no. 124: God is a skeeball fanatic (?)

i've been re-working my way through the jersey chronicles. i'm going to skip Jersey Girl, b/c A) WHAT was Kevin Smith thinking? and B) It's not technically a View Askew. But the rest:

• Clerks
  
• Mallrats
• Chasing Amy (check)
  
• Dogma (check)
  
• Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back
• Clerks II

In any case-- since I was younger and first saw Mallrats, I've had a thing for Kevin Smith. Technically, Silent Bob (like some people don't actually have a thing for John Cusack so much as Lloyd Dobler). But in all honesty, watching Kevin Smith do his thing is sort of fantastic. Horrible, vulgar and crass sometimes, but oddly poignant at others. I think this so ardently that I'm titling my position piece for Non-Fiction, "Most Things I Believe About Love, I Learned from a Silent Guy in a Trench Coat". It's going to be about love, and include Kevin Smith examples from Chasing Amy, Mallrats and especially Dogma. The Jesus Kid in me cringes a little at Dogma, but also really appreciates it.

Anyway, all that to say: these are the lyrics to the Alanis Morissette song that plays at the end of Dogma, which I had never really listened to before today. This is a little of what God is for me.

I am the harm which you inflict. I am your brilliance and frustration
I'm the nuclear bombs if they're to hit. I'm your immaturity and your indignance .
I am your misfits and your praised. I am your doubt and your conviction.
I am your charity and your rape. I am your grasping and expectation.
I see you averting your glances. I see you cheering on the war.
I see you ignoring your children. And I love you still.

I am your joy and your regret. I am your fury and your elation.
I am your yearning and your sweat. I am your faithless and your religion.
I see you altering history. I see you abusing the land.
I see you and your selective amnesia. And I love you still.

I am your tragedy and your fortune. I am your crisis and delight.
I am your profits and your prophets. I am your art, I am your bytes.
I am your death and your decisions. I am your passion and your plights.
I am your sickness and convalescence. I am your weapons and your light.
I see you holding your grudges. I see you gunning them down.
I see you silencing your sisters. And I love you still.
And I love you (still).

I see you lie to your country. I see you forcing them out.
I see you blaming each other. And I love you still
And I love you still .

He's not the cause of everything. He created everything. But He gave us free choice and a will of our own. He made us in His image and we can choose to ignore that or not. We reflect God in our actions, and that's why all of our conditions affect our view of God. No matter how we try to mold Him into a box, or shape Him into something more comfortable for us, or disbelieve in Him entirely, He still loves us. And that's the point, I think. I don't claim to understand everything about the Lord I (try & fail & try & fail) serve, but I know it's a lot simpler than people keep making it.

In any case-- I've got essay work to do.
Go listen to Albert Hammond, Jr.'s Yours To Keep and feel a little better about life.

Love.
H.