his son. Someone has to claim the body. That's one hell of a thing for a man and a woman who played by the rules and obeyed God in every way they could.

Angelina Jolie and Mariane Pearl said that the message of the film is to rise above and not be blinded by tragedy. Angelina asked the question that came to her when she met Mariane; how do you come to a place after someone or some event has hurt you brutally, where you're not full of pity and anger. How do you find grace and dignity? Yes, how indeed.